Corner Booth Design

It is time to make changes to my booth design again. Nothing significant but just something for a corner booth. I had got great suggestions on my blog for booth designs and shelves, so I hope to get more recommendations for a corner booth. The picture above is of my in-line booth with shelves on one side, wall panels at the back and pedestals to the other side.

Here is a computer sketch of my current in-line booth design.

For the corner I am thinking of two options. The one above which is similar to my in-line design and would encourage people to walk in and give more open space.

One thing I have noticed is when people just stand at the edge of the booth and fear coming in... As though I will hold them at gun point till they buy something. LOL! So to give them an opportunity to browse without commiting to come in my booth, I thought of this design with shelves along the open sides of the booth. Advantage is that I get lots of storage space, but I think it will be hard for to talk to my customers, or tell them about my work or point to something or pull something off the wall.

For an outdoor show I know this design can be bad with bad weather. No way for anyone to look at your work while it rains on them.

Do you have any recommendations? I will have a corner booth at the upcoming Best of the Northwest show Nov 18th-20th. So any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

New Booth Setup

Almost every year, I make changes to my booth. This time the change is big and it costed big too $$$. After a lot thinking, the Caravan Canopy was just not working for me. It has been very strong and stable for the shows I have done over the last few years. The thing that annoyed me most about it was the cross bars at the top. They blocked the view of platters and dancing Divas which were hung on my back wall. Very distracting. So after a lot of research, I purchased the Light Dome Canopy. I like the open high ceiling and bright light in the booth. This gave me the oppurtunity to add some color to the top as well.

They are a little time consuming to setup, but I bet it gets better with time. The most annoying this has to be putting the top on. With two people it is a breeze but with a short guy like me, it is a challenge.

Would love to hear about the canopies and setups other artists have. Feel free to tweet and leave your comments.

Gig Harbor Booth Setup

A few weeks back I had posted about my booth setup at the Edmonds Arts Festival. I got some excellent feedback from everyone on my blog and facebook page.

The main thing I changed this time was to paint the wall grid black, since the black and white checkered pattern was too distracting. I spray painted it with a black primer and I liked the matt dark gray look, so left it at that. It does look a lot better and several people commented on my booth display. It was a very hot weekend, so it did get a lot warm in my storage area behind the grid wall with all the black. But the look was worth it.

One other thing I took into consideration was to reduce the amount of things I display at a time. I beleive this made a difference too as people felt more at ease to pick things up without the fear of knocking things down.

Thank you everyone for your input. If you have any more suggestions feel free to comment. I really appreciate it!

My next goal is to make collapsable pedestals out of luann plywood and indoor/outdoor carpet.

Gig Harbor Summer Art Festival

This weekend (July 18th - July 19th) I will be at the Summer Art Festival at Gig Harbor.

Last year was a great show and I am excited to bring new work here.

So look out for the booth with Colorful pottery which will make you feel you walked into an Indian wedding (Booth #8)

For directions and other info regarding the show, go to http://www.peninsulaartleague.com/artFest.html

Edmonds Arts Festival Booth setup

Last weekend I was at the Edmonds Arts Festival and it was a good show. Had great conversations with new customers and also met other artists at the show. The work at this show was just beautiful.

We did have a challenging first day with the rain, but some how did survive it. I did make some changes in my booth setup and I would appreciate comments and suggestions.

Earlier I had a pale yellow background behind my grid wall, but now I changed that to black. I feel the black did make my pieces pop, but I am not sure if the white grid pattern over the black makes it look too busy? Sometimes I feel it makes it look dramatic, so people get encouraged to give the back wall a second look and walk in the booth.

BEFORE

AFTER

This part of the shelving is the same as before. The only change I made here was to add the black material on some of the shelves. I have decided to put it on all shelves next time. Gives the work a good pop and clean look.


This part I am still struggling with. Pedestals! These were cheap cardboard pedestals made from cardboard painted white with white sqaure framing which locked it square. With weights inside them they were stable, but with the rains, cardboard just doesn't cut it. Because of limited space in my car to take stuff to shows I need a more collapsable idea for pedestals. These cardboard pedestals flatten easily for transport but are not strong enough when wet and will just get ruined. Sonotube pedestals take too much room. And with several pieces kept on the pedestals I think it looses focus. So any ideas here are appreciated too.