And now, the news.....

I spent the last four days in San Francisco, for the gift show. (Don't ask me about the weather) Thursday & Friday, I was thankfully indoors, designing & installing two large displays of exhibitor's merchandise at the Moscone Center South Hall entrance. Let me share a few of the things I was given to display:
MARK + PEARL brought me this fabulous jewelry, made of Marcasite and Pearls. Hence the name....smart, eh?! I LOVE the packaging, the logo, and so I snapped up his boxes and said 'Yep, I 'll use those, too!'. He brought me some black rocks - lordie, I love it when people think this way!!! He was very happy with the end result.

Zina Kao jewelry reps brought me...a cello bag full of tiny little jewelry. That's it. No forms, no props, nuthin'. Big sigh.

OK, Deb, time to get creative. Flip thru the show magazine looking for anything I can use...the jewelry is hearts, maybe I can find a candy box photo or something... AHA! What's this? A photo of a statue at the current Asian Art Museum exhibit. I take the photo, pop some earrings into the extended earlobes of the statue, and rip out some black paper to add contrast. Fold the cards that holds the other bits of jewelry. Later, go by their booth and grab a photo postcard to slide in the back. Badda bing, a display I'm proud of.

Then these appeared - the bag is from The Inconvenient Bag, and is made from post-consumer recycled materials. LOVE THAT! It's also got a trendy retro design that I love, and the young man who runs this company was thrilled to no end that I fit his product into the display. And that is what this is all about - helping exhibitors succeed through exposure & visibility.

No, that's not Shirley, Keith and Laurie Partridge.... but they made me smile! I grabbed my granola bar and sprinkled a few chunks to look like birdseed, then laid one figure down like he was eating to add whimsy. I saw people pointing at it later, so I know it captured the eye... I hope the folks at Casa Collection liked it!

Candlevida provided ample products for me to work with, and a great display idea of their own: Those tall cylinders of tealights are held upright in a glass candlestand. Normally, you'd put one tealight into each of the three holes in the glass candlestand. They put their cylinders in there instead - making a striking statement. Brilliant! I opened the bath salts bottle and spilled some out - placing it right at 'nose level' so that everyone would be sure to get a whiff of this amazingly fragrant product without touching it! PS: go Boston! (They get it...)

For more info on any of these exhibitors, go to http://www.sfigf.com/ and search by exhibitor name to find their web link.

Saturday morning, I finally had a moment to really look at what was being offered at the show. When I'm out running around picking up products from exhibitors for the display, I am pretty focused on getting to certain booths and doing my job. Plus, most booths are in a state of disarray while they are being set up, so you really can't see what the exhibitor is offering at that point. So I wait until show opening to view everything... And I found some great stuff, and great displays, but I wasn't allowed to take ANY photos. Show management has apparently empowered show security to accost anyone with a camera. I almost got thrown out for photographing my.own.displays. yikes. So, I'll share links instead:

http://www.lollialife.com/index.asp/ has the best booths at the show, no doubt. We already know the products are stellar - the booth & display design are perfect brand image, a case study for anyone wanting to learn how it's done.

http://www.kategrenier.com/ has fun products and was a great booth, full of color and whimsy.

http://www.erinsmithart.com/ also had trendy funky artwork designs on canvas and new card lines that debuted in Atlanta. Her booth is like a walk-in version of her art, great effect. Such a nice gal, too!

http://www.mirrormirroronthewall.net/ is for retailers only - you need to register to view the site. But oh, what gorgeous stuff!

http://www.remembermejewelry.com/ designer Michelle Meade has a FAB product, FAB packaging, great presentation in her booth and every display area she was in at the show. Plus, she has a great sotry to go with it. In fact, she's writing a book 'The Sky is Always Blue', available soon on her website. It is difficult for a newcomer to make an impact in the jewelry market - she's done it!

http://www.mixingwhimsy.com/ was a first-time exhibitor at this show, and I am SOOOOO impressed with their visual presentation. Their booth in the Vintage Collection was perfect, and very similar to what I do with retreat. After seeing their web site photos, I know that they do everything with this much style....and will be very, very successful. Hailing from Healdsburg, these gals have success written all over them.

OK, so I saw one other thing that was a great idea, at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. An exhibit of Colors included this plant display:

Totally current, cool, hip, 'Brocade'-style way to display a plant. Or maybe jewelry? Or a candle? Or a purse? SO simple and so many possibilities!

This has been the Decorating & Display Diva, reporting from San Francisco.....