Studio Note: #56: Less Room to Get It Wrong.
Grim Studio’s booth in Artist Alley at Fan Expo Dallas.
Image from their instagram feed.
I spent part of the weekend walking around Fan Expo in Dallas, and was reminded of something I’ve noticed at events like this for years.
There’s a pretty interesting cross section of businesses packed into one convention hall.
There are enormous corporate booths. Big footprints, custom displays, elaborate lighting, screens, staff everywhere. The kind of presence that clearly has a serious budget behind it.
Then there’s Artist Alley.
Individual artists, usually sitting behind a table, selling prints, commissions, stickers and their own work.
And then there are all the businesses in between.
That’s where things get interesting.
Because there is consistently a massive drop-off between the big corporate displays and a lot of the smaller vendors.
At first, it would be easy to chalk that up to money.
Of course the giant corporate booth looks better. They probably spent more on the booth than some of the other vendors will make all year.
Except Artist Alley blows a pretty big hole in that argument.
A lot of those artists have their shit together.
Their displays are cohesive. Their work is organized. Their signage makes sense. Their table feels like them. You can usually understand who they are and what they make before you ever stop walking.
And they’re doing it with a folding table and a few feet of convention floor.
The difference isn’t budget.
It’s intention.
I’ve seen the same thing over and over again.
Farmers markets are another great example. Walk through one and you’ll see two small businesses operating with essentially the same setup: a pop-up tent, a couple of tables and some signs.
One has thought through every inch of it. The products, packaging, signage and display all feel like they came from the same place.
Three tents down, someone with an equally good product has a vinyl banner hanging crooked from the table, six different typefaces and a handwritten sign taped to a cooler.
Neither one has a corporate marketing budget.
One just decided the presentation mattered.
Some small businesses seem to treat being small as permission to be less considered. The banner is an afterthought. The products are piled everywhere. Nothing relates to anything else. There’s no hierarchy and no real reason to stop.
Meanwhile, twenty feet away, one person selling their own illustrations has figured out how to make ten feet of convention space feel like a brand.
You don’t need to compete with the mega booth.
You probably can’t.
But you absolutely have to compete with the person next to you.
And when you have less money, less space and fewer opportunities to get someone’s attention, you don’t have less need for discipline.
You have less room to get it wrong.