Participating in art fairs is a rewarding, but often exhausting, venture; works need to be careful chosen, shipped, you’ll need to travel yourself... and then the work continues at the fair, meeting contacts, guiding collectors ...
Here are a few tips to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible !
1. Shipping your works to the fair
Transport is key. It’s important to choose a carrier specialized in the transportation of works of art and that you can trust.
Our articles "Ship your artworks safely and securely" and "Which carriers should you choose" offer advice and a list of carriers to help you make the right choice.
2. Invite your contacts: collectors, artists, journalists
Let your contacts know which fairs you’ll be attending. Read on for our go-to websites for sending elegant and original invites, and for free!
With hundreds of virtual letter templates with customizable designs, Paperless is the place to go for sending beautiful invitations. If you prefer to send letters by post, don’t worry, many of the Paperless models are also available on paper.
This platform lets you create your event in a few minutes. You can then very easily send invitations and emails from your account. The website also provides several tools to help you manage your guestlist.
And of course there’s Artsper’s emailing tool! You can send an emails to all your contacts in just a few clicks. A key advantage to our tool is that any work you insert into your email is linked to its page on Artsper, enabling the collector to easily purchase the work.
3. Promote your gallery at the fair
After letting your contacts know you'll be at the fair you'll still need to convince the visitors of the fair that your gallery deserves a look. Here are a selection of printing services specialized in the creation of flyers and original business cards, which will help draw people to your stand.
Flyers
A colorful and easy to use website, it allows you to create various types of flyers and which all look and feel very professional.
This website lets you create your own custom flyer or choose one from their huge selection of templates, perfect if you don’t have the time to design your own flyer.
Business cards
A platform dedicated to the customization of several printed products, it has remained a leader in the industry for several years because of its exceptional value for money.
Moo
A newcomer to the publishing world, Moo has succeeded in truly standing out by specializing in high-end and creative designs.
4. Stand out
Collectors don’t necessarily buy after their first visit to your booth so it’s important to make sure they remember you. In addition to business cards and flyers, you can ensure you stand out by also also distributing catalogues and a few freebies …
Catalogues
The publisher, Le livre d’art, works with many galleries and museums. It offers you the ability to make artwork catalogues tailored to your events. With a great online customer service as well as the possibility of receiving a printed copy of your catalogue before approving your order, this publisher ensures that you can get what you want and avoid any bad surprises.
An online printing service, Saxoprint distinguishes itself through its efficiency, its value for money and its ecological printing technique. In addition, it also gives you the option to send any of the products directly to your clients rather than doing so yourself.
Freebies
An online platform specializing in totes bag, it offers a very wide choice of bag shapes, materials, colours and allows for customisation from beginning to the end.
Camaloon
Dedicated to the customisation of a range of products, it offers a diversified range of objects to personalise and the customer service accompanies the customers until the shipment of their order.
This platform specializes in promotional products, offers "goodies", advertising gifts and more at reasonable prices.
5. Keep in touch with your contacts
Business card scanner
CamCard
The application allows you to scan business cards in 16 different languages and save them in your contact list. You can then access the information on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. The free version lets you to scan 200 business cards.
Like CamCard, the application scans business cards. The app can recognise 22 languages and enables you to quickly send contact details by email or SMS. You can access your data on any device and also send your own digital business card by email.
The best calendar apps to make sure you never miss a meeting
Totally free, Google Calendar is compatible with all smartphone calendars and is also available online - so you can access it from anywhere. The calendar is intuitive and lets you to invite people to events (to meetings for example).
Also free, this calendar application is one of the most popular. Cal synchronises all of your calendars in real-time and allows you to integrate a variety of widgets into your calendar such as the weather forecast. Easy to use, it’s one of the most simple calendar apps and also one of the most aesthetically pleasing.