Top Drawer show review from Design School graduate Mel Smith (includes top tips to exhibit)

One of our Design School graduates Mel Smith, kindly wrote this review for us from her experience on exhibiting at the Top Drawer show in London last month.

I completed “The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design” in June 2012. I can’t believe how long ago that is! Before ABSPD I was freelancing but knew I wanted to branch out and start my own brand. This course gave me the kick I needed, and by the end of that year I had decide I was going to apply to exhibit at Top Drawer in London. And 2013 was the year of Top Drawer! Lots of planning, research, designing, marketing, and website redesign to be done … January 2014 came round all too quickly and suddenly it was time to set up the stand.

I’m surprised how pain free that day was to be honest but I’m so pleased I had the wonderful Liz Smith (Elle Jane Designs) with me. She kindly offered to help me set up and also to be the second person on the stand to allow us to take much needed breaks. We chose to set up on the Friday and the hardest part about the day was the early start, everything else was a breeze – all props and products fit in the car, traffic was absolutely fine, I hand’t forgotten anything, and the stand was complete in about 5 1/2 hours. Easy! We stood back to admire our handy work. Pat on the back for us and back home for a well deserved dinner and pamper session on the Saturday at the local spa.

So, was it all worth it?

Hell yeah! It was awesome! I can’t wait to do the next one, haha! It was fairly surreal at the start, mainly because I’m used to be the one walking around not standing greeting people, but after you’ve spoken to the first few visitors it becomes so much easier, almost second nature. One of the nicest things to hear was when someone said they had spotted my products in the pre-show mag or on the website and they had tracked me down.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I imagined I would have the most interest on the Sunday when the smaller shops and boutiques would be visiting. And I did! Well, I had the most shop interest on the Sunday but then had chats with people about commission work, other trade shows, pop up shops, coaching schemes etc on the Monday and Tuesday.

Connecting with other Design School graduates

There were so many talented designers on show and I I’m sure there were many that I didn’t get to see – the show is enormous and having to be on the stand the whole time meant I could only escapes for short breaks. I did manage to visit (more of a jog!) other fellow Design School graduates – Zoe Atwell and Hannah Nunn, (read her write up here) but unfortunately missed Cara Holland (Patternbooth) (read her review of Home here) and Anna Dent. (Anna also wrote about the show here). Ashmi Shah also wrote about her experience visiting the show.

I also got to meet lots of people from “The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design” course – Suzy Washington must have been one of the first through the door! Wendy Flynn, Trina Esquivelzeta, and Jess Wilde were the next trio to stop by followed by Jess Williams. I had a lovely long chat with Poppy Westwell (turns out we live about 20mins from each other!), and then Kathryn Pledger and Kathy Schicker joined the conversation. And of course a trade show wouldn’t be complete without seeing Ms Esther Cox.

I’d been wondering how take down would work. You’re given 2 days to set up and 2 hours to get out – surely that’s going to be a wee bit hectic, no? Yes. Mania as the clock struck 5. Boxes, bags, trolleys, carts, ladders – all out in the aisles. We didn’t want to have to wait until 7pm for our car park slot so we decided to walk everything ‘just across the road’ to the car. We may have underestimated that and our poor little arms were aching a touch the following day, but it was worth it – we dodged the crowds and traffic and were on our way home just after 6.

Some little tips

Here are some tips, some of which I knew before and some of which I have learned now:

• Take lovely photos of your products and send out press releases to mags and blogs. The national magus tend to like 4-6 months, locals about 1-2 and blogs and pretty quick to showcase.
• Do a mock up of your stand before actually setting up, whether it be on photoshop or actually getting everything out in your living room. You DO NOT want to get there and realise you’ve forgot something vital – like your logo or some hooks. That’s stress you don’t need!
• If there are two days to set up your stand do it on the first day – it just gives you a bit of breathing space should something go wrong or you run out of time – you still have day 2 to fix things.
• It’s an obvious one but whilst on the stand look nice an pleasant so people want to come and talk to you. Don’t sit on your phone, head down -look welcoming and flash that lovely smile of yours! And wear comfy shoes. If you’re thinking of wearing those pretty new heels with your dress just don’t – it’ll be your biggest regret!
• Follow up contacts within 48 hours of the show finishing. Prioritise who to contact first and then go, go, go! Do not give in to having a lie in even though it’s what you want more than anything…you’ll regret it later!
• Be patient. You won’t necessarily get responses straight away, or they may not turn in orders straight away, but you rest assured you now have a lovely book of contacts for the future.
• And perhaps most importantly – just be you. A lot of shops, especially the smaller ones also buy into you as a designer, not just your products, so there’s no point in trying to act a certain way that you think you should be.

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I am stupidly passionate about pattern and colour .  And when the two combine, well, I just love it!  I like to see patterns and I like to create patterns .  My own designs have a modern retro/vintage vibe, and with their playful twist they are there to brighten up a room and put a smile on your face .  It’s as simple as that .

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