Content originally developed for and presented at the Funky Junk Sisters Antique Show Vendor Seminar, June 12, 2009. Revised Sept. 2009, presented at the Vintage Marketplace Vendor Seminar, 2015. Republished on the DWK design blog May 2024.
PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT – do not copy, publish, or otherwise use this proprietary content (personal practice allowed).
’Successful Booth Design for Antique + Vintage Vendors’
All content copyright Debi Ward Kennedy, 2009 - 2024
All Rights Reserved
1 Getting Started
Prepare for Effective Displays
Retail is Theater. And Antique – vintage – junk shows are the new Retail mecca! Displays need to be big, over the top, more than expected, and more incredible than the average person would ever think of to compete with the overload of visual stimulation we all face every day. You want to entertain, inspire, motivate, and convince customers that they must have what you are offering. This is not the time to play it safe….this is the time to be creative, inventive, even a bit wacky. Pictures speak louder than words, displays are pictures, and they can sell your products without you ever uttering a single syllable.
Edit your merchandise! Choose one idea to focus on (a color combination, or a seasonal theme) and use that to guide your design for each show. You have only FIVE SECONDS to catch a customer’s eye and entice them into your booth, so be clear, be consistent, be concise. Don’t overwhelm them with too much stuff!
Plan your booth layout. Consider how customers will approach your booth as you place items: will your focal point be from the front, the side, or on angle? When customers approach while walking on an aisle, they see your side walls FIRST. When they approach coming toward you on an aisle, they see the back center wall FIRST. Create large vignettes in the focal points for maximum impact on the viewer – think of them as still life paintings in 3-D. Then fill in other areas of your space with large fixtures to hold products.
*One important rule: Don’t place a table or large item straight across the front center of your booth. It’s the equivalent of bars on the doors & windows, meant to keep people out. Make your ‘entrance’ welcoming by angling items toward the center of your booth, or using round shapes in the front. Make it easy for customers to walk in and feel comfortable.
*Place larger pieces toward the back of your booth, then decrease height toward the front so that customers can take it all in quickly. Remember to allow room for customers to move through your space AND access products by creating walkways that are a minimum of 24” wide. And remember that most people head RIGHT when they enter!
Be aware of what shoppers are looking for. Browse magazines, blogs, websites, and stores for creative display ideas. This is where your customers are getting their information - you need to speak their language! Present your merchandise in ways that connect to the lives your customers lead, how they entertain, dress, and decorate. This helps them see that they need your products. If they can’t relate to them, they won’t buy. And know what customers will be at a show!
Be flexible. Even the best plan needs some tweaking on-site during setup. As you fill in your space, step back into the aisle and view it as your customer will first see it – this helps you gain a ‘big picture’ view and easily solves many problems.
2 Design Your Displays
Tips for catching your customer’s eye:
Color is the first thing that customers notice when they look at a booth. You can use it in a big way by hanging fabric panels on the back wall of your booth, or having colorful umbrellas overhead, and then placing coordinated merchandise nearby. Group your items by singular colors if you have a large selection of many hues – create a vignette that is primarily yellow, another in green, another in orange, and so on. Place bright colored glassware with plain white china, add a vase of the same color flowers, and you've taken basic to trendy.
Light will draw a customer from several booths away. If you can incorporate lamps and chandeliers into your product offerings, do so. If not, bring one or two just as props… perhaps you can hang the jewelry you sell from the chandelier arms and use a bare wire lampshade on the lamp to do the same. It’s the warm light coming from them that will serve to create an inviting atmosphere. If there is no power at a show, use mirrors to bounce and amplify existing light – use them flat as trays, upright as backdrops, inside cabinets & shelves to draw light into them.
Setting can create an inviting place for your customers to escape to.Express the style of the merchandise by expanding on a theme: are you selling vintage kitchen items? Create a ‘room’ in your space with cabinets, a table & chairs, fabric backdrops that mimic kitschy 40’s wallpaper, even a clothesline holding aprons & tablecloths. Transport your customers so that they remember their past – memories are powerful motivators for selling! It’s called ‘emotional marketing’.
Invent a style! You can totally change the way customers ‘see’ products by combining them with something unexpected. Some sleek contemporary ‘science lab’ glass containers full of coins, tarnished silver serving pieces combined with weathered wood tables, a fence backdrop, galvanized & rusted metal buckets filled with leather belts and vintage boots creates a 'new West' look.
Consolidate: Use any opportunity you can to pull small products together on a large scale. In the fall, create a 'Farmers' Market' feel with lots of bushel baskets on weathered benches, heaped with multiples of small merchandise. Doesn’t matter what you put IN the baskets, they are telling a story of abundance and harvest and drawing your customer in to look closer. In spring, use terra cotta pots sitting on metal or wood garden furniture or in wheelbarrows. Your booth looks crisp, clean, and inviting by corralling your products, and it is easy for customers to shop. It also makes stocking & transport easier for you!
Seasonal themes and touches of nature add scale and interest to your displays. The best way to do this is to use large-scale props: large bunches of pussy willows in spring, branches of fall leaves in autumn, piles of log rounds and evergreen branches in winter, driftwood trellises in summer. These add spark to whatever products you sell - and they are all free for the gathering. The height of these items is visible from a distance, drawing people to your booth.
‘Lifts, Levels, and Elevations’ (Does anyone else remember Christopher Lowell?!) Never present merchandise laid out at one level, flat on a table – it looks like a garage sale. Use stacks of books or boxes, log rounds, glass pedestals, or other items to provide varying levels for the products to be leaned against, laid on, or draped over. By doing this, you give them more perceived value.
Brand Image isn’t just for the big guys anymore! Customers want to know who they are buying from, so make sure that you present a professional image. Your business cards, fliers, and sign should all be in the same font and colors, and the sign with your business name on it should be in the most visible spot in your booth. Pull the main color and use it as a backdrop or table coverings, and build one focal display around that color scheme.
3 Styling With Purpose
Integrate Personality Into Displays
Be more creative in the way you present merchandise! Do you really need a metal spinner for cards, or can you clip them to a garden trellis? Can you wrap up smalls in clear cello bags and sell them in multiples instead of singles? How can you make every product look like it is a special treasure to be discovered - instead of like something you'd find in other booths and shops?
Props should be one of two things: 1. Appropriate to use with a product - as in using an old metal washtub and clothesline to display vintage linens. 2. Whimsical… meaning that the contrast itself is eye-catching. Using old metal toy fire trucks to hold jewelry on their ladders, or old game boards to display sets of dishware & glasses on, is an example of this concept.
Be original! Even if you see a great idea somewhere else, 'tweak' it and make it your own. Likewise, don't just 'comp shop' your competitors to see what they are doing with similar merchandise. You don't want to be repeating what someone else has done already – you want to be a leader. Your customers want you to show them something different!
Change is necessary! Look at your merchandise with a fresh eye for each show. Mix it up differently, add or subtract elements or props, change a color scheme. Get inspired, and then inspire your customers. Keep them coming back to you to see what you are up to!
Deb’s Top Five ‘Fast, Cheap, & Easy’™ Display Tips:
Paint! Buy it cheap at home supply stores from the ‘oops’ rack and play to your hearts’ content. Mix, match, create vibrant combinations and use color to your advantage. Paint canvas or lightweight wood panels for your walls, paint shelving and props…..a different color every season.
Architectural Salvage: Window Frames, Trellises, and Ladders. Hang ‘em on the wall, from the ceiling like a pot rack, use them as shelves, turn fan trellises upside down and they are Christmas trees, or paint them black and you have the Eiffel tower!
Fabric: Use large panels of fabric to cover upright supports, drape tables, or swag from ladders or trellises. Adds texture and softness to the hard lines of furniture - just drape a tablecloth over a third of a table (leave some folds in it – fabric should flow like water, not be flat) to make it more inviting.
Light: From twinkle Christmas lights to chandeliers to paper lanterns, getting warm light into
your displays will work magic to draw customers in and make your products look their best.
Tomato Cages: Yes, I said tomato cages! These metal garden tools sold for just five bucks or less at your hardware store can be SO much more… how about turning them into mannequins?!
First, flip them upside down and sit them on the large rim. Take those three ‘legs’ and bend them with a vise grip or needle nose pliers – curl them, spiral them, or bend them into a hanger shape.
Spray paint them if you want, then use them to display just about anything. You can dress them in aprons, hats, jewelry, t shirts, petticoats, and more. Hang ‘em up, sit them on top of cabinets and tables, use them as lampshades on post lamps.
You can hang a slew of products ON them, too: holiday ornaments, kitchen tools, woodworking tools, more jewelry, purses, gift tags, bookmarks, seed packets…. It’s all about creative ideas.
Find more content like this on my retail design blog http://www.decodivadebi.blogspot.com
All content ©Debi Ward Kennedy 2009 - 2024 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Content originally developed for and presented at the Funky Junk Sisters Antique Show Vendor Seminar, June 12, 2009. Revised Sept. 2009. Recopied May 2024. PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT – do not copy, publish, or otherwise use this content (personal practice allowed)
Debi Ward Kennedy is a retail designer, speaker, writer, and stylist with over 45 years experience in the retail industry. Formerly based in the Seattle area, Deb travels the country speaking at trade shows, events, and conferences about visual identity & product presentation. From store floor plans, décor, and display sets to custom blog designs, Deb offers services to independent merchants in person or via the web, and at exceptionally reasonable rates. Her goal is to help you build a better business! Visit her web site and blog for information, education and inspiration that will empower you as a retailer.
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