I went along to Tent London yesterday, on the list of largest trade fairs for designers. There were a large number of designers, many displaying wonderful, highly creative stuff. But so many of the stall holders looked forlorn, so few individuals were taking an interest in their work, little or no business was going on.
Exhibitions are always irratic affairs, it's for exhibitors to predict whether is going to be rushed off their feet, or whether they will spend the main event desiring some human contact. That is the case no matter if the economy is good; down the middle of a double-dip recession exhibiting is perhaps all a lot more likely for being unpredictable. This is why the choice to put money into exhibition space really should not be taken likely. But at Tent London I sensed a fundamental problem.
Almost all exhibitors clearly enjoy their work, and they are manufacturing or designing goods that they love. But the fact you're keen on your products or services doesn't imply you'll sell. Great design and commercial design are not necessarily a similar thing.
Art and design colleges currently encourage their students to examine and understand their markets. They do not just teach design theory and technique; they are doing train their students to travel out to the real-world. In current trading conditions, understanding a market is not necessarily enough.
Exhibitions are always irratic affairs, it's for exhibitors to predict whether is going to be rushed off their feet, or whether they will spend the main event desiring some human contact. That is the case no matter if the economy is good; down the middle of a double-dip recession exhibiting is perhaps all a lot more likely for being unpredictable. This is why the choice to put money into exhibition space really should not be taken likely. But at Tent London I sensed a fundamental problem.
Almost all exhibitors clearly enjoy their work, and they are manufacturing or designing goods that they love. But the fact you're keen on your products or services doesn't imply you'll sell. Great design and commercial design are not necessarily a similar thing.
Art and design colleges currently encourage their students to examine and understand their markets. They do not just teach design theory and technique; they are doing train their students to travel out to the real-world. In current trading conditions, understanding a market is not necessarily enough.
Most designers hope to sell to retailers, and many retailers are struggling right now. If they do buy, it tends to be in small quantities and quite often on onerous terms. Purchasing have left whenever a designer could anticipate to sell their wares merely by catching a retailer's eye. Today they need to be far more strategic than that.
One thing for the designer to perform would be to identify which successful retailers will likely want a few. Here is the same whether or not they are designing for the niche market, or general retail. Which stores are available well at present, who're they probably to offer to, and what sort of products and styles is it stocking? What / things the designer produce that suits neatly to the niches these retailers occupy?
To put it differently, instead of designers making things they love after which it hoping to excite this market, which can be fine when financial resources are flowing like water, in current trading conditions they should be niche their products into markets that they know are reasonably buoyant. When there is no market to follow, you've gotten to visit the market.
It doesn't imply are going to sacrificing their creativity on the altar of clinking coins. It implies that they'll be able to establish themselves out there, once established will be in a stronger position introducing the designs and merchandise them to genuinely wish to make. Perhaps it will imply that their creative ambitions harder to satisfy. But those designers having a strategic attitude for their marketing will stand an increased possibility of fulfilling their ambitions than others who are so wedded thus to their ideals likely prepared to are a symbol of hours on end at an exhibition, without the need of customers to speak to.
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