Tag: Art Business

Planning a Convention Booth + Art Show Display with Visual Aids

Peeking my head up to say “Hello there” I’m alive! With Multiverse coming up in October, I’ve been hard at work envisioning ways to make my grand return to cons a big one and thought I’d let you all in on that process.

My Old Booth

My very first big con booth debuted at DragonCon 2019, which also happened to be my last big booth with COVID’s surprise dropkick that kept me out of cons for years afterwards. Even still, it was a valuable experience in figuring out how to layout my products, how foot traffic and customer flow works, and how to make everything visible and easy to find. I’m definitely drawing upon everything we did right back then to plan a new booth!

My Upgraded Booth Mockup

To plan how to upgrade this old setup, I started with creating a mockup first, with the next step being to set up a live booth in our sunroom to make sure everything fits and THEN to do a run to make sure we can fit it all in our car. Seeing everything laid out visually like this makes it easier for me figure out spacial relationships and what signage I’ll need.

Some of the changes of note:

  • Self-Serve Area – On the right side, I’ve added a small table that allows for showing off more art where people can also enjoy browsing a portfolio and self-serve items like greeting cards and flip bins without being in the way of people at the main checkout table in the back.
  • Folding Bins in Front – In my 2019 display, I had the bins under the prints in back-left in hopes that people would come up to the big wall to flip through. Instead, people seemed afraid of going into that corner as if they were intruding on our seller space behind the table. Hopefully, having print bins up front will encourage more people to browse freely!
  • Added Masks – The Birthstone Goddesses were such a HUGE body of work that I hated leaving the masks out. People tend to find them interesting handmade items that make for great conversation pieces, so I wanted to give them a chance to shine!
  • Added Sticker & Pin Displays – My stickers were displayed in one barely noticeable plaque that didn’t have room for more than a few examples. Meanwhile, my enamel pins weren’t even on the table, which was not ideal as they’re some of my bestselling items! I’ve sacrified showing off the matted pieces on the main table to have ALL of the available stickers and pins featured front and center since they’re some of my most in-demand items.Many thanks to my Patrons here because your support helped me to be able to buy these displays instead of having to choose between them and groceries this past month!
  • QR codes instead of clipboard signups – In my long gap in vending at cons, technology has moved forward enough that QR codes are the standard. Instead of needing table real estate for a bulky tablet for newsletter signups, I’m going to put out a QR code with a Meet the Artist plaque instead. This will link to my landing page with links and my newsletter signup form.
  • Adding a Birthstone Chart – It’s amazing how many people don’t actually know their birthstone/birthlower, so I’m going to create little visual where they can look up their or a loved one’s combo for easier gift-giving.
  • Adding a Lady of November Standee – My brother runs a sign shop and has been wanting to make me a standee for years! I FINALLY found a reason to indulge his urge, which I’m sure will be a thrill for him. Backup plan in case the standee won’t fit in the car is to put a roll up verticle sign I already have.
  • New Tablecloths – I found these awesome table covers with openings in the back so we can easily store things, rather than using the unwieldy crushed velvet fabric square I had been using before. (Another expense made possible thanks to Patreon support. Y’all are awesome!)
  • Lighting (Not Pictured) – Dragoncon provided booth lighting, but it’s not guaranteed at other events, so I’ve bought a couple of sheet music lamps for a more budget lamp option.

The Art Show Mockup

Next, I also have a large bay in the Art Show. I like to fit as much as possible, while still having breathing room, so I like to plan a layout in advance in Photoshop. Bid sheets are also unwieldy, so it’s easy to forget that they will take up so much space!

This year, I’m including as many original paintings as I can. Having this layout available also helps if someone else other than me will be hanging my art, usually my husband or other helper for the show.

What you’re not seeing here is all the adding and removing of several pieces I couldn’t find that were lost after our house move or too big for the display once I swapped others out…but at least I can fill out the pre-con paperwork now! It’s like a game of Art Tetris.

The To-Do List

Still a few things left on the agenda to be fully ready for this show, including:

  • Sort out stock and packaging for the Print Shop area I’m also included in. Most of my prints are already packaged, but some might need bag and backing. Also pre-con paperwork to do for this area as well.
  • Cut mats (I HATE this part) and wait for frame glass to (hopefully) arrive in time to be inserted into the frame that didn’t come with glass by default.
  • Prep for my panels. I’m on a really fun schedule in the Art Track as a Guest Artist/Author which I want to refresh myself on info so I can be prepared. That’s me, the Very Professional Artist and not an imposter that everyone will discover soon!
  • Make sure I have all the signage I need, along with making sure prices are current.
The convention chaos begins!
The mockup booth begins to form in the corner of the sunroom.

PHEW have I missed this convention prep dance! Hopefully, everything will go smoothly this year, despite being quite rusty at this after my very long hiatus. Thanks again to everyone who has kept supporting my Patreon despite my sluggish updates lately. It’s helped make this prep so much easier for us while we also continue working through our medical struggles.

Now, back to prep with me!

<3 Ang

Share the Work Challenge Day 1 – Clarify Your Vision & Why Your Work Matters

It’s been a strange time for me right now. Over the past few years, I’ve created an amazing amount of work for my Birthstone Goddesses project, but now I’m in a place where I feel overwhelmed by the prospect of getting all that work out into the world in a meaningful way!  I’ve been learning as I go along using my background in Arts Admin to fly by the seat of my pants, but as far as knowing anything about fine art marketing, I don’t feel my knowledge is adequate.

And that’s why Emily Jefford‘s Making Art Work course has piqued my interest of late!  Emily’s name has floated to me over the past couple years as someone who has mentored some amazingly talented folks I know, like Naomi VanDoren, Emily Hare, and Kiri Leonard, to name a few.  Her course focuses on fine art marketing from the ground up, from exploring your motivations as a creator to how you can build a sustainable business out of your art.  It sounds perfect for helping me feel just a little less crushed beneath the weight of my unorganized ambitions!

As such, I’m hopping on Emily’s free preview course Share the Work 2021, which challenges you to 5 days of prompts that help you explore some basic thought processes for getting your business and your art organized for success.  I’ll be sharing my progress here as I complete each worksheet!  Enjoy this rip-roaring ride because I’m starting a little late.  Share the Work goes away on the 25th (in 6 days)! 

Feel free to take the mini-course with me and share your thoughts here in the comments (or on my Discord).

First Impressions

I gotta be honest, guys.  All these questions about why I create art and what meaning my art has for others proved really difficult!  I’ve never tried to dive too much deeper into why I do what I do, except when I’ve been forced to for school assignments and artist’s statements.  I’ve always loved making art.  It’s been second nature for so long that I’ve not really questioned it! 

Was there any deeper meaning than ‘because I like doing it’?  More particularly, I started creating my Birthstone Goddesses because I love Mucha and wanted to create something that channeled that sense of awe and beauty I get from my favorite Art Nouveau pieces.  What more meaning did I need than “because I enjoy doing it and maybe other people might like it too?”.  The answers I found through this closer examination intrigued me!

Day 1 Challenge Worksheet

Why do you create? What keeps you coming back to the process?

The joy of realizing ideas for things I love and want to see more of in the world.  The happiness that comes from mastering a skill.  The joy of learning new things.

What meaning does your creative work bring to your life?

Creating images, characters, and stories that resonate and teach people how to be people be better people brings me joy.  Spreading an appreciation of nature, beauty, and stories also fulfills me.

How does it benefit others?
Try to go a little deeper than “it’s pretty” — though that totally counts!

I hope that sharing my art helps others gain a similar appreciation that I feel from stories and imagery that teach and empower others.  My goddesses, in particular, provide aspirational magic and beauty to empower those individuals whose months each goddess represents.

What messages do you convey through your art?

My Birthstone Goddesses convey a respect for the primal waxing and waning of life and death, the cycle of human festivals of life, love, and death.  They pay homage to the cycle of the year that reflect human existence, while also empowering women, the unseen, and underappreciated.

Why does this message matter to you?

I see a lack of the kind of stories about empathy and complex morality in the world and I want to explore them.  I also want to see more people who look like my multiracial family.  I want to normalize different types of human beauty and to empower myself and others by telling stories that relate to them and motivate them towards positive change.

Conclusions

I was very surprised to see many of my answers leading back to the idea of female empowerment and personal empowerment, though it made sense once I dove deep and connected the dots to the things I personally love, like the history of historical women and other underappreciated figures.  It was not an accident that my Birthstone Goddesses span a more diverse range of races, which represent my own colorful family, starting with my olive-skinned Latina mother for December. 

These answers also reinforce what I’ve seen at conventions in the past.  For example, many folks would pick up the Lady of September (my most popular print), because they liked that she represented an interesting depiction of their personal birth month.  She empowered them in a way that other depictions of September by other artists haven’t.

I’m also realizing I’ve been marketing my Birthstone Goddesses more as an illustrator would.  I’ve been very focused on the fantastical lore I’ve come up for their function as goddesses.  Fine Art, from what I’m gathering from the lectures thus far, is more focused on what a buyer sees of themselves in a piece of work or what that art says about them if they display it.

Hopefully, I can figure out how best to combine both of these approaches!  I love telling fantastical stories and I’d love for people to feel empowered and awed by my goddesses without requiring them to necessarily read their lore write-ups.

Tomorrow’s challenge is Sharing Your Vision With Your Audience, which asks probing questions about inspiration and our ideal customers.  Should be fun!