Spring Fair International 6-10 Feb 2011

Visiting Spring Fair was a lot more informative to me than the previous year as I think I'm more aware of my market.

When I first arrived I was drawn straight away by Deva Designs Ltd, they had a bright stand and contemporary cards, gift wrap and bags. I chatted to Managing Director Andrew Maddock, who gave me his business card because he was looking to recruit graduated students. They are based in Chester and while this is an exciting opportunity I feel it is too far away at the moment to commute as well as juggle my Major Project with, but I will hold on to his card and contact him at a later date if they are still recruiting.

As Spring Fair is huge I looked around Greetings and Stationary and Gift and Home.
In terms of getting your stall noticed I think less it more, I found some of the stalls cluttered and in terms of a trading I think this may put people off, the larger stalls with good placement were seemed more appealing.

I noticed their were quite a lot of stalls in Greetings and Stationary that had hand painted imagery of dogs, horses and scenery on their cards. I was surprised by this as I didn't think there was a wide market for this type of design.
There was also quite a lot of cards designed for children, I understand why this is popular because it is more popular in society to buy for children. While cards for adults is still huge, the demand for cards for children is higher.

Bright colours were quite popular in the designs and there were a lot of humorous ranges.

Among the company Penny Kennedy were cards by designer Orla Kiely and Iconic cartoon Miffy. Orla Kielys designs are almost becoming as Iconic as Kath Kidsons design, as neither two designs look that different from another, it generates a repetitive design.

Other companies I liked the style of were Box Clever Ltd, Firebrand Art Ltd, Lime Cards Ltd, The London Studio, Loveday, Pink Pineapple, Roger La Borde, Roisin Cafferty, Rosehip, Sarah Warren Art Ltd, Stuck 4 Words, Turnowsky Ltd and YCUK. I will show their work in separate blog posts.
I've made a note of these companies and will contact them at a later date to see if any of them are recruiting.