As soon as I start talking about craft fair setups, people want to talk about pricing, signage, and how to arrange your tables. But the part of your table doing the most good (or the most damage), is often the biggest thing on your table: Your tablecloth. The tablecloth is probably the last thing the vendor thinks about, but it is the first thing the customer sees. It is the background for your whole display.
Most handmade vendors ignore these 3 important perspectives when it comes to their craft show setup. Find out what they are and how to fix any issues.
Welcome to my second installment of Artist Alley Tips for Your First Con! If you missed part one, you can read all about how to prep before the show here. Part Two is all about planning your Artist Alley table setup!
Planning your market booth or craft fair booth can be tough! Here are a ton of great ideas for your own market display inspiration for this summer's market season. They work great for craft fairs, artisan markets, craft shows and trade shows! Hop on over and share your favourite market display inspiration too!
The first time I designed a booth in a craft show it was awful, it didn’t match and I had the worst location. The next year I reviewed my booth design and made some major changes. Having the corr…
[Commercial Canopy Tent] This commercial canopy, measuring 10 x 10 ft and made of strong aluminum and PU-coated 500D Oxford fabric, is thicker and more durable than the standard model. It is also waterproof and provides UPF 50+ UV protection. [Adjustable Height] This commercial pop-up canopy's tubular columns have 3 holes for height adjustment. The adjustable height spans from 7.4 ft to 8 ft, allowing you to easily modify the canopy's height based on your requirements. [Rolling Carry Bag] We provide a complimentary wheeled carry bag to make transportation, storage, and vertical positioning easier. This bag, which has 2 castors, 2 feet, and 2 handles, allows you to store and move the canopy easily. [Set Inclusions] This instant pop-up canopy comes with 4 sandbags, 4 ropes, 4 pegs, and all necessary fittings. The sandbags are readily attached to the steel pipes using hook and loop fasteners, making installation and removal easy. [Easy to Use] At the base of the steel pipes, there are footpads, each featuring 2 holes for anchoring stakes. Additionally, metal rings are provided at the 4 corners of the canopy for securing the ropes.
Fall of 2012 marked our first experience as an art vendor, at Cooper Young Festival in Memphis, TN. Over the years, we’ve padded our resume with quite a few more shows and experimented with a LOT of trial and error on our vendor booth layout and setup. We’ve learned a lot, both from our own experiences and from looking to other vendors for inspiration. Today, we’re going to share with you our top 16 ideas for selling at art festivals, craft fairs and indie markets. These tips can be summed up into three key categories: Booth Display, Signage/Décor and—the most important—Branding. FIRST, LET'S DIVE INTO VENDOR BOOTH DISPLAY. 1. Plan out your booth space BEFORE the day of your festival. Before we set foot at an art festival, our vendor booth is completely laid out. We measure all our display pieces (shelves, tables, etc.) and configure the space to help speed up the set up time. Plus, not all shows have the same options for booth sizes (because that would just be too easy). This year, our Cooper Young booth featured a 10’ x 15’ space, while some of our holiday shows ranged from a 6’ x 8’ space to a 10’ x 20’ double booth. It helps to lay everything out beforehand to know what will or will not fit in the allotted space. Once everything is measured, we use Adobe Illustrator to plan out the booth space, with everything to scale. We print out copies to take with us during set up, as well as email a copy to ourselves in case we lose the paper copies (it happens). Here's a look at my Adobe Illustrator artboard for our most recent Cooper Young Festival vendor booth: And here is our finished vendor booth, based on that original mock up: 2. Display vertically. When potential buyers pass your vendor booth, they’re not seeing product that is flat on tables. At least some of your work needs to be in their line of sight. One way we add height to our booth display is with these adjustable white metal shelf units we found at IKEA (shop them here). The shelves are completely adjustable and IKEA sells individual shelves, so you can add to the original four included. We switch it up depending on what art we need to display at each festival or market. In the past, we've used these custom built white-washed wood displays on rollers, which our brother built for us. We love how they look in our booth, as they mimic a more retail-style setting. However, these are rather heavy and bulky to transport. Looking for something a little more transport friendly, this year we commissioned a custom white wood peg wall. The unit breaks down into four separate pieces, so it's easy and convenient for traveling. Everything hooks together via large bolts and wing nuts, with the shelves and pegs packed separately. It's also completely adjustable, as the pegs can be configured in various ways. This wall unit is great for displaying our larger 5 panel wood pieces, which serve as great eye catchers for potential buyers walking by our vendor booth. For smaller shows, we take just two of the four wall panels, usually paired with one of the white IKEA shelf units. Bonus: extra pegs are great for hanging ornaments! Clear acrylic risers are also a great way to subtly add height and levels when displaying artwork on a table. Because they're clear, they don't take away from your displayed art. We use combinations of this 5 piece set from Displays2Go. 3. Choose display colors that will make your work pop. As you can see, for our larger display pieces (shelves, walls), we incorporate as much white as possible. Because all sides of our wood art is stained in a dark finish, the white background helps it pop. We also prefer how clean the white and neutral hues look. 4. Store and display multiple art prints. We have ALL-CAPS-STRUGGLED with how to display and store our art prints, other than stuffing them in baskets for browsing. We recently discovered these gold wire baskets from IKEA that slide on perfectly to our white IKEA shelves. They are great at storing stacks of prints! To actually display the prints, we chopped up a 4” x 4” piece of lumber and sawed angled grooves down the top. We stained them to match the color of our wood art. The art prints stand up perfectly in the grooves of the wood, which we then prop up above the wire baskets. It’s easy for buyers to see the print displayed and simply pick it up from the basket underneath for purchase. 5. Use slim Christmas trees to display holiday ornaments. During our holiday shows, our Christmas ornaments are HUGE sellers. While we use our peg wall for some ornament overflow, ornaments look best hanging on an actual Christmas tree. This also better demonstrates to potential buyers how it will look on their own tree. However, for those smaller booth spaces, a full Christmas tree takes up too much valuable real estate and just isn't practical. And some of the smaller, table-top trees aren’t known for being sturdy. Because our ornaments are on the heavier side, we've had issues with the smaller trees tipping over ... especially when buyers are trying to take the ornaments off the trees to purchase. We found a great slim Christmas tree from our local At Home. It measures only 18” in diameter but can still can hold quite a few ornaments. We re-stock throughout the show to keep the tree looking full. NEXT UP, WE HAVE BOOTH SIGNAGE/DÉCOR. 6. Emphasize your business name for potential buyers with branded signage. We have our friends over at Ella Jude to thank for this easy DIY pop-out booth sign idea. For this sign, we painted a thin piece of wood white, then transferred our logo (with our image transfer process) to both sides, though we've seen others hand paint their logo. We bought two pieces of copper pipe and an elbow joint and glued them all together to form an L-shaped corner. To hang the wood sign from the copper pipe, we spray-painted loose-leaf rings to match the copper pipe. We then use clear zip ties to attach the sign to our booth or tent. We're hoping to make an even larger version this year. For additional branded signage, we bought a large white vinyl banner with grommets and designed it to include our logo, website and social media handles. We use this when we have space available. For our outdoor art shows, such as Cooper Young, we hang the banner on the back of our tent so buyers walking down the sidewalks behind the booths can see our name. 7. Tell your story with signage. We sell handmade image transfers on wood and marble tile. The most common question we receive from customers during festivals and shows is,
Last weekend, I participated in the West Orange Women’s Holiday Bazaar (which was organized by my step-mom, Clarice). My table reservation was last-minute due to a scheduling change, and I was fortunate that Clarice was able to fit me in. What a beautiful day it turned out to be! The sky was a clear blue, there was a lovely breeze (my table was in a covered breezeway), and thankfully it wasn’t too hot. I enjoyed talking with so many new people and marveled at the creativity of the other exhibitors. The last few days preceding the holiday bazaar were extremely rushed – so rushed that, although I remembered to pack my camera, I completely forgot to take any photos! Which is very annoying, since I wanted to show you what my table looked like. I promise to remember next time. Participation in the holiday bazaar whetted my appetite for another show, so I mailed in my application yesterday (another last-minute thing) for a booth at a much larger event. A Great Day In the Country, sponsored by the Oveido Woman’s Club, will be held on November 13. There are 325 booths and last year over 55,000 people attended. Wow! That’s WAY larger than any other show I’ve participated in. So I’m a bit intimidated. To add fuel to that fire, I’ve never had to bring my own canopy and tables before. If you’ve got advice, I’d love to hear it! My booth will be 10 x 12’. I’ve ordered an EZ Up “commercial” canopy that’s 10 x 10’, has roll-down sides in case it rains, and a small awning that extends a bit at the front of the canopy. No, that's not me, this is a stock photo from HutShops, from whom I ordered the canopy. I’ve been researching online, looking for attractive craft show setups, and found a gorgeous booth that Lori Anderson (a gifted jewelry designer) set up a couple of years ago. Lori explains in her blog that she likes to create an environment that’s more than just tables, tablecloths and jewelry displays. Lori builds a boutique in her booth, decorated in rich colors to entice visitors. I’m quite sure that I won’t be able to pull off such a stunning display, but the “boutique” approach is what I’m striving for. With that in mind, Clarice and I had fun in our local IKEA last night. I picked out a few tall, skinny shelf units to add interest at a level other than table height. (The next three photos are courtesy of the IKEA website.) I also picked up one of these glass-topped tables: I love its curvy lines! I’m thinking of spray painting it a bronzy color, or maybe antique copper – something that will blend well with my ivory table coverings and turquoise underskirts. I also bought a few clear vases in different shapes and sizes that I’ll fill with silk flowers or greenery. And I fell in love with this hand-blown glass plant pot: So my next worry is planning how I’ll arrange everything in the booth. Here’s my first draft of a layout – what do you think? Since my canopy is 10x10’, that’s the dimensions I’m working with. The blue squares are the skinny white shelf units I bought at IKEA. I picked out a lightweight metal mesh unit on casters that has 3 drawers that I’m thinking of using for a check-out stand. I’ll store bags, gift boxes, organza bags, extra receipts, and such in the drawers. I’m already wrapping up a bunch of Clarice’s seashells to use as decorations, and I still need to figure out some sort of curtain for the back and part of the sides of the booth. Have you got any ideas? What do you think about my plans so far? I’d love to hear your suggestions! Thanks for stopping by. Have a beadiful day!
Want another way to bring attention to your vendor booth or pop-up event table? Check out this fully customizable magnetic business logo display! This branded display is perfect for taking on-the-go and simply hangs magnetically to your tablecloth! Not only that, but since it's made of 1/8" acrylic, it's also weather proof and won't fade or chip over time. Enter your custom wording or LOGO TBD in the personalization box. A proof will be sent to you before production for approval. ------- Designed and handmade in Maine, USA. Each custom engraved or 3D acrylic sign is made to order. Please send me a message on Etsy if you have any questions before ordering or are looking for a custom order. Custom acrylic business signs made by Timber & Tide Designs. Thank you for supporting our Small Business. ///////// 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 I understand the importance of timeliness, particularly in our line of work. Our processing times vary by item, and can be found on every listing directly below the description. Processing times are updated frequently to give you the most accurate, up to date information of when an order will ship. If you have concerns, please contact me prior to placing the order. Please note, upgrading the shipping does not affect the stated processing time. Upgraded shipping options pay the courier company to move your package more quickly while in transit. Need your Order Rushed? Add "Rush my order" to your cart: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1284129740/rush-my-order 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 Shipping windows are estimates and while generally accurate, only 2-Day and Overnight shipping are guaranteed services. Shipping upgrades are available at checkout. Please use the delivery window to pick a shipping method that works with your timeline. Upgrading your shipping method only moves your package more quickly through transit, it does not speed up production time. 𝑃𝑅𝑂𝐷𝑈𝐶𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁 𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 + 𝑆𝐻𝐼𝑃𝑃𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 = 𝐴𝑇 𝑌𝑂𝑈𝑅 𝐷𝑂𝑂𝑅 𝑹𝒆𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒔 Due to the custom nature of my products, returns are NOT accepted. 𝑷𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 I 𝑴𝑼𝑺𝑻 be notified within 7 business days of delivery acceptance to file a claim. Supporting evidence 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 be provided for me to file a claim with the courier. These include but are not limited to: Product photo clearly showing damage and all packaging, inside and out. You 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 hang on to all the package contents and have them available for the courier to take back and inspect. Failure to comply may result in an unfavorable claim decision from the courier. 𝑴𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒔 𝑻𝒐 𝑨𝒏 𝑬𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑶𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 If you notice something needs to be changed on your order, example: address, color choice, etc. please contact me immediately. I will always do my best to accommodate the change, but I cannot guarantee any changes once the order has been placed. 𝑺𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑴𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂 Instagram: @timberandtidedesigns Facebook: facebook.com/timberandtidedesigns Pinterest: pinterest.com/timberandtidedesigns 𝑪𝒐𝒑𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 All designs are copyright protected and misuse will be reported to Etsy. 2022 Timber & Tide Designs
It’s MARKET SEASONNN✨ I love doing pop up markets! These are just some tips + supplies that I like and have really helped me out i
Although you may be working with a small space at a craft show, it should still have a strategic layout, with 3 key areas that transition shoppers to buyers
