Tag: Behind the Scenes

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

Behind the Scenes: Gemstone Goddesses Website Redesign

Behind the Scenes: Redesigning the Gemstone Goddesses Site

I’d normally save this kind of article to be exclusive for my Patrons, but I wanted to share this particular article with everyone to offer a little peek behind the curtains of building a website for a creative project.  

I’ve already written a Patrons-only series of articles where I go deeper into the website re-design process for my Angelic Shades site, should you want a more in-depth glimpse of why I made certain design choices, designing with my audience in mind, etc. with many visual aides that guide you through the process.  

You can check out that series here as long as you’re pledged at any tier here:

The Old Site

Lately, I’ve been re-centering my art business and making sure I have a strong core presence online with my websites and social media before I move into expanding any further.  The pandemic taught me that I’ve let my online presentation go lax and without the promise of consistent income from in-person events anymore, it’s been far past time to step up my online biz game!

While I have Angelic Shades as my main Art Nouveau/Fine Art site, my Gemstone Goddesses project has far outgrown the single page space it had on that site!  I’ve created so much work for this project that it doesn’t fit in a single collection anymore.

I also had a problem.  I started out this adventure creating with the intention of a single Birthstone Goddesses set.  Somewhere along the way, my ambitions evolved and I realized it would be amazing to do more Goddesses dedicated to other gemstones, as well!  Why not a Goddess for sunflowers and Sunstone and the like?  And thus, my project evolved to be more inclusive with the name Gemstone Goddesses.

This meant that my old website that featured the Birthstone Goddesses in a calendar-inspired splash page became outdated:

The New Site

Now, my website needs to be more inclusive of other Goddesses and future-proofed for additional entries into the series.  I took what I liked about the layout from my Angelic Shades redesign and applied it to my old Gemstone Goddesses site.  Here’s the redesigned Angelic Shades site for reference:

Here’s a mockup created in Photoshop of how I want the new Gemstone Goddesses site to look.  The dotted line shows where the viewer will have to scroll, with everything above that line being the most important info I want my viewers to see first.

I’ve included a lot more info for viewers to explore on the new site.  I’m not sure if I need to include the bar which lets folks explore by gemstone color, but I like the idea that if someone doesn’t know the name of the stone, they can search by color to find what they need.  What do you all think?  Would searching by gem color be useful to you?

A side by side comparison of the old vs new Gemstone Goddesses site:

Before I even made this mockup, I did a very rough version on paper first to sort out my thoughts.  This helped me figure out how to minimize the navigation menu and what sub-menus I’d like to include.

Next comes building the new layout in WordPress!  I also want to re-photograph all of the Birthstone Goddesses’ framed pieces, but that may not be doable until after our house move.

I want to do something a little special when I re-launch the site.  Perhaps a give away or a hidden Easter egg?  We’ll see what strikes me when the site becomes closer to being a reality!  For now, it’s nose to the grindstone to create all the interconnected gallery pages that will form the vast majority of this website. 

I hope you enjoyed this peek behind the scenes!  Working on this site may mean less art being shared for a little while since I do everything myself, but thus is the cost of wearing multiple hats for your creative business.

More soon!

❤ Ang