Fun, lively and loud, guitars shows are a great chance for guitar nerds to discuss tone capacitor values and fretboard radii without fear of blank stares or ridicule.
More importantly, they allow players, retailers and influencers to see instruments up close and personal. An event like the North East Guitar Show represents a fantastic opportunity to see, hear, feel and compare all kinds of guitar gear in real life. Now that Covid restrictions have eased, many in the guitar community will be impatient to get out there and attend a show.
Naturally, it’s an ideal destination for Ancoats Guitars, the exciting new guitar manufacturer whose first year we’re chronicling in our Start-Up Stories blog series.
Ancoats Guitars’ debut show
The North East Guitar Show is an ideal event for Ancoats Guitars to make its debut. This Tyne & Wear expo is one of the first shows in the calendar, and the line-up of exhibitors, dealers and performers is sure to draw a healthy crowd of six-string enthusiasts.
The event is sponsored by some of the biggest names in the industry including Ernie Ball, Mooer, Wilkinson and Bose, plus live acts and a licensed bar mean it’s sure to be a loud and lively affair.
For Ancoats guitars, a regional show like this one is also the perfect warm-up gig for The Guitar Show, the national event where Ancoats Guitars will be exhibiting on the 7th and 8th of May.
Getting prepped
For Dave Roberts, the craftsman behind Ancoats Guitars, preparation has chiefly been about the product. It will be the first time that Ancoats Guitars has exhibited at a show, so Dave’s been busy building new guitars and making sure they’re beautifully set up to play in order to represent the brand in its best light.
Along with the instruments themselves, a busy event requires some attention-grabbing display materials to help Ancoats Guitars stand out from the crowd. As outlined in our previous blog post we already worked with Dave to develop the Ancoats Guitars visual identity and to create Business Stationery, Flyers and Posters.
The big picture
For the guitar show stand, however, we needed some big print to make a big impression. If you’re exhibiting at a guitar show, it’s important to be sure of what space and appointments are included with your stand. The Ancoats Guitars stand at the North East Guitar show will consist of a 2m area equipped with a standard size 6ft trestle table.
With this in mind, we set about working with Dave to select and design a suite of display elements that would create a professional-looking and eye-catching stand that would reflect what Ancoats Guitars is all about.
How we roll
Impactful and affordable, Roller Banners are the first choice large format item for many exhibitors that want to establish their identity in a large space. They’re portable and quick to install, creating an instant backdrop.
The design we arrived at features the Ancoats Guitars wordmark and trademark Bauhaus-style geometric shapes, as well as textures hinting at the guitars themselves and their Mancunian heritage. Dave also opted to feature a QR code directing smartphone users to his website. You can learn more about the Do’s and Don’ts of incorporating QR codes in our blog here.
Putting it all on the table
Fresh to our range of promotional print products are our fabulous new Printed Tablecloths. Their all-over print is perfect for concealing a plain, shabby-looking trestle table, while bigging up your brand.
The design features the wordmark once again, along with a photographic texture featuring the industrial architecture that the Ancoats area of Manchester is famous for. No scene-stealing colours were chosen for this piece, as the guitars themselves need to be the heroes once they’re placed on the table.
Flagging it up
As an extra piece of attention-grabbing print, we chose to add Printed Flags. These are often deployed outdoors, but there’s no reason they can’t be used as a feature of a bold indoor display. And of course, Dave can reuse his flag outside his workshop in Ancoats, or at any outdoor events he may attend in the future.
Dave went for the ‘Crest’ model, which is a great shape that really works well with this design. This time we featured the “A” logo prominently, as well as the Ancoats Guitars wordmark. The geometric shapes and industrial textures serve to tie all three elements together and reinforce the brand.
On with the show…
Guitar culture has always embraced the online world, and it’s great to be able to see and hear guitars on Instagram or YouTube. However, there’s no substitute for feeling an instrument under the fingers and hearing the amplifier pushing some serious air around the room. We’re sure Dave and Ancoats guitars will be a huge hit and Solopress wishes them the best of luck at their debut show.
Dave returns from the show next week, and when he does, we look forward to catching up with him and hearing all about his experiences. When we do, we’ll be sure to share the lessons he’s learned from Ancoats Guitars’ very first industry event in our next Start-Up Stories blog.
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