For Rich, working for Corman and Associates has also been a blessing when it came to the progressive design of their fair tent.
“We started with a couple of two by fours and some wood and now we actually have fixture cabinets and a whole production we have to set up in our booth,” Rich said. “We keep on tweaking the lighting. We have got panels up now with our images on it, so it’s grown quite a bit.”
Corman and Associates design displays for stores and that has been another blessing for BSpoken Designs LLC.
“Our big cabinet we have, that has the BSpoken on it was a cabinet they (Corman) had and were getting ready to get rid of and they were just going to throw it out,” Rich said. “It was used for a display. To buy something like that would have been crazy.”
And just like musicians who have to figure how to get their instruments, costumes, and the band on the road, Rich and Thomas have to figure out how to get their shows from Point A to Point B. “We have a van we usually keep it in,” Rich said. “We can get our product and display in one vehicle.
Now we have gone from having more stuff to trying to go down and still keep the same things we have had in our booth. It’s not necessarily getting rid of stuff but making stuff more compact. When we do travel, then we have more room and an easier load and unload to set up our booth.”
Thomas added to things they have to consider when designing and setting up their booth. “You want to keep the integrity of your booth up, so you have to balance what do you want your booth to represent,” she said. “How do you pack it and not break or scratch things occasionally.
We have had extreme weather this year – extreme snow at Kentucky Crafted, extreme heat, buckets of rain. We have done really well. Sometimes you have a good show and sometimes you don’t. I have gotten to where I don’t worry about it anymore. Just so long as I am able to keep dry and keep our booth looking fine.
We invested in a very nice tent. We have seen people’s tents flying by. EZ up mean EZ down. Ours is a thick canvas that is coated to be rainproof.”
Not too long ago, while at an art fair in Western Kentucky, Rich and Thomas sat down and made out a business plan. “We are just going to keep on growing,” Rich said. “Our plan is to get more wholesalers, to do more shows; different shows. We may not do the same shows we have this year. We might try different shows, then fan out to different places. I think the furthest we have been was Nashville, with the Tennessee Craft Fair.”
Thomas also has her eyes on growth and expansion. “I would like to go into a much larger metropolitan area and see what the difference is,” she said. “I think Austin, Boulder. A lot of places I think we would fit in well. It is a matter of logistics.
He has a full time job. I still have a full time job. It’s just a big balancing game.”
Her degree was an independent major at the time she created it, focusing predominantly on marketing and promotions and everything that goes along with that. “That is actually what I love to do,” she said. “I have to be creative in whatever I do, whether I’m making spaghetti or doing something to the house or whatever. I always have to have that creative outlet. That has always been there.”
Thomas’ husband is a musician, her son is a Chef, and her daughter just moved to Los Angeles to study fashion design. “With Lea in California now I am trying to make the right connections with people there,” she said. “But I haven’t quite gotten there yet.
Maybe this year since I will have a little more time now that I don’t have any children in the house, maybe we will be able to do that. That’s our goal. We want to keep expanding until we get into different shops and more states.”
As Rich pointed out earlier, his wife is also creative and his young son is even getting in on the action. “My son was under a year old and I had a lot of clay on the floor and he picked out colors for me to make a cane.”
“He did a really good job,” Thomas laughed. “Let me tell you.” As Rich’s son has grown, so have his responsibilities with BSpoken. Now nineteen months old, he is in charge of quality control.
“Can it chip?” Rich pondered. “Sure. But we have a 19 month-old tester who does quality control and makes sure they are good.