Running a business can be a bit overwhelming. A lot of the time the hardest part is knowing where to start. Neither Caroline or I had ever exhibited at a trade show before and the logistics of conceptualizing the booth, creating the pieces, and then getting it from the shop to the middle of the Javits Center in Manhattan was overwhelming to say the least.

Luckily, Billy Crosby owner of Crosby Design is good friend and a great guy. Billy worked with Caroline to create a booth that did our products justice and didn’t cost so much that we had to switch to making paper plates.

The best part of the experience is the cool 3D fabricating machine in his studio. We sent Billy a .jpg of our logo, he plugged it into the machine and created a gorgeous three dimensional rendering of the Ink Dish logo. A little black paint and some stickum and we had fantastic centerpiece to our signage.

You can see a picture of the negative space left over below or check out more behind the scenes pictures on Flickr

In our effort to embrace social media in all its forms we have created an Ink Dish channel over on YouTube. Check out all our video’s here: http://www.youtube.com/user/inkdish

One of our favorites is Paul Tattooing a Koi on a client in our booth at the NYIGF. See how a koi on skin translates to cool porcelain dinnerware as the camera pans by…

Paul Timman created quite a buzz tattooing live from the Ink Dish booth at the New York International Gift Fair. Check out behind the scenes pictures of it all on Flickr or read about it in industry magazine Gifts & Decorative Accessories

Tiffany Meyers wrote a piece in the Sunday Chicago Tribune titled “Tattoo trend makes a move to your house”.

The article mentioned a few companies including:

“Irezumi (in the dining room-i)

Designed by renowned tattoo artist Paul Timman, the “Irezumi” (loosely, tattoo, in Japanese) dishware collection by Ink Dish sets a stunning table, featuring traditional tattoo themes in blue and white.”

Read the full article on line at the Chicago Tribune