Dear Design Doctor I have a company wanting to take my products to a meeting with a very large department store, and they have requested information from me as below: prices per unit when ordered in batches 25/50/100/200/500/1000? to provide lead times on above amount? can i give Exclusivity? Is this product covered by your [...] Read more »
The Design Doctor: How to make terms & conditions for my graphic design business?
Dear Design Doctor I am a graphic designer and I need to make my terms and conditions. Can I just use somebody else’s or do I need to have this written up by a solicitor? The Design Doctor for this topic is Patricia van den Akker, Director of The Design Trust: “Terms and conditions [...] Read more »
How to prepare for a craft show or design trade fair? The 4 essential stages
Doing a design or crafts show requires a lot of planning and organising! Especially if you haven’t done a show before, you might feel pretty overwhelmed as there are so many things to think about! Would it help you to have a simple action plan and checklist so that you know what to do at [...] Read more »
10 trade fair tips by designer Alexandra Snowdon
As we do like to include the real life experience of designers, here is a guest blog written by Alexandra Snowdon of Snowdon Design & Craft, who runs her company from a small cottage in Cheshire. After graduating with a first class honours degree in 2009, she began work on her range [...] Read more »
4 Top tips how to get selected for a design trade or craft fair
Over the years I have been involved in the selection of the famous Chelsea Crafts Fair and selected many new designers for group stands at international and UK trade fairs including 100% Design, Top Drawer, Decorex, Inhorgenta, International Contemporary Furniture Fair and others. I have worked very closely with many of the organisers, and learnt [...] Read more »
Should I participate in a contemporary craft or design fair?
This might seem like a no-brainer, but actually fairs might actually not work for you (at this stage). The positives – fairs are a great way to: have face-to-face contact with potential and existing clients get feedback about your products or services to research the market you work in and compare yourself with ‘the [...] Read more »
How to find and select the right contemporary craft or design fair for you
Craft and design fairs come in many different shapes and sizes – from local craft festivals to major international gift or furniture fairs with thousands of trade visitors. So, how do you find out about craft or design fairs? There are many different ways to find out about fairs: do a google search check [...] Read more »
The Design Trust 59 favourite contemporary design trade fairs and craft shows
Here you will find our recommendation of 59 (!) UK and international design and craft trade fairs and shows. They are based on our own extensive experience in this field, plus compiled from a business development research study done at the end of 2011 for The Design Trust and our sister organisation Design Nation. Below [...] Read more »
Top tips to sell your crafts online
Do you want to sell online, but find that creating a website takes too much time and money?! Promoting or selling online with an established website or directory is one of the best and cheapest ways to increase your profile and to generate sales all year round. They have overtaken galleries and other sales opportunities [...] Read more »
The Design Doctor: Can anyone give advice on Sale or Return?
I need some advice about ‘sale or return’. I currently have some of my bags on sale in an independent boutique who will be taking a commission on goods sold. They will not take any responsibility on any damages caused by customers viewing the goods. I was a bit uneasy about this but still went ahead. Yes, [...] Read more »