Imogen Owen started her stationery brand in 2013. Launching at Top Drawer in London, she immediately picked up a number of high profile stockists and since then demand for her work has continued to grow. Imogen designs and illustrates her greeting cards and stationery collections from her studio in rural Leicestershire using her 1940s Autovic letterpress. Imogen also teaches workshops in modern calligraphy in London and across the UK.
Imogen exhibited at The National Stationery Show in New York, USA earlier this year. Here she shares her experience of exhibiting at the show and the nightmare she found herself in when she realised that all the bits she’d brought to dress her stand with were accidentally binned. Here’s Imogen’s story in her own words…
This year I had the pleasure of exhibiting at the National Stationery Show (NSS) at the Jacon Javits Center, New York. This was a big deal for me as the NSS is huge – much bigger than Top Drawer or any of the other shows we have in the UK – and, well, it’s in New York!
Any trade show requires a great deal of preparation and this required even more since I needed to work out the logistics of how to ship everything out there, what to buy over there, and above all, how I’d get myself on the plane since I’m terrified of flying! I work well with denial so I decided not to think about the last point, and instead focus on my strategy for exhibiting.
I decided to buy an upgraded stand so I would only have to paint and decorate it on my arrival, and work with a minimal stand, with no fixed shelving, etc. which fitted with the aesthetic that I’d used at January’s Top Drawer. And so began the preparation…
The first thing I did was to create a really special invitation to introduce myself and my brand to potential buyers. The US stationery market is big, and you only have to look on Instagram and blogs like ohsobeautifulpaper and papercrave to see the quality of products on offer, so NSS invitations are a serious business. I’ve seen brands send out wooden gift boxes filled with amazing samples, and all manner of papery goodies, so it definitely needed some thought.
I also had to sort out my accommodation, plan my stand layout and, ahem, book my flights. What I love about the industry I’m in, is the community. I’ve made some great friends through my business, and fortunately a couple of them were also exhibiting at the show. I shared an apartment with Wrap Magazine and flew out with Ohh Deer, who coaxed me onto the plane – thank you!
The whole experience was a massive learning curve. The time difference totally screwed with my head, and I worked the three days prior to the show on just four hours sleep a night.
I soon discovered that New York is not like London for show set up. Exhibition halls in the UK tend to have decorator centres close by, but the Javits didn’t so I ended up taking the subway across Manhattan to Home Depot to pick up tools and supplies and then lugging them back across town. I also planned to go to Ikea to get furniture for my stand but I was told it was a real trek so I instead got some tables from Target. Plus the walls I paid for to be there on arrival were late going up, so I lost a day waiting around.
Once everything was up and painted I could focus on finishing touches and signage. I’d left everything at my stand ready to finish on the last build day and I was looking forward to decorating my stand and finishing the crepe paper flowers I was making, then chilling out in Central Park and having an early night. So imagine my horror when I arrived in the morning to find that everything, bar my suitcase of card samples, had disappeared! All the paper flowers from the previous days making session, my gift wrap samples, my signage, my tools, my paint – everything!
After some investigating staff told me that someone must have thrown it all away. I was so upset. With no signage, no logo, and everything else gone I had to act quickly. Luckily my friends kindly stepped in to help and we organised emergency signage, made more decorations and worked till late to pull everything together.
The show was eye-opening for a number of reasons. I realised that:
- the standard of work out there is very high
- buyers have many amazing brands to choose from
- US consumers seem to expect more but are happy to pay more.
Overall the show went really well. I had lots of interest and many buyers came and said how much they had loved my invitations, so it was well worth spending time and effort on them. I also took plenty of orders and met some fantastic people; great brands like Hartland Brooklyn who was in the booth next to me, ASHKAHN, and Rifle Paper Co. whose stand was big, super slick, and as inspiring as ever. And Anna Bond who came over to check out my stand and say hello.
I appreciated having a group of Brits to exhibit with as it made the event all the more fun. And my experience was further enhanced as a result of making some lovely new American friends. I’d love to go back to the NSS but I’d definitely do a lot of things differently.
Here are my top tips for first-time exhibitors:
- Preparation is key: Plan your stand really well, including your product layout.
- Factor in contingency time: Things don’t always go to plan, as I learnt, so don’t leave anything to the last minute.
- See your stand as a shop window: It needs to reflect you and your brand and entice people in.
- Don’t forget your marketing materials: Have business cards and postcards to hand to give prospective buyers – and make sure they will remind them of your brand long after the show.
- Wear comfortable clothes and shoes, be patient and smile: The days are long and not everyone will love your work – don’t take it personally.
- Be confident: Believe in what you do. Others will see it.
- Network, network, network! Keep a record of all your new contacts.
- Don’t get disheartened: Trade shows aren’t just about sales on the day; work can come in afterwards too. It’s not all about the number of new clients you get either; it’s also about the frequency of their custom. You could get four stores only ordering once, or one store ordering every month.
- Don’t compare yourself: Focus on getting the results that feel right for you and your business.
- Reflect and re-strategise: If you don’t have the best show then go home, and think about what you might do differently to get better results next time. If your work isn’t appealing to your target market try and figure out why; do some market research and go back to the drawing board. It sounds harsh but there’s no point pouring money into something that nobody wants to buy.
Now the show is over, I’ve got lots to get on with. I’m currently working on a big top secret project, shipping out all my NSS orders and working out my calligraphy workshop programme for the rest of 2016. I’m also preparing to launch my calligraphy products and I have ideas for a gazillion new ones too!
Connect with Imogen Owen: Website | Instagram | Pinterest | Facebook | Twitter
We recently interviewed Imogen Owen on the Make it in Design blog – read it here. For more trade show stories including Jessica Hogarth exhibiting at Surtex and Adrienne Kerr at Premiere Vision Paris in 2016 see pages 88 – 91 in the latest issue of MOYO Magazine.
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