Qualatex® @ The International Toy Fair and Spring Fair 2018

It has been a busy few weeks for the Pioneer^® Europe team! Kicking off 2018 exhibiting at two busy trade shows, The International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, and Spring Fair at the N.E.C. in Birmingham, U.K. 

Display by Sue Bowler, CBA.
Spring Fair, Birmingham.

Both shows are the perfect opportunity to meet and connect with prospective customers and to meet existing customers face-to-face. It is also the perfect way to showcase new and exciting products, and that was certainly high on our list of objectives!

I have been part of the Spring Fair team for quite a few years now and very much enjoy the opportunity to create the window displays each year. I also spend two days on the stand talking to customers and demonstrating new products! The design on the left was one of my displays. I love the new Qualatex 38" "Glitter Gold Wedding Cake." The soft Pink, Rose Gold and Blush colour palette, and gold glitter with greenery textures are perfect for 2018 weddings! 

Display by Luc Bertrand.
International Toy Fair, Nuremberg.

The launch of the new Chrome Balloons™ has been one of the highlights of the year so far, and it was a fabulous opportunity to show these off at both shows! Luc Bertrand, CBA, created a fabulous organic style swag using Chrome 11" with added 260Q detail.

Display by Luc Bertrand.
International Toy Fair, Nuremberg.

Display by Alberto Falcone.
Spring Fair, Birmingham.

Alberto Falcone, CBA, created this fabulous Mickey Mouse balloon wall at Spring Fair. He cleverly coordinated Chrome Blue and Chrome Silver with the Onyx Black Silhouette of the Mouse Head. Did you know that Mickey Mouse is celebrating his 90th Anniversary this year!







Fiona Fisher, CBA, created big impact with these awesome Chrome Balloon Pyramids! Fiona and her team created decor that showed off the full Chrome colour range, and the beauty and elegance of these fabulous new balloons.

Display by Fiona Fisher.
Spring Fair, Birmingham.

Display by Alberto Falcone.
Spring Fair, Birmingham.

This fabulous organic style swag with added distortion designed by Alberto showed the fluidity and smooth elegance of these stunning balloons, giving a liquid metal appearance.



















Here are some more photos from both fairs, showing many of the fabulous new products for 2018 and some of the great displays too!

Organic Tree Display by Louise Hedges, CBA, and Julie Dunham, CBA.
Window Displays by Sue Bowler.

Rose Gold & Chrome Gold Mr & Mrs. Design by Luc Bertrand.
Baby & Unicorn Designs by Sue Bowler.
Rose Gold and Chrome Gold Design with Roses by Luc Bertrand.

And finally, a big shout out to those whose hard work made it happen! Congratulations to everyone involved!

Spring Fair Team

Toy Fair Team

Happy Ballooning!


Sue
www.suebowler.com

How To Inspire Our Clients with Mood Boards and Computer-Generated Decor ideas.

Well, it's that time already, and I am sure that many of you have bookings for Christmas and New Year's Eve parties. Earlier this week I spent the day preparing mood boards and design ideas for a potential client and thought that I would share how I go about the process.

Mood Boards

Mood boards (sometimes called "inspiration boards") are used by a number of creative businesses, such as interior designers, where fabric swatches and paint colour samples are grouped together to show a homeowner what type of atmosphere the new decor will create. I find that I can use mood boards to collect a range of ideas that can offer both me and my clients inspiration.

When a client asks you to propose ideas for their party, we need to establish what style of decor they are looking for. Christmas, for example, can be traditional, contemporary, or have a wintery look. We should never assume the style of decor our clients are looking for, and therefore, we can use mood boards to help to establish this. Here are three Christmas mood boards that I have created using images that I have downloaded from Qualatex.com and then used PicMonkey Collage to create the boards.

It is so easy to download all the different balloon images from the Qualatex website, and they are in a png format, which means that they have a transparent background making it easy for you to drop it into a document or a design! 

PicMonkey makes creative tools for photo editing and graphic design. However, recently they started to charge a small monthly fee. An alternative that I have found that is free is iPiccy.com. 

Traditional Christmas Board

Contemporary Christmas Board

Wintery Christmas Board

Each one of these Christmas boards offers a different "look," and although these do not show the full product range available within each theme, it will certainly give a client the opportunity to select the style that most suits their needs.


Sometimes we want to show clients other ideas, maybe a trend, accessory, or a design idea of decor that you have never made. Pinterest is a great resource.  our customers use it all the time! Create a Secret Board, add any pins that you want to show your customer, then click on the "+" button that appears in the top right centre. This will allow you to invite people to join your board! Only you and those you have invited can see your board. You can also invite your client to pin ideas that they have seen, giving you both an opportunity to share ideas.

The Design Process

Once we have an idea of the style of decor and the balloons that a client likes, we now have to put our creative skills to work! It might be that you only promote or sell designs that you have readily available to show a customer, and once again, that is where the Qualatex website can really help you! Simply visit the Inspiration page where you can explore Balloon Bouquets and Balloon Decor ideas, and don't forget to use the drop-down menus to refine your search. Once you have found a range of designs that you feel will work for your client, download these and drop the design images into your quote to add visual value - a page of words and numbers is very uninspiring whereas a picture is worth a thousand words and we want to sell the magic of the decor. Using visuals will help to create that magic! 

For me, I like to create my own designs. Rather than pre-make everything with balloons (very timely and expensive) to show my clients, I mock-up my design ideas on my laptop! 

Here is a design that I created.  I have used the wintery theme for this example. I wanted to feature the Qualatex "Snowflakes & Sparkles-A-Round" 3' and 11" balloons and the new 24" "Frosty Snowflakes" Deco Bubbles to create this elegant entrance decor.

I know many of you will say that you do not have the skills to create images like these, but I can assure you that it really is not difficult.

I work on a MacBook in PAGES, which is, I believe, much the same as WORD on a PC. I simply use "Shape" to import the shape that I require for my design, in this instance, a sphere. From there I "build" my decor. You will need to learn how to arrange your shapes - that will allow you to group a number of the shapes together, or send a shape to the back or move forward.

Here is a screenshot of one of the Columns that I made. The pink sphere is the shape that I dropped into my document. I can then alter the shape or colour to suit my design. I then build the style of Column that I want to show to my customer. The 3' Snowflake & Sparkle-A-Round was imported from Qualatex.com

Here is an example of the same style of Column that I designed for a recent Black & White party. This shows the computer image next to the finished result. I think you would agree that this is the perfect way to show customers what you are planning to make for them.

It might seem like a lot of work, but to be honest, I find it so much quicker to do this rather than spend a number of hours face to face with a client trying to work out what they want, and in most cases, they have no idea and are looking to you for inspiration! 


I would love to see how you inspire your customers. Please let me know, and we can feature some of your ideas along with this post! 

Happy Ballooning!


Sue
www.suebowler.com