In our fifth year of organising the Glasgow Print Fair, an event that brings together the finest artists and printmakers, we are thrilled to witness its continual growth. Jane and I, as the co-organisers, have honed our expertise in event management and consistently strive to introduce new elements that set the fair apart.
From creatively adapting to the challenges posed by the pandemic with lockdown exhibitions to adorning the city with eye-catching billboards last year. We did so much this year that it’s hard to fit it into one blog!
This year’s amazing branding was created by artist and printmaker Max Machen. Max created 4 different characters representing different types of printmaking. We used these across our website, billboards, social media, posters, and newspaper.
We created a unique newspaper thanks to Newspaper Club to showcase the works of our participating artists. We distributed it across Glasgow venues with the help of Braw Robot, who also printed & distributed posters for us. We also ran a series of billboards across Glasgow thanks to Build Hollywood. Big thanks to Phoebe Willison who supported all our graphic design needs.
This year we focused our PR efforts on the Scottish National Press and were rewarded with features in The Times, The Scotsman, The Skinny and The List, and were also picked up by Design Week.
Onto the day itself, we had over 2300 people through the door in just 6 hours! It was BUSY!
We ran a printing workshop with the folks at The Caseroom, culminating in a large-scale public artwork which dominated the atrium in The Lighthouse. We received funding from Creative Scotland and The National Lottery to run this free workshop.
Glasgow Print Fair has become an amazing community - it is run not-for-profit by me (Kaye Symington at Paved with Gold) and Jane McDevitt at Maraid Design in our spare time.
Here are some of the things the printmakers said about this year;
”The fair is just unmatched! From the atmosphere to the amount of people through the doors. It is just better and better. Difficult to choose my favourite part but I think it's just great knowing that it's like one big printing family, feel totally chilled.” - Lauren Morsley
”The organisers took such incredible care of us, the turnout was mind blowing, quality of exhibitors incredible - the whole vibe was just amazing!!” - Petit Press