I have recently returned from my trip to Surtex in New York, where I was soaked in illustrational talent, colour, shapes and lovely lovely people - my idea of a perfect trip! I did not exhibit myself this year, but I went see what it was all about and to be a helper to the wonderful
Victoria Johnson on her stand. When Nick and I initially booked our tickets to New York from NZ, I did wonder if it was really going to be worth going all that way, as a non-exhibitor and especially as I was only in NY for one week (due to other work commitments here) and our journey to get there was around 35 hours (this really was too much, next time I will definitely break this up by stopping in LA and putting my feet up for a few days). The answer = yes, yes and YES! It was such a worthwhile trip and I will tell you why.
I had offered to be Victoria's helper late last year and I was delighted when she said yes. I knew that I wanted to come and have a look around but it was a bonus being able to help on her gorgeous stand, along with
Melissa Iwai, a children's book illustrator from Brooklyn. When I arrived on the first day I was running a bit late as I had timed my subway trip all wrong and was panicking that I may have offended Victoria by being rude and not on time. I found her booth and ran up to her in a bit of a flap - but she was far from offended, utterly lovely, relaxed and just so nice!! Her booth was wonderful - very much in keeping with her style and very eye catching. I immediately liked her. Melissa arrived that morning also and she was super lovely too. It was a pleasure to soak it all in and learn about things like banners, the iPad portfolio, how she had transported everything, how much the shelves cost, the blurb book etc etc. (She has written a great blog post about her experience at Surtex which you can read
here).
Victoria doing business!
I was very mindful though to not loiter about when clients came to Victoria's booth; Melissa and I did things like take the client's business card and file it in a folder, was there when Victoria was getting lunch and kept clients talking until she came back. It was interesting to see what art they liked of Victoria's (most of it!) and when they purchased her work I felt so excited for her. I did a fair bit of walking around too, looking at others' booths, seeing how they had decorated theirs...all of this was very useful to me. I particularly enjoyed the little details artists had added; fresh flowers, sweets, chocolates with wrappers that had their art on, little plush toys they had sewn up with their art on, mocked up products using their designs and little promo packs for the clients to remember them by (the
Forest Foundry collective had some super cute bits and pieces on their stand!). Great ideas all round. I really loved the
Dotty Wren Studio's booth (as did everyone else, it was just fab) and you can read Dawn's recap of their time at Surtex and see pics of their booth
here.
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Some lovely business cards
Overall, one of the best things for me was meeting other creatives who I had only been familiar with online, some through the MATS courses and some through blog land -
Elizabeth Olwen,
Lizzie Mackay,
Dawn Machell,
Zoe Ingram,
Lilla Rogers, Jennie and Louise from
Paper & Cloth (with a gorgeous booth design! Louise has the wonderful blog
Love Print Studio - check it out!),
Helen Dardik,
Carolyn Gavin,
the Happy Happy Art Collective ladies, the
Forest Foundry collective, the
Cultivate Art Collective and
Find A Penny to name a few. I was a little star struck by some of the artists who I had followed for a few years…but they were all super nice and I was blown away when some of them had heard of me and had followed MY work! It was also great to see some familiar faces - my friend from university, James, from
Peagreen studio was there and it was great to see him after 11 years! So many of us were on the same wavelength and to meet people in person…you can't beat that really!! I definitely came out of Surtex with lots of new friends.
Another great show on at the same time, next to Surtex is the National Stationery Show. This was also full of gorgeous stationery designs, with companies such as
Chronicle Books,
Madison Park Greetings,
Galison and
Ecojot showcasing their newest designs for retailers to order. There is also a section for independent artists with their own products, mainly cards but some had tea towels and totes and a lot of screen printed items which was great to see. My newest range of cards were on the Madison stand, with my recent Holiday collection.
My cards at Madison
My cards at Madison ("Hem your Blessings" and "A new little someone" are mine. The other sweet baby one with the leaves and seeds is by Elizabeth Olwen x
On the last night of Surtex, Nick and I went for dinner with Victoria, Helen Dardik and Carolyn Gavin to a delicious South African restaurant called Braai. Over my lamb shank and gin & tonics, I felt like I was learning even more from these three wonderful artists. It was a perfect end to a great 3 days and it was wonderful to celebrate with Victoria on her success at the show.
We stayed in Greenpoint in Brooklyn with my lovely friend Rachel who I used to work with when we were textile designers in London. It felt a lot more chilled out staying out of Manhatten and travelling in to the show. Greenpoint is close to Williamsburg and the areas are full of gorgeous little shops - clothes, plants, cute things, markets…cafes, gorgeous food (the food is insanely good in NY) and interesting people. We were so lucky to have Rachel show us around and take us to all of her favourite spots. I loved it. But there was so much I didn't get to do, I only visited one museum (the American museum of Natural History - AMAZING!!), didn't get to wander in Central Park or see the Statue of Liberty, or walk along the Brooklyn bridge...but I am saving these for next time. And the rest of my time in New York…well it was a whirlwind of catching up with friends from the UK who were in NY, shopping, eating everything I could fit in my belly and staying up late every night soaking in the wonderful city. I can't wait for next year, for a longer stay and...hopefully with my own booth!! xxxxx
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Hanging out in trendy Greenpoint!
I have some more pics over on my
Instagram and on my
Facebook page too, and if you want to read some fantastic blog posts from other artists who DID exhibit (some for the first time so full of tips and advice), check these posts out, they are really worth a read!
Emily Balsley - who also walked the show. Super blog post with great insight!
