The Making of a Trade Show Stand - for Home Show 2014 in London

So we have returned from our first trade show of 2014, HOME London, and have been busy sorting out all our orders and new contacts from the show. The response to the new products has been beautiful and once again I got lots of compliments for my stand design. Since I always put a lot of thought into my stand, I feel like sharing a bit more about the process of making it ...

 

 

To begin with, we took polystyrene letters from polycraftsupplies and decorated them with newspaper and the best neon acrylic around, Daler Rowney number 544, so they would stand out from the back wall that we covered with black board paint. It's a wonderful mat black that makes every colour stand out against it. Below you can see the letters lined up, as we prepared to stick them onto the wall.

I have used the concept of vibrant colours on mat black background also in one of the designs of my Pop Art goes Design collection. It's called 'Pop Art Dots' and the original art work, which you can see below, is made up from hole punched magazine clippings. Thinking about the positioning of the products on the wall, I realised that I liked the randomness in the 'Pop Art Dots' a lot. So I decided to allow my gut feeling to guide me in distributing the products across my stand. But it wasn't supposed to look careless, so I wanted to hang everything with beautiful hooks, nails, zip ties and ribbons.

Below you can see what I found as I raided all my boxes ... and my friend Andrew Stafford who helped me with my stand planning and building gave me some crown silver light bulbs for the lampshades that added an extra special touch (you can see them in the picture of the whole stand at the bottom of this post)

Below, some of the products attached to the back wall. The cushion on the stool in front of the wall is a new addition to the range of Cameras designs of the 'Pop Art goes Design' collection. It's a digitally printed, 40x40cm linen cushion called Camera Play, and it's now available on our website. The design references Joe Tilson's photo collages of the 60s. If you're interested you can read more about my inspiration for 'Pop Art goes Design' in an earlier post I did on my blog. 

 

Below a close up - yes, I am rather pleased with how it turned out :-)

But to move on: I wanted to use a collection of chairs to offset all the different cushions and ranges, and to give the buyer a feel of how these products might sit in their stores, and indeed their customers' homes. The Thonet bentwood armchairs fabulously showed off my Bike wheel cushions ;-)
And who needs a carpet when you have gorgeous concrete to begin with?

  

 

Especially since the concrete made such an effective backdrop for my first 'Bicycle' rug, which you can now order from our website.

The chair to the left, above, is one of the pieces that Galapagos Designs have upholstered for us as part of our collaboration with them to illustrate to the buyer how my designs can be used on fabric for upholstery. And below I show you another one, of a different model, but with same fabric and neon accents. It's called 'Pop Art Circles Armchair'.

'Pop Art Circles' overall had a fantastic launch: I was very happy that KentLyons (the designers of the 3 shows Home, Top Drawer and Craft) asked to use my Pop Art Circles wallpaper to decorate the pillars at the entrance to the shows.

Here it is in close up: 

And we also make Pop Art Circles cushions, with extra special neon piping. They are available in 3 different shapes square, oblong and round.

Here with another Thonet chair accentuating all the circles..

And here is the full stand at the opening of the show - thanks for reading and I would love to have your comment if you can take the time - 

 

Love,

Ella x 

AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE!

Bikes, bikes, bikes!

I have been on a mission these last few months walking around my local area, capturing the 'moment' with my camera and my subject has been 'the bike'... 

Their varying colours, styles & frames, or the way they have been locked to a pillar or a post is what has made me stop and shoot. With and without their owners in sight - their personality still shines through!

Before I was even aware of the Duchamp exhibition and live events at the Barbican I had dreamed up these cushions to compliment my bike wheels repeat design and I was originally inspired by Duchamp using specific mass produced objects and presenting them as  'works of art' or as he called his bicycle wheel on a kitchen stool 'readymade' - which linked him to the Dada movement of his time - and widely cemented him as the father of conceptual art. The exhibition at the Barbican is well worth a visit there's something for everyone with dance performances, a singing ghost, beautiful piano performances with no hands, and of course inspiring historical art!

 

 Bike wheel Natural cushion with gusset

Bike cushion 30x50cm

Using all my images I have taken I have created this figurative repeat design which has been partly inspired by my love for Scandinavian textiles - with their lightness and simplicity - mixed in with my passion for all things made of paper! - I wanted a vintage feel with a modern twist, so i created the background texture using imagery of old textured paper stock - and the bikes ride leisurely across the design in their individual glory.... here are a few of the products, the repeat design is still evolving, as I collect more bikes to add to it, so we will be adding new products in the autumn.

'Bikes' Notebook

'Bikes of Hackney' place mats

'Bikes' double sided gift wrap

Home 2013

Here it is the final logo mounted on the back wall, after me 'happily' banging in the nails, and weaving with the cream wool to create the 3D effect.

a close up ....

And here is a sneak peak of some of my new collection 'Bikes of Hackney' that I launched at the Home Show - I have been working on the whole collection for some time, merrily taking photos with my camera, of bikes in Hackney on my regular walks around the manor!

The cushions form part of the new collection; the round Bike Wheel cushions are available in natural linen and black printed linen with or without a gusset, the 30x50cm Bike cushion and my 40x40cm Bike wheels repeat cushion, they are all made here in the UK and they were our best seller at the show.... the round wheel cushions will be available on my website from early February.... so keep a look out!

The rest of the 'Bikes' collection comprises of place mats, a Euro mat, a lovely cutting board and a journal and mug all of which will be in stock from mid feb if not already online. 

above to the right you can see Asa Wikman busy making notes next to my sample book of The Natural Collection, (also launched at the show, I will post about that separately soon...) - she works with me on design and styling, and our website, she is a very creative designer and thinker so check her out!

I am very proud after months of development to launch my first ever rug collection and here above is the brand new Geo carved rug in cream. i wanted to translate my Geo pattern with its depth of field and shadows into a rug and move away from only doing flat printed design. It's made using 100% NZ wool, using an 18th century tufting technique and then manually cut down to create the depth and shadows.

A close up to show you how beautifully carved the rug is. It takes 2 makers up to 10 days to hand tuft and then they carve back into the rug to create the design. It will be available in 2 other colour ways Blue and Dove Grey. Heals will be stocking the Geo carved in cream from early February, and we will have it to order on our website from next month. 

Thanks goes to my sister Joelle for taking most of these pictures during the show :-)