The Newbies Workshop

Last Saturday was a lot of fun. The Newbies team worked like there was no tomorrow over the last month, gearing up for the Auckland Spring Gift Fair. We were assembling products right up until the morning of the Fair, fueled by caffine & adrenaline alone. The coffee that Sal made was particularly strong, it had the strength of a long black and filled to the brim of a particularly big mug… In a way it was good as it gave us both a kick to last us until the end of the day…

It was a plus that we had the same space as last year so we had a good idea of how much room we had to play with. To be honest, it took us a while to get started when we got to the venue. We sat in front of the stand, literally for about an hour, just staring at the empty space surrounded by all the products and wooden crates. Very cool crates by the way – cheers Kentergraph! Once we got going though, we were on fire. The good ‘ol Kiwi ingenuity kicked in so we were able to tackle any problems that came our way – the impressive thing was we were able to make-do with the things we had on site.

We really wanted a stand that would stand-out (really, no pun intended), something that’s different from your conventional tradeshow stalls but at the same time, display the products effectively. Last year, we made the space look like a home environment so that the buyers can see the products ‘in-situ’. This year, we have evolved the brand quite a bit so the concept of this years’ stand was ‘The Newbies Workshop’.

I must say, I have to give it to Sally (Newbies Director), she was brave and trusting enough to give me full creative license to do whatever I wanted to do with the stand. Especially since we were dealing with an interior space – it wasn’t a graphic design piece where there were turn-arounds and client feedback – whatever I produced was the final result. There was no turning back! I suggested drawing on the wall – she said “Go for it”. We have collaborated on projects for quite sometime now and there’s a nice synergy in the way we work together. Plus, there’s never a dull moment!

I like events like this, you get to chat to the other exhibitors, it has a nice ‘community’ feel to it. It was really cool having the other exhibitors come up and complement our stand. All in all we were really stoked with the final outcome. It displayed the products nicely and the overall environment was very inviting. I was able to have a look at the other stands the next day and the Newbies stand stood out by far.

Special thanks to Kent for all his help, especially during the lead up to the Fair – you have been an absolute star. Thanks also to Kentergraph for producing all the wonderful products!

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