Hello all
I have been toying with the idea of displaying my 2D work gallery style. By that I mean having one large or two smaller paintings hung individually all around the booth. I have seen this done at more than one booth and it looks quite elegant. The down side is of course that you are leaving quite a bit of empty space above and below the paintings. We artists tend to think that we have to make the most of the small area that we are alotted, especially when you can have as little as 30 linear feet and and so we hang the artwork floor to ceiling. But I have heard that giving patrons too many choices diminishes your sales, and not just in the art world either.
Any thoughts before I try this?
Comments
I looked at your work. Having a gallery look is the only way you should be displaying. It's the only way I have ever displayed my work. It says you have a lot of respect for your pieces which are all one-of-a-kind. Forget trying to please everyone. The people who buy your work can easily afford it. Plus, you should be applying to the best shows, where most people have booths that are "elegant."
Mark, I like your idea of the show panel facing out. I sketched it up last year but didn't set it up. Maybe this year.
In the $30-$75 range, i would probably fill it up a little more. Also, one way of thinking about this is $ sales per square foot of display. If you have a $30 piece, on a 8 x 10' backdrop, your sales per square foot will be very low. if you have 4 $1,500 pieces on an 4 x 8 display panel, that is much better.
Have a beautiful binder of color photos of pieces not on display for customers to browse.
For those who are promoting the less is more approach, do you believe this can happen with lesser priced pieces? I have many one of a kind pieces but they are all in the $30-75 range. I have enough to fill a 10 x 10 booth. Part of my fear of holding some pieces in back stock till some of the pieces sell is that I am afraid the one vase (bowl, candlestick, etc.) that I hold back will be what they are looking for and miss a sale. Any advice?
Less is more. I have found that I like one panel, or one wall, facing out, with only three or 4 pieces on it. Much cleaner look, which I myself find less annoying then when too many of my pieces are crammed together. I put more pieces on the two other walls, and the backside. Also, this one 'show wall' leaves me room to hang pieces for a customer if they want to see what it looks like by itself, or two side by side if they are trying to decide between one and the other. Strangely, the last 3 times my customers could not make up their minds between two pieces hung like this side by side, they bought both.
"Gallery Elegant" is one approach. Wall-to-wall product suggests "affordable" to some, while a very few items elegantly displayed suggests "high-end." But that's not the only concern. Not knowing how your body of work looks, it's hard to gauge how appropriate it is. Is each item simple, complex, puzzling? Consider how each of your works pulls in your viewer and how much time the viewer typically takes to take it in.
I would think one objective is to have the visitor stay in your booth longer, laying the foundation for their remembering your work, your booth, your personality. This can be promoted by having a lot to look at, on one hand, OR having a thought-provoking presentation on the other.
I think it's worth trying the gallery approach, which says, in effect, "I have only a few GREAT pieces which deserve the royal treatment" and consequently the visitor's respect and attention. But to carry it off, you should make sure the other aspects are in tune: your furniture, background, (pro-panels at and angle?) lighting, price tagging, even how you dress and present yourself.