Booth Design

So, I met with Merry Schooley of Art Attack on Monday April 21st about booth design. We talked about all kinds of things, but I'm going to try to stick to the booth design for now. Merry has extensive experience in designing events and, when she designs booths, they are usually for large corporations. Her ideas were great and practical.

For the banner and back wall decoration, she suggested that her crew put together what she calls a wonder wall. Basically, it is 2' by 2' squares of a translucent white plastic, attached together with rings. You can make the wall any even number of feet wide and tall. You can print photos onto the squares. You can add vinyl lettering to the squares. You can paint the squares so that they are a different color while still allowing light to pass through them. Unfortunately, she doesn't have any pictures of this set up on her web site. She had a whole photo album full of examples and many examples around her shop and warehouse. I had seen them before, but since it wasn't something I was working on for her, I did not concern myself with it. You can either hang the wall from the same pole as the drapes at the back of the booth or hang it from a frame, put drapes over the end of the frame, and even back light it. It acts a little like scrim, if you are familiar with that product, which is used extensively in theatrical productions. In short, it is a way cool way to create and enormous visual impact while still being lightweight and being able to easily transport it and pack it in my tiny Honda Fit. So, her plan is to take up the top section of the wall with my logo. The rest of the wall would have a scattering of product photos (she thinks children in onesies is the way to go), lines describing product, and blank or colored squares. The whole effect would look like a quilt, which points to the rest of my product line. I am excited to get started on this portion of the display. It will be really cool, very unique, and very professional looking. Since we'll have a table at the back of the booth, the bottom two rows will be blank tiles, which is all good, since they are cheaper. And, really, for such a huge visual impact, the cost of this wall will be quite reasonable. The photos are the most expensive items, but we will only be starting with three or four of those. I'm adding a larger variety of apparel to my line after the show, and I'll add new photos as I create new things that I want to feature. That, of course, is the coolest thing about the wall - you can switch out the tiles as your product line changes or grows. you can also grow or shrink the sign to fit the space you will be occupying. Too cool. The wall will be the major focal point of the booth design.

For displaying goods, Merry suggested that we put a 6' table across the back of the booth, with mannequins displaying the clothing and other goods spread on the table in front of the mannequins. I purchased these two mannequins. which wound up not only be the best looking ones I could find, but also some of the least expensive: http://www.studiorox.com/display/image/Kid/201new.html and http://www.studiorox.com/display/image/Kid/203new.html - I'll put one of ediblebaby's outfits on the standing boy and one of my onesies on the seated girl. As an added bonus, the girl will hold a blanket. I will put one of Beaded Socks more brightly colored flower clips on a piece of ribbon and tie it around the little girl's hair. If that looks too odd, I'll just tie it with a ribbon and a big bow. I still have to experiment with it. Additional stock will be stored in plastic storage bins beneath the table.

For my blankets and Toni's quilts, she thinks the best option is a quilt rack. I had already been thinking along these lines, and thought I needed to find an appropriate rack. Stacey made the very clever suggestion of using a drying rack. I pulled my out of the closet and *poof* I now have a quilt rack with tons of space. I've currently got it set up in the front hall with Toni's quilts and my stroller blankets on it. They look great.

In addition to the table across the back, we will have a table at the inner corner with the things necessary for checkout - a computer, a printer, paper, and bags, tissue paper for the most part. I'll use a 20"x48" card table in that corner. We'll have a four tier rack of business cards and one more business card holder here for people to pick up cards while their purchases are processed. Extra business cards, promotional material, bags, tissue paper and miscellaneous packaging material will be stored in plastic storage bins beneath this table, but we'll leave room for legs while sitting at the computer.

In the rest of the booth, we'll have satellite tables, which will, be these stackable drawers: http://tinyurl.com/5r95ag with a tablecloth (Merry is supplying the tablecloths this time around) covering them and additional stock stored within them. Rather than the configuration shown, I will be stacking three large drawers with one small drawer, which puts the top at an easy height for adults to view while keeping it out of the reach of small children. On these tables will be displayed the rest of the stock. I purchased generic business card holders, and there will be a card holder with the artist's cards next to here display.

That about sums up where we are on booth design. I've taken over 400 photos and come up with text for Merry to print on the wall. http://www.rioosodesigns.etsy.com/ finished up my banner so that Merry could get to work on the logo part of the wall. Rather than what you see above, the little turtle lovey will be be square and take up a full tile. The name will make up the remainder of the banner. I have most of the stuff that is going to comprise the booth contents. I've sketched out a floor plan later this week, and we'll see if the booth winds up being arranged according to plan. Everything is just about ready, and I am all excited and stressed about the whole thing.