My sister had a stand at a gifting industry trade fair and she invited me along. Over the last couple of years, she has seen a hobby - making retro aprons and bunting - turn into a small business and this week she set her stall out among 700 other people who are running similar concerns.
The energy and creativity of these tabletop businesses spilled over a venue the size of a football field. The place was practically buzzing. There was so much cool and colour on display, I wondered what would be achieved if all these wonderfully-talented people brought their skills over to the corporate world.
I spoke to lots of stallholders and it seemed that a fair few of them had been down that route already. Many had previous corporate jobs and wanted to become their own boss, nothing new there, but I couldn't help thinking that the business world is a slightly greyer place now all of this talent had jumped ship.
Some were frustrated that even the most groundbreaking companies were still fairly restrictive when it came to creative control. It seems that multi-million pound corporate juggernauts with huge workforces to support have to remain relatively pedestrian in order to appeal to the widest demographic possible. They need the megabucks to keep going. We are suitable impressed with Apple's innovation but the design is very white and clinical, BMW are pretty much middle of the road and Coca Cola tastes are still very vanilla.
It's the small companies that are coming up with the truly creative goods, the tabletop industry is a fertile bed of creative imagination. One that will no doubt be plundered by the biggies once any designs have broken through to the mainstream. You only have to see how the clothes on the catwalk at London Fashion Week are sanitised for the High Street to understand this.
If you are lacking inspiration then stay away from the High Street and see what the little guys are doing. Their problem-solving approaches are interesting. Did you think that the trade in animal head busts had disappeared since the practice of hunting became unethical? Not any more. Handmade animal heads abounded in colours and materials straight out of the 5-year-old's artbox (
see my previous blog) and aren't they rather fantastic?
What could be more boring than a smelly, tatty animal bed? Look at this brilliant easy-clean, bite and scratchproof animal home made into the shape of a frogmonster's head. Any child would love to have this cool piece of kit in their bedroom leaving the kitchen floor free to store other things like that exercise bike you got for Christmas and never use.
Admittedly, sometimes putting a new spin on a tried and tested format doesn't always come up trumps. I wasn't convinced by these dome umbrellas. I'm sure they do keep you drier but any bigger and they'd have to call it the umburka.
What was also apparent at the trade fair was how the older, established brands, who had more traditional goods, stepped up their game with their displays. This rather impressive wall made me wonder how many plates had been broken in the installation. That can't have been an easy job but it did get me browsing a stall of some rather uninspiring tea sets which I would normally have walked straight past. It also reminded me it was the mother-in-law's birthday next weekend so it actually brought them a sale too. I'm sure she'll love the purple-edged cups and saucers, they'll match her varicose veins beautifully.
In the same way that if you want to watch a truly creative film you head for the arthouse cinema rather than the multiplex, if you want to pick us some true creative inspiration then seek out the small homegrown businesses, the people who are following their creative endeavour via a passion rather than a paycheck. Attending this fair gave me a real motivational boost. If you're in the corporate side of the creative industries, it's really important to immerse yourself in an environment like a trade fair every once in a while, it will let you remember that not everything has to be stay within the lines and your approach to work can only be enriched by that.
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