Archived World Gold Council Document

World Gold Council to introduce design directions for the new millennium

"GOLD TRENDS 2000"

Sponsored by Vicenza Trade Fair and Anglogold
VicenzaOro 2, Tuesday 15 June, 1999
Palladio Conference Room – at 15.00 pm

Gold Trends 2000, to be launched at VicenzaOro 2 on June 15th, answers these and related questions. It provides jewellers with inspirational guidance on the underlying trends at play in society today, how they overlap and interact with each other to create tomorrow’s patterns of buying behaviour for gold jewellery.

Gold Trends 2000 is an overview of the life and design influences which are shaping our existence as we enter the new millennium. It holds up a mirror to society to identify the myriad influences at play in today’s world and projects them forward into tomorrow’s selling opportunities. It looks at a seemingly puzzling world full of opposites and contradictions; nature and technology, reaching out and withdrawing, luxury and simplicity.

Figuring amongst the Life Trends identified are:

• "Connecting": Being actively involved in a vast network of resources without regard to boundaries of distance or time. "Connecting" exerts its influence via new electronic communications (internet, satellite TV) or the greater ease of global travel. It leads to a breaking down of traditional barriers and a Design movement that meshes innumerable influences across time and space to establish new frontiers of creativity.

• "New Genders": The disintegration of the traditional barriers and rules between males and females, a blurring of the sexes. The "New Genders" trend is manifest in the increase in the numbers of women corporate executives and also in the growing presence of men as nurturers and at-home parents. This Trend gives rise to cross-over designs, not gender-specific, to shared product and to female-to-male gifts.

• "Millenimania": Insecurity and anxiety about the future inspire a global new age of spirituality, a universal yearning for something beyond oneself. "Millenimania" is manifest in anxiety about the post-millennium future; a fear of war, chaos, economic and environmental disaster; a fascination with spiritualism, magic and mysticism. It gives rise to a creative search for spiritual, religious and magical symbols.

In all, Gold Trends 2000 identifies nine Life Trends with corresponding Design Trends and shows how they overlap and interact with each other. It takes the two hemispheres of the human brain as a model... the left side dealing with reasoning, logic, words; the right side operating in the realm of inspiration, intuition and imagery. And when both functions mesh successfully to produce a synergy of reason and originality, the forces at work give birth to new and creative visual art forms just right for tomorrow's world.

Design Trends 2000 provides a treasure trove of visual inspiration and ideas for owners, executives, retailers and designers operating in the gold jewellery business.

Gold Trends 2000, a tool for change, a resource for the year 2000 and beyond.

The presentation of Gold Trends 2000 will take place at VicenzaOro 2 on Tuesday, June 15th at 15.00 pm in the Palladio Hall, Vicenza Trade Fair.

Gold Trends 2000 costs US$110 and will be available from June 15th, 1999.

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AngloGold is the world’s largest gold producer with annual output of some 7 million ounces and reserves of 140 million ounces. AngloGold, in addition to their regular support to the World Gold Council, is working hard with other gold producers to renew and strengthen the Council. AngloGold’s direct involvement in "Gold Trends 2000" is evidence of that commitment.

World Gold Council is an international organisation formed and funded by leading gold mining companies from around the world to increase the demand for gold.

For more information, please contact:

See also: Quality Through Technology - World Gold Council's Sixth International Symposium on Gold Jewellery Technology, also held at VicenzaOro 2.