Hello all! My first festival is next month in Evergreen CO. I have plenty of art ready to go, but wonder about the best way to get the layout of each wall ahead of time so the actual setup goes smoothly. I know I'll be moving things around a lot to get the most cohesive and appealing layout. Do people use an app... if so, can you recommend one? Or do you lay the paintings out on the floor of your studio?
I was juried in as an "emerging artist" and the festival is providing the tent, so I cannot do a dry run (I have no tent.) Also, do you feel 2-3" in-between each painting is enough space for the booth not to look crowded?
I'd love to show up to the festival setup day with three printouts showing exactly where each painting should go. Thanks for any help!
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For right now, the old-fashioned way of using graph paper will do the trick. Use 8.5x11 graph paper turned horizontal, and use 1/4" grids with one inch=1 foot. Assume that your display area is 6'x10' with three panels available. That way each division is 3". Measure the pieces you plan to hang and cut a scale-sized piece of graph paper for each one. Move the paper pieces around to get a decent layout that feels open and not too cluttered. personally, I would use 6 to 9 inches separation between pieces, as you want them to breathe. If the grid paper is too daunting, do the layout on the floor with tape outlining the 6x10 space.
For myself, I would be tempted to scale everything in Photoshop elements with a photo of everthing scaled properly. Then I would start dragging and dropping onto a larger image of the wall space. The advantage of that is that once you were done, you could print off a copy of each wall to take with you to the show as reference for setup. It's a lotof work to do that but it sure would simplify things later. Good luck!
Thank you! The grid paper makes my head hurt, lol... I suspect the floor is going to be the ticket!