Today's guest post is from Becky Tyre, Trends Editor of GIFT SHOP Magazine.

The attention given to the visual merchandising of trade show booths can be inspirational for displaying merchandise and decorating retail areas. Buyers likely left the show with display ideas for use back at their stores.

Say It With Book Covers
Say It With Book Covers began as a retail display idea and now has a product booth of its own at the show. Not surprisingly, the booth was cleverly designed.


Andrea by Sadek
Andrea by Sadek had an expanded exhibit space for the summer show and created a snowman display by arranging white snowflake plates in the shape of a six-foot snowman.


Cate & Levi
Vendors sometimes offer displays as an option to accompany their products. Cate & Levi had a wood display with 18 arms for their puppets that are made from reclaimed wool.


Kevin O’Brien
Another interesting display was at the Kevin O’Brien booth in Pier 94 NYIGF At Home. To enhance the display of pillows printed with game boards, full-size vintage game boards hung above the pillow table complemented by scattered logo printed poker chips throughout the display.


Check back tomorrow for more!

Today's guest post is from Becky Tyre, Trends Editor of GIFT SHOP Magazine.

Twice a year, in January and August, an incredible array of the world's best home, gift and lifestyle resources gather in Manhattan for the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF). Over the next few days, I'll be posting about some of the great booths I came across at the NYIGF.

IndieFlix
Back in the gift area, Scilla Andreen, the CEO and co-founder of IndieFlix had just written orders with two major national accounts. IndieFlix is a film festival in a box and a party game for movie lovers. Each box contains a DVD of four short, independent films in themes such as comedies, chillers and love stories accompanied by instructions for conversation-starting topics. Launched in late 2010, the games include the option to vote in categories online at their website after viewing the films. Andreen, a film producer herself, came up with the idea to market the product that she had been giving as gifts to friends. The comedies and love stories are the best sellers, one of her new major accounts ordered only the Pottymouth Comedies.

Paper Punk
Another interesting innovator, Grace Hawthorne, demonstrated her product at the A+ Young Designers’ Platform. This section provided a showcase for emerging designers and featured four companies. Hawthorne’s Paper Punk of Mill Valley, CA, is a paper-based building toy that provides imaginative and creative play for all ages. Fast Company Magazine says that “Paper Punk teaches 3-D thinking with paper building blocks… part origami, part Lego, and 100% recyclable.” Each kit contains the paper shapes, stickers, adhesive dots, a poster and a reusable folder. Hawthorne won one of the Blogger’s Choice Awards for this show.

Manny and Simon
Another Blogger’s Best Award winner was Manny and Simon in the Baby and Child section. Manny and Simon, based in San Diego, CA, won for its collection of eco-friendly, wooden push toys in vehicle shapes. The collection is made from 100% recycled wood residuals and is non-toxic with zero VOC. Eden Yaskil, principal of Manny and Simon, said that they exhibit at NYIGF because of the breadth of buyers that attend. They are able to connect with buyers for gift shops, museum shops, department stores, art studios and home furnishing stores. For summer 2011, they were one of several Baby and Child vendors that expanded their exhibit space.

Anamalz
Wooden toys have clearly been trending with the toy companies that sell at gift shows this summer. First time exhibitor, Anamalz, a line of eco-friendly, maple wood toys that can be posed, had plenty of activity at their booth.


Tegu
Tegu, pronounced TAY-GOO, were back at the NYIGF with their magnetic wood blocks and were busy writing orders. Their booth was simple and designed with stations for assembling their magnetic blocks into shapes.


Check back every day this week for more!

Today's guest post is from Becky Tyre, Trends Editor of GIFT SHOP Magazine.

Twice a year, in January and August, an incredible array of the world's best home, gift and lifestyle resources gather in Manhattan for the New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF). This August was no exception. Over 35,000 gift industry professionals walked the aisles of the Javits Center and Piers 92 and 94 in search of the latest trends and offerings in gifting and design.

The show gave access to designers, industry leaders, buyers and more than 2800 exhibitors. At the NYIGF, large and small companies traditionally exhibit in 400 product categories ranging from home furnishings, fashion accessories, stationery, pet products and toys to housewares and handmade art.

Over the next few days, I'll be posting about some of the great booths I came across at the NYIGF.

Cake Vintage Table & Home
One of the busiest booths was the Cake Vintage Table & Home booth attended by owners Robbie and Angie Cook. Their booth, which included the company’s original line, Knobstoppers, was also one of the prettiest booths in the Tabletop section of the Javits Center. Angie attributes the booth’s success in part to the fact that they were able to expand to a triple size booth for the summer show, allowing customers to step in and get their hands on the products. The Cake line consists of vintage inspired linens and paper goods printed with cutlery and place settings.

Angie reports that the pads of printed paper place mats and the 100% recycled, reversible place mats have been excellent sellers. The 50-foot paper runners, sold on a roll, also sold well at the show. Holly Anselmi, the owner of The Italian Dish, placed her first order with Cake during the show. She was excited to find such lovely new products for her retail store in Birmingham, MI.

Anselmi regularly attends the NYIGF show since it also gives her access to vendors from Italy. Open since July of 2005, The Italian Dish holds numerous in-store promotions throughout the year to bring in new customers and to stay in touch with existing clientele. Anselmi estimates that they do at least 6 major events per year and has an artisan event with the vendor Vietri coming up in the fall. She meets contacts for such events at the show.

Sloane Ranger
Another active booth was Sloane Ranger in the General Gift section. Established in 2011, this is only their third show. A “sloanie” is a young, confident, preppy individual named for Sloane Square, an iconic locale in the UK. Available in simple, repeating prints of owls, horses, whales and scottie dogs, the company offers cloth products ranging in size from wristlets to duffle bags. Their target customer is the higher end gift and apparel stores. Alex Chauss, reported that the totes and tablet cases enjoyed strong sales at the show.

Handmade Designer Maker
In the Handmade Designer Maker section, the Tokens & Icons booth was busy writing orders. Buyers seemed to be most interested in the recycled nostalgia sports products geared towards a male gift recipient. This company makes cufflinks, wallets and pens from authentically used football helmets, hockey pucks, baseballs, uniforms and even old stadium seats, coins and maps.

Check back every day this week for more!

Today's guest post is from Kathy Krassner, Owner of Krassner Communications.

One of the joys of attending the National Stationery Show, which took place May 16-19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, is finding new resources that offer fresh merchandise to perk up retailers' shelves. With 125 first-time exhibitors among the 900 or so companies at this year's NSS, the show provided many answers to the perpetually asked question, "What's new?"

There are always several clever, "I wish I'd thought of that!" products offered by new companies at the NSS. Byleedesign made its NSS debut with many creatively designed products, including a "Creative Circle Ruler Journal" featuring an inches and millimeters measurement guide on the cover; and "Long Tags," 10-inch-long gift tags that actually provide enough space on the back to write a meaningful message. These tags are available for various occasions as well as in multiple languages.

NSS newcomer Regreet showcased its eco-friendly "regreet greeting kits." These kits include journey labels, note paper and envelopes to repurpose a greeting card that has been received; the kit can also be given with a greeting card to encourage its reuse. Every recipient and sender of the "regreeted" card can then track its progress online and opt-in to receive e-mail updates as the card travels on another leg of its journey. Regreet also offers a spiral-bound greeting card organizer to hold greeting cards for future reuse.

Another clever new item came from first-time NSS exhibitor Cardigans, which debuted its line of die-cut, paper easels designed especially for displaying photo cards. Cardigans' photo-card holders come in several designs for Christmas, party, baby and wedding, and can hold photos as well as photo cards. Also for displaying holiday photo cards is Cardigans' "Send-a-longs" — another easel-type item that attaches to the back of a photo card and can be mailed with it.

Sky of Blue Cards made its debut at the NSS — expanding its previously online-only presence. Among this company's eye-catching stationery lines was a new "Whimsy" monogram collection of 4-3/4" x 3-1/2" letterpress-printed notecards with colorful envelopes. Also introduced at the show was a "Tween Power" playdate card targeted to the tween-girls' market. Printed on both sides, these adorable, fill-in cards measure 2" x 3-1/2".

The NSS also featured international exhibitors from 17 countries. Hailing from the U.K. was Vivid Wrap Ltd., which introduced its line of luxurious giftwrap, bags, boxes and journals to the U.S. market at the show. Vivid's new Autumn Winter Collection includes packaging products handmade from recycled cotton, as well as journals and photo albums featuring vibrantly colored embossed leather covers with recycled-cotton pages.

The next National Stationery Show will be held May 15-18, 2011.

Today's guest post is from Kathy Krassner, Owner of Krassner Communications.

I had the honor of being invited to judge the "Best New Product Awards" at the recent National Stationery Show, which ran May 16-19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Along with fellow judge Patricia Norins, publisher of GIFT SHOP magazine, and other members of the trade press, we helped to select the winners in seven distinct product categories.

Since I've helped to judge the "Best New Products" at the NSS many times before – this was the 23rd NSS that I've attended – it wasn't too hard to spot the truly unique products among the 315 entries on display in the "Best New Product" area of the Javits Center's Crystal Lobby. In fact, five of the seven winners chosen scored at the top of my list.

With each category grouped into sections within the "Best New Product" display, I started with the Social Stationery area – which usually has the most entrants. Although there were many creative greeting cards, boxed notes and other wonderfully designed paper products on view, what stood out most to me was the winner: a "Grizzly Bear Hug" die-cut, letterpressed card ($6) from Blackbird Letterpress. The display showed two of these cards: one with the bear's die-cut arms wrapped around a concert ticket, the other hugging a photo – both great examples of what customers can do with this card. It was a fun and different take on other greeting cards that hold photos or gift cards.

Moving to the Party section, the standout here was the winning "Wishing Tree": a tree-shaped, die-cut paper centerpiece ($39.95) that stands nearly 20 inches tall and comes with 40 pre-strung paper "wishing ribbons" for guests to write down messages and hang from the tree. Not only was the "Wishing Tree" visually appealing, but it was such a clever idea!


Another eye-catching item was the "Texture Boutique Embossing Machine" ($29.99) from the Sizzix brand of Ellison, which won in the Paper Craft/Scrapbooking category. The adorable purse shape of the machine is perfect for attracting the female customer who is clearly the primary demographic for this crafting product, which easily embosses cardstock.


Two of this year's winners come from The Madison Park Group: Wooster & Prince Papers' "Desktop Notes," the winner in the Desk Accessories category; and Shannon Martin/Girl Designer's "Holiday Bath Salts," which took top honors in the Lifestyle/Specialty Gift segment. The "Desktop Notes" ($13.95) offer Wooster & Prince's pretty signature patterns on loose note sheets, housed in a footed box.


The festive packaging of Shannon Martin's "Holiday Bath Salts" ($6.50) features vintage images paired with humorous messages from this company's popular greeting card and stationery line.


In the Luxury category, the winner was Cartesian Graphics for its "Vintage Print Fabric" blank cards ($4.50 each). These handmade notecards feature real fabric attached to the cover of the cards, which are letterpress-printed on textured stock.


Rounding out the "Best New Product Awards" was the winner in the Think Green section: Michael Roger Press, Inc. for its "Re-Bottled Notebooks." These colorful, eco-friendly spiral notebooks ($9 each) feature felt covers that are made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. Look closely and you'll see that the petals of the embossed floral pattern on these covers are actually images of water bottles! Inside, the journals feature pages made with post-consumer recycled paper.


Congratulations to all of the winners and entrants in the 14th annual "Best New Product Awards!"

Click here for more information about these awards and the NSS.

SPREE, our trade show for the cart and kiosk industry is less than a week away, and with record high pre-registration (up 60% from last year), I'm confident this will be our best show ever!

One of the things I enjoy most about going to SPREE every year is the discovery process. I love seeing the exciting products on the tradeshow floor, meeting new people and learning what our industry veterans are up to. I also walk away with loads of new ideas from our in-depth seminar program.

This year I will be presenting two seminars: Getting the Most Out of Email Marketing and 2010 Visual Victories Winners, both on April 14th (see our show website for more details).

I look forward to seeing you at SPREE next week!

Today's guest post is from Lynn Switanowski about the San Francisco Gift Show.

Mugwump—Turning Old Books into One-of-a-kind Wearable Art
What do your local libraries do with old kids books? If you live in Oregon and you look closely, you might see your old book on someone's shoulder as a handbag! Books meet Suzanne Keolker from Mugwump. Suzanne is a designer and creator, a former elementary school teacher who believes in not letting anything go to waste, including classroom wallmaps, discarded books and board games, road maps, air mattresses with holes and Bingo cards. She even recycled her old nickname, Mugwump, for her business.

Mugwump is devoted to taking unwanted materials and altering them from their original intent into fun & funky handbags, wallets and other fashion accessories.

Pneuma-Box—Building the Imagination of Kids Everywhere! No supplies needed!
The pneuma box is another great product brought to the US from Magnote whose goal it is to introduce unique toys from around the world. The designer toy "pneuma-box" is a set of four paper blocks to create various shapes and objects beyond your imagination. To assemble, all you need is two minutes or less per block… no scissors, tape or glue! Try one for yourself, and you'll be surprised at what can be made from such a simple design. (Available in two styles now; MSRP $16; wholesale $7.95.)

The Andean Collection—Fashion Jewelry. Fair Trade. Perfect Together.
Combine jewelry and socially conscious fashion and you've got interesting products. Now add fashion forward designs, creating a greener planet, and providing a path out of poverty for artisans using fair trade principles and you've got the Andean Jewelry collection.

Made from eco-friendly materials, the reason d'etre for this brand in your stores is simple: looking good CAN also be making good for others. One final must-have reason for this collection? The artisans who create it are not only helping sustain their families and make fair wages, they share in the profits of the company as partial owners of The Andean Collection.

Today's guest post is from Lynn Switanowski about the San Francisco Gift Show.

I attended the winter edition of the San Francisco Gift Show a couple of weeks ago. This show is always a leading source for new products—especially in the eco-friendly space—and this season was no different. There were many fresh finds that will surely make their way to store shelves shortly.

Below are some of my favorite fresh finds from the show. Kudos to all the manufacturers who were at the show for finding ways to create and interpret the use of eco-friendly products in ways that make the products "consumer friendly" and salable too! It continues to amaze me what innovative manufacturers can do with recycled products!

Papaya! Eco Friendly Stainless Water Bottles with Serious Style
An exciting new addition to Papaya's gift line are stainless steel water bottles designed to invigorate your water with the power of intention. Each 25 oz bottle is made from high-quality, food-grade 18/8 stainless steel, is BPA-free and recyclable. There are six styles to choose from: Joy (WB001), Yes (WB002), Bliss (WB003), Cha-Ching! (WB004), Love (WB005) and Intuition (WB006).

Bottles can be ordered in a minimum of six pieces, assorted at $12.00/each. Orders are shipped from Ashland, Oregon.

Urban Junket. Multi-Purpose with Modern Style.
What do you get when you combine fashion and style with an eco-friendly flair? Urban Junket handbags and accessories. This season’s offerings include the t.o.t.e. bag (To Observe The Earth) and laptop bags. This line is made of eco-friendly materials including organic cotton canvas, azo free dyes and RPET fabric made from recycled plastic bottles. The bags have lots of inside pockets to keep you organized and looking good at the same time—and best of all, it converts to three different bags so you'll have lots of looks for one low price!

To help offset the production and transportation of the bags, Urban Junket makes a $1 donation to carbonfree.org for the sale of every bag. Opening order: 10 bags any combination of colors and sizes. For sales information contact tdyer@urbanjunket.com.

Today's guest post is from Lynn Switanowski about Showcase Ireland.

I have three final great finds from the show!

Inspireland
Inspired by Ireland brings a new concept to the retail gift market. A small group of Irish companies have collaborated to create a capsule collection of products that offer a range of distinctive, yet complementary products for the U.S. gift store market. Available in a pre-designed display unit and demonstrating high quality packaging, this collection of handmade jewelry, glassware, giftware, perfumes, toiletries and inspirational gifts create a consistent consumer experience. Utilizing a U.S. distribution center enables Inspired by Ireland to service U.S.-based retailers with initial orders and rapid reorders while minimizing investment in inventory.

Contact Barbara at barbara@perfumes.ie

The Martina Hamilton Collection
The Martina Hamilton Collection brings a fresh look to the Irish jewelry market. Using cosmic events from the heavens as inspiration and symbolism, former sculptor turned goldsmith Martina Hamilton creates an intricate collection that offers gallery-quality artisan jewelry hallmarked for authenticity and crafted to endure. Launched in November 2008, this collection won the Best New Jewelry collection at Showcase Ireland in 2009 as judged by its peers and other retailers. Working primarily in sterling silver with 18 carat gold accents, each piece in this collection is handmade and truly one of a kind. A deliberate approach to limited product assortment permits rapid scalability in production facilities and the ability get stock in store in its U.S. based distribution center.

Contact Martina Hamilton at info@martinahamilton.ie

Tipperary Crystal
The Graham Knuttle Café Collection is the sixth in a series of celebrity-designed collections offered by Tipperary Crystal. This series is the first manufactured in porcelain as the firm evolves its product selection to meet the changing needs of consumers. Knuttle was commissioned to design a collection of coffee cups and plates with his distinctive and unmistakable style, bringing the art of drinking coffee to a new level. The initial product range includes cappuccino and espresso cups, serving plates in different sizes and large limited edition plates. Tipperary offers quick turnaround delivery opportunities for customers to maximize sales potential while minimizing inventory investments.

Contact Tipperary at sales@tipperarycrystal.com

Today's guest post is from Lynn Switanowski about Showcase Ireland.

I have three more great finds from the show…

Bunbury Boards – Recycled Products with a future purpose.
Do you know the history of the wood from your cutting board? Well now you can. Bunbury Boards' owner William McClintock Bunbury is attempting to save the beautiful old estate, Lisnavagh, breathe new life into the surrounding woodlands and buildings, and return the estate to being the community employer it once was. In the process, Bunbury Boards has created a unique way for the customers to connect with their products and a marketing sensation that has everybody talking. Every Board carries a unique code that tells the story of the tree from which the board was born, and what they have done to replace it. This approach to recycled goods turns a "lifeless" product into a fun customer experience for all.

Fen and Carr – A Natural Twist on Bath and Body Products
Inspired by the Fen and Carr landscapes of the bogs of Ireland, the aim of Fen & Carr is to improve the landscape of your wellbeing. Fen & Carr have created spa quality products made from therapeutic peat, a 100% natural product formed from an array of organic plant life. Fen & Carr products provide holistic treatments that internally relieve muscle tissue and pain, externally treat problematic skin conditions and relax and rebalance the mind.

Contact Info: Clair Quinn Founder
info@peattreat.ie
Direct Contact: (353) 5793 25216

Celtic Roots Studio
Celtic Roots Studio produces unique sculptures and jewelry by hand-carving designs relevant to Ireland from bogwood that is over 5,000 years old. For over 20 years, Celtic Roots has created elegant customized forms and shapes for customers that include heads of state around the world. Celtic Roots Studio offers a wide range of sculptures to members of the trade both at home and abroad. Shipping to the US is provided through FEDEX from the Celtic Roots Studio in Ireland and there is currently no minimum order requirement.

For further information visit www.celticroots.ie or contact Celtic Roots Studio at 00 353 90 6430404 or info@celticroots.ie.