The Sharin' of the Green...

The second display area I designed for the recent Seattle Gift Show was the 'Green Products' Display. This was new at the last show, and response has continued to grow, as you may well imagine. Eco-friendly materials & manufacturing processes and free trade partnerships are high on the radar right now. This display area provides a jump-start for attendees wanting to find these kinds of products at the show. Any show exhibitor can bring us products, as long as they are 'green', and we'll make them look marvelous. And yes, it's free! (Funny story: everyone wants to give us products that are the COLOR green! It's so hard to keep a straight face sometimes...)

In designing this display, I carried through the theme of 'buzz' from the other display and the show collateral, as you can see in the photo above. Below, you'll see the 'beeline' across the backdrop (yes, it's bamboo, no, it's not real, yes, I know that it's not PC to use petroleum-based plastics in a green display BUT in my defense I am being eco-smart because these rolls of bamboo-look window blinds have already lasted for two shows and will for many more - and real bamboo would have splintered apart during the pack-up-n-shove process at show end) whew. Outta' breath.....

Anni & I took a bunch of brown kraft paper & paper bags (reused!) and twisted them into big tree branches. Even though I used a wire armature under the paper, the branches drooped more than I had planned. We just reasoned. "Oh, well, it's a willow tree!!!!!" To those, we pinned green leaves - cut from pages of magazines, catalogs, etc. from my oh-so-huge stash. I found every page that had any green on it at all, and cut out leaf shapes.

After pinning leaves on the branches, we had some left - so they were used in display setups, like this one for pots made from corn husks! It was a great effect and a terrific way to get the message across about recycle/reuse/rethink. I like to provide inspiration for display along with promoting the products in these areas, and I was told that many people were photographing both displays because they wanted to replicate the ideas in their stores. FABULOUS!!!!!

Here is a smaller branch, laying across one of the low platforms in front. (More product was added after this shot). In a positively shameless display of self-promotion, I cut small leaves from a few of my own business cards, and put them in very visible spots on the branch...

It's blurry but you get the idea. That lime-green leaf in the center is my biz card. Below is a shot of the display area from where the other display area was - they were right across from each other. (And at show setup, we were buzzing like bees between the two, artfully dodging flying forklifts. Whooooosh.......)

Many many thanks to Darlene, who sits at the display during the show, talking to attendees & exhibitors about the products in the setup. She is wonderful!!!!