Twice a year we show product at the New York Home Fashions Market. I collaborate with an interior designer and my team to create an overall look and feel for the showroom, decide what product stories to tell and how to merchandise with signage.

With each Market we continue to refine our preparation to streamline workflow. Many moving parts are involved and we pull it all together, making sure that the final showroom concept, layout and design flows well. It is a challenging task with an ever changing product lineup that is sometimes not finalized until days before we to our New York Showroom to setup.

Here’s where this particular Showroom design began…

BIG – One word to describe initial showroom theme. I began by looking at the list of new products as well as old products that would be added to or revamped. Then I pull images and brainstorm words convey each product category and benefit. This begins to pull together a Mood.

This Mood can change as we work through the intricacies of product, packaging and props. The final Mood Boards are used as a reference to base the look and feel of the showroom, packaging, props and merchandising.

Once the Mood is defined and we have most product categories set, we figure out where each story will be in the showroom and I begin to research imagery and create signage.

Of course not everything we show at Market is product. We also inform the retailers of our Marketing efforts with Brand Support and PR.

We also like to come up with a nice way to thank our guests for their time. This Market we gave away a travel pillow in our new AllerEase fabric and a Rest Right brand eye mask in a reusable ATC bag. I created a stylized version of our logo for the embroidery. Below are a few of the logo options plus the final artwork sent.

Here’s how it all came together!