Designing Your Booth
Whether you’re new to creating a booth to sell your artwork or just looking to refresh your look, the design of your booth can have a massive impact on how customers perceive you and your art as well as your sales. Here are some tips and tricks to think about while creating your ever-evolving booth design!
Creating Your Brand – Who Are You?
Just like you and your work have a distinctive personality, your booth (and brand overall) should too. This helps customers and fans recognize you even before they see your name and art. There are tons of amazing artists at conventions so a well-thought-out booth design helps you stand out.
To start, think about what brand or personality you want to showcase. Are you bright and colorful, or sophisticated and calm? Who is your target audience? If you were a shop in a mall, what would you look like?
If customers were going to describe your booth to a friend, what would they say?
Choose a few colors that speak to your brand but also work well as a display. One main color with one or two support shades will unify your booth design. Try thinking about what the colors say about you. If you create lots of colorful artwork, try using a simpler palette to help your art stand out. If most of your work is nature-themed, stick to colors like brown, green, and cream. If you already have specific colors in your logo, consider using those.
Once you have your brand and personality figured out, remember to utilize it in how you present yourself. Banners, business cards, and other promotional materials can all match your brand (and therefore your new booth!) quite easily.
Sourcing Products – Match Your Brand
Now that you have an idea of what your brand is, think about how this impacts the products that you are going to sell. You want to carry your brand personality through your packaging and products. If you’re creating nature-based products, consider using packaging that is environmentally friendly. If you’re creating animal-based plushies, consider upping your price and donating a portion of all proceeds to an animal shelter so that your customers feel like they’re helping out while also promoting your brand.
Consider your brand when you choose the materials your products are made of, too. It might only cost a few cents more per print to use a higher-quality paper, but you can increase your price point considerably when you do so.
Remember, customers are willing to pay more when they feel that they are getting something of higher value or that the product/service you are supplying is unique.
For example, I want my customers to feel like they are getting high-quality, hand-made products that feel ‘have a premium feel. Because of this, I make sure that all of my greeting cards have craft envelopes because this makes them feel more natural and hand-made in the eye of the customer. I also make packs of greeting cards that I package together using white twine, so they look fancier and match my brand colors.
Products:
Prints and greeting cards from CatPrint
Scarves, Studio Pouches, Notebooks, and Tote Bags from Redbubble
Packaging from ClearBags
Postcards from Moo
Business Cards from VistaPrint
Setting Up Your Display – Less Is More
Just like walking into a shop, customers assign value to your art when they look at your booth. If you take the time to create a high-quality, well thought out design your fans will think of your products as being higher value. For example, if you toss a bunch of pins into a cardboard box like at a garage sale, your customers will think of the pins as cheaply made and not worth much money. If you take those same pins and attach them to well-designed backing and display them nicely in a display box that matches your brand, customers will attach a higher perceived value to your product.
Many artists make the mistake of filling their entire booth with as many products as they can fit. This might seem like a good way to showcase all of your products but in reality, this makes it harder for customers to find what they like and makes them more likely to skip over you entirely.
Giving the eye space to rest on your display makes customers spend more time looking at your art/booth.
Find display pieces that match your brand personality, but also consider form and function. If you travel to a lot of conventions, make sure that your displays are easy to break down and transport. I use grey felt totes for many of my product displays because I can use them as padding to protect my product while traveling and they match my brand colors!
Do a trial run of your booth design at home. This will give you time to test out a variety of setups and make it easier to build at the convention. I take photos of the finished design so I can remember what I liked in the heat-of-the-moment at the convention.
Making Money – Tips and Tricks
Even with a well-designed display, there are a few tips and tricks that can help you make the most of a convention.
Put your name on everything. Even if someone picks up your business card, it can be easily misplaced after a convention. I print out small labels with my name and website listed and add them to the back of all of my prints. If I am selling a product that does not have a flat surface (scarves, tote bags, etc) I make sure to include a business card or post-card with each purchase.
Talk to people! I know this can be hard to do for many artists but speaking with customers and fans is one of the quickest ways to build rapport and encourage them to purchase items from you. Even a smile or a quick hello can invite customers closer to your booth and gives you a chance to ask them questions or talk about your art.
Change It Up. Just because you’ve designed a booth doesn’t mean you have to stick with it; you might find new products to feature, interesting ways to display your art, or even update your brand as you grow as an artist. As long as you keep your brand personality in mind, it is easy to find matching display pieces and update your booth at any time. Play around; you never know when a small change could improve your sales dramatically.
If you have any questions about designing a booth, feel free to reach out to me at hello@micaeladawn.com