( ノ・o・ )ノ

Jan 19, 2025

designing a tiny container shop

In a few weeks, Space Type will be tabling in Gotham Park for a Lunar New Year’s market run by Welcome to Chinatown. It’s a bit of a unique setup, with temporary shipping containers being set up in the park for three days.
The containers are cozy and compact, with multiple vendors sharing space, and the combination of a theme (year of the snake!) along with the ask to “get creative” with the limited space has given me a lot to chew on.
maybe possibly will become a snek print
maybe possibly will become a snek print
This is perhaps the first time we’ve had to design not just the table itself, but the entire space. It’s a lot to consider, and we want to make sure we have enough time to purchase anything we need to make it happen — including a properly-sized table, any additional organizer cube shelves we need to build high, tapestry hangers / hooks, and wireless accent lighting.
Given the small square footage and the fact that we “own” the entire container along with two other vendors, there’s also an opportunity to make it more of a traditional pop-up shop instead of having each vendor sit behind their own table (think: Union Square holiday market tent?) Here’s two potential layouts below:
Quick sketches to determine potential layout options for our not-quite 10’x8’ container
Quick sketches to determine potential layout options for our not-quite 10’x8’ container
First pass at a layout, using the traditional vendor pop-up model
First pass at a layout, using the traditional vendor pop-up model
In a traditional market layout, we build walls on either side of the Space Type table to create an enclosed space. With the LNY market, the entire container is already pretty tight, so we’d likely want to display our goods to be more “front-facing” like a normal shop:
Layering cube shelves so we can nicely display prints in them? (Will be hard to see the prints at the top since they’ll be angled upwards… 🤔)
Layering cube shelves so we can nicely display prints in them? (Will be hard to see the prints at the top since they’ll be angled upwards… 🤔)
 
Building more shelf space across the table so we can remove the side-walls.
Building more shelf space across the table so we can remove the side-walls.
In addition to the physical layout of the container, I’ve been wanting to give our market table designs a refresh. We’ve been using the same table runners, the same tiny printed Space Type sign, and the same little price tags for the last two years (and oftentimes we have to hand-write price tags that we’ve forgotten or misplaced!)
We’ve gone to a lot of different markets and we’re always inspired by the different ways other vendors set up their booths, and I think we deserve a little boost of our own ✨
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In the meantime, I’ve been carrying a sketchbook around and trying to draw a little in the hopes of making more hand-drawn prints and zines this year. I’ve only done programmatic artwork in the last few years, and although I enjoyed making rocketdust, it felt really really restricting to be stuck on a keyboard or scanning pen scribbles through the scanner.
I don’t know how I’ve survived without an ipad until now! 🙇 The last time I really drew regularly was when I got a Wacom tablet for Christmas in high-school, so it’s been a long time coming.
I’ve always been self-conscious of my ability to draw, but being around “real artists” these past two years has made me realize that people will literally buy anything if it’s handmade. It can be something you toiled over for weeks, or a dumb sketch you printed in 20 minutes — people don’t really seem to care as long as it’s got some sort of message or personality that they can latch onto.
 
i paid someone three dollars for this
i paid someone three dollars for this
Even though I’ve got a lot of “junk” in my sketchbooks (both analog and digital), I’m glad that I can still find joy in little doodles and maybe even find the beginnings of something new to print on the riso.
 
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In 2024, Space Type tabled at exactly three events. We were traveling a lot, often missing out on art book fairs and markets, and had trouble organizing our lives to make space for our creativity and growing our practice. We closed the studio space in April, and I was struggling to find the time and motivation to revisit drawing and illustration after being fully drained by coding.
This year, we’ve got three pop-up events lined up in February alone. I’m feeling refreshed after sabbatical and excited to get loose and silly with my artwork. I’m worrying less about the quality of my art and just focusing on iterating: sketching, illustrating, and printing so I can put something out onto paper, even if it’s not a masterpiece.
It helps that I live with the riso machine now.
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