Nico and Lala, a first year exhibitor at the National Stationery Show, is the creation of Nicole Speake (Nico) and Lauren Staley (Lala) of Nashville, TN. Nicole and Lauren decorated their 10’x 8’ booth to fit their company’s "swanky" style. The flooring is wood laminate purchased from Sam’s Club. The exhibitors cut the 7" wide floor sections to fit the depth of the booth and snapped the sections together on Show site.

The light blue tray in the front right corner is a dinner tray, which Nicole and Lauren already owned, painted to match their booth. The white bucket on top of the tray is from Target and is being used as an ice bucket for water bottles with the company name and booth number on the label. The two chairs and the 70" Maple Nesting Shelves on the left are from Manny Stone. For storage, Nicole and Lauren purchased a hot pink storage box at OfficeMax.

The drapes are flame retardant, canvas paint tarps from The Home Depot. Lauren’s mother painted the blue stripes on the canvas and sewed plastic rings, also from The Home Depot, along the top of the canvas. On site they hung the curtains from the top cross bar of the booth with "S-hooks", which are supplied at no charge, at the Freeman service desk.

The display units along the back and right side of the booth are old shutters from the ReStore, painted hot pink and hung with chain bought at a local hardware store. The fixturing on the shutters is from OfficeMax and is spray painted gold to match the chains. The custom "Nico and Lala" sign was made at FedEx Office (Kinko’s) and was originally square; Nicole and Lauren cut out the scalloped corners. The booth is lit with clip-on work lights from The Home Depot.

Laura Wright, LOinLONDON’s creator, gleaned inspiration for her 10’x 6’ booth from both The Home Depot and the circus. Laura decided to leave the floor in her booth bare, exposing the concrete floor of the Jacob Javits Convention Center, which is scuffed from years of trade shows and conventions. However, in this instance it works with the design and her aesthetic for the booth. In spite of the fact that the bare floor worked for Laura, she said that, in the future, she would definitely purchase foam flooring, as standing on concrete for 3 ½ days is not easy on the feet. The small, bright rug is a "3’ Circus Rug" from MacKenzie-Childs.

Laura bought a "Craftsman Heavy Duty Tool Chest" from The Home Depot for storage and display. The flowers on the top of the chest are displayed in a paint can from The Home Depot. The two other small containers are office supplies from Staples. The chair is a drafting stool from Walmart.

The flame retardant drapes are ribbed gray velvet fabric, purchased from www.houseoffabric.com. Laura did her own sewing and made eyelets in the fabric so she could hang the drapes with "S-hooks" from Freeman. The valance, the most time consuming part of the booth creation, is grey, shiny tulle cut into small squares and hand pulled for a frayed look. Laura hot-glue gunned thousands of these squares onto scalloped fabric and attached the finished product to the drapes with safety pins.

Laura’s father, a dentist, helped to make the sparkly stars around the top of the booth with acrylic and star-shaped moulds he made at his office. Laura took the white acrylic stars and spray painted them silver at home. When she arrived at the Show for set-up, she used Elmer’s spray glue on the stars and then covered them with glitter. They are hung from the top cross bar of the booth with think sculpture wire she bought from a local art store, Dick Blick. Laura has lit her booth with clip-on work lights (not pictured) from The Home Depot.

The gray rectangular display units along the walls, hung with chain from The Home Depot, are 30" x 40" x 1 ¾" white canvas panels from Dick Blick. Laura spray painted them with a gunmetal gray paint to give them a galvanized look. On the back of each panel, Laura screwed metal eyelets into the wooden frame and stretched thin sculpture wire across the front of the panel to hang her cards. Between each card she made a little twist in the wire to keep them separate. Laura hand painted the signs in the center of the back wall on canvas panels of varying sizes.
 

This was the fourth year exhibiting at the National Stationery Show for Kristina Briseno and her company, The Life Imagined. Kristina’s friend and design assistant John Huff designed the 10’x 6’ corner booth and the two of them put it together at the Show. Most of the lumber for this booth was purchased, by phone, from The Home Depot in Manhattan about one month in advance of the Show and delivered to the Javits Center for set up. To make things easy, Kristina went to a local Home Depot and wrote down the sku numbers of all of the pieces she needed.

Kristina bought Sparta wood paneling from The Home Depot to use as flooring. The paneling was cut into two foot squares and, once on Show site, stuck to the floor with double sided carpet tape. What appear to be solid wood pillars used for display are actually 2"x 8" boards with mitered corners that are glued together into a hollow box. These hollow columns also doubled as storage units. The walls are 4"x 8" sheets of wood paneling supported by 1"x 3" boards screwed into the back. For additional support, the walls were zip tied to the pipe frame of the basic booth package. Kristina and John added 1"x 3" base boards and molding to create a more finished look.

The floating shelves on the right side of the booth are 1"x 4" boards screwed to the paneling and a scrap of wood behind the wall. The display for the wrapping paper rolls is similar to the basic shelves with the addition of short, vertical dowel rods glued to the base. This allows buyers to slip the rolls off and on for a closer look. The wrapping paper sheets are displayed on dowel rods glued between 1"x 4" boards. The full units are hung with string from the top cross bar of the booth and are resting on the base boards.

The light fixtures are laser cut acrylic glued together around work lamps from The Home Depot with the silver reflector portions removed. The two "The Life Imagined" signs and the four owl shaped booth number signs (there are two owls per sign) were all cut out from quarter inch ply-wood with a jigsaw. Kristina had the graphics blown-up and printed out at FedEx Office and then spray mounted them to the wood with Super 77 Spray Glue. The owls are attached to a 1"x 3" board that is slotted into the frame supporting the walls.

Cindy Rosen, creator of MindyWindy and designer of this bright 10”x 6” corner booth, is a first year exhibitor in the National Stationery Show. Cindy bought her flooring from www.flor.com and it comes in 20”x 20” squares that can be easily transported and assembled at the Show. The two smaller white tables on the right side of the booth are end tables from Target. The large white table on the left of the booth is a high bar table purchased online from a site similar to www.allbarstools.com. This table came in pieces and had to be assembled on site. The green ottoman was bought at Target and, as an added benefit, was hollow for storage.

The foam core walls of the booth are from Manny Stone. MindyWindy’s designer created the decorations on the walls (the trees, birds, bird cage, booth number and company name) and e-mailed the designs to Compass Signs who fabricated and applied the finished vinyl decals. Cindy and her co-workers made the words under each grouping of cards (i.e. Hello World) themselves and applied them at the Show.

Cindy’s sisters brought the shelving units, light weight Styrofoam, from Costa Rica and attached them to the walls with double sided tape. The clip-on lighting fixtures are from www.anythingdisplay.com. Cindy also bought a single brown bar stool (not pictured) from Target to go with the high bar table.
 

For Breck Hostetter, creator of Sesame Letterpress, the 2011 National Stationery Show was her first year exhibiting on her own (she had previously shown her line through a distributer). Breck bought the white masonite flooring and pantone gray foam board walls for her 10”x 8” corner booth from Manny Stone. She chose this particular color for the walls to match her company’s branding. The booth is designed and decorated to feel like the Victorian parlor of an individual who purchases stationery from Sesame Letterpress.

The two desks, actually dressing tables from their studio, increase the Victorian atmosphere of the space. Breck uses metal menu stands, again from her studio, to display stationery vertically on the desks. She borrowed the vintage, mercury glass containers from a friend and florist, who also made the flower arrangements, in Brooklyn. The hot pink chairs are from John Derian Company in Manhattan and provide contrast to the gray of the walls and the white floor. The “Vanderbilt Church Eighty Sixth Metropolitan” box, a replica of an industrial storage box used in train stations, is from Journey Home in Brooklyn. Breck used it to store extra line sheets, product and other information for buyers.

The single cards on the walls are framed and arranged to bring to mind family portraits in a Victorian salon. The frames are from IKEA and were affixed to the wall with Velcro. The large frame on the right side of the booth, displaying gift tags mounted on flame retardant paper, is also from IKEA. Breck removed the Plexiglas from the frame to reduce glare on this display. The shelving on the walls is heavy duty plastic molding from The Home Depot and is attached to the wall with Velcro. Compass Signs produced the vinyl wall decorations based on designs Breck sent them. Breck ordered the clip-on light fixtures from Manny Stone and they were installed by Javits Center electricians.

This is an example of an exhibitor, in the 2009 National Stationery Show, using just the white pipe & drape provided by the Show. Extras ordered by the exhibitor are the draped table and the gray carpet. The company showed their artwork on two big banners on either side of the table, and then had the card samples lined up on the table.

This kind of booth display, frankly, will not attract buyers to the booth. The banners do not show the quality of the cards, and there are not enough actual cards displayed that would entice a busy buyer to stop and handle them. Also, everything is at the edge of the booth. One of the goals of an exhibitor should be to attract a buyer into your booth, and off the aisle carpet. Just like you’d walk into that buyer’s store, you’d want him or her to come into your space. This booth is set up in a way that allows buyers to pass right on by. The company name is not visible, nor is the booth number.