prinz art blog

Art blog. Prinz. Twitter @anwoprinz // except for reblogs from other artists, all art I post here is my own.

[anwo-prinz]

OC Coastcon artist alley report!

I tabled at OC CoastCon on Saturday (April 7 '18). It's just a one-day con at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA. The con is run by the anime club at OCC (Anime Academia) and it is free admission & free parking. It's from 12pm til 8pm. I heard about it when one of the organizers approached my table at ALA, and since I'm local to the area I decided to give it a shot.

Including a few pictures from my table and then a panoramic shot of the quad area.

Read the report below the cut. 

If you have any questions feel free to send an ask or you can @ me on twitter (anwoprinz). 

Pre-Process:

I signed up in February and it was a juried process to apply. I sent in my portfolio site and said what items I wanted to sell. 

Table cost was $25, really cheap. Done through universe.com so very simple to get the ticket/sign up.

Staff communication:

Pretty good on giving us updates for the con and letting us know the schedule and sending us table assignments. 

They even acknowledged the weather report, early the week before it was saying there was a chance of rain so they let us know that we might be moved inside but that ended up not happening since the weather cleared up. 

Staff volunteers were very nice, I had 2 people stop by my table and ask if I needed anything so I got water.

Check-In & Setup:

Very straightforward. I walked around the area to find the con ops room and the staff helped lead me to my table. 

Just FYI all the stuff on my table is my own that I brought (wire set up and etc). The only thing that is provided to you is the 6ft table and 2 chairs and a canopy tent. I bring stuff like table clamps, pvc pipes, the wire cube + connector kit, posters, binder clips, safety pins, table cloth, bookstands, etc. I get most of my stuff from Daiso, Home Depot, Walmart, Michaels, and Amazon. 

Only 1 little weird thing about parking, vendors were directed to park in the staff parking lot then there was an announcement saying we couldn't have our cars there so I had to ask my friend to move my car for me otherwise I'd get cited..

Selling at con:

Foot traffic was pretty good so my sales were better than expected. Lot of the same people from ALA (well, it is SoCal so it's pretty expected). I brought stuff that was basically leftover stock from ALA/pre orders so I didn’t have to spend extra money on stocking things and be unsure if they’d sell. Overall, I made a good profit & the overhead for cost of table was very low.

Lots of cosplayers actually, so I was surprised. The attendance seemed good. It felt like a cosplay gathering with artist alley/vendors hall, so I think it really helped that attendance was free, people had nothing to lose by checking it out and they could go to just hang out with friends. I’d say the attendee age range was pretty mixed. 

I actually preferred being outside than the exhibitor's hall which was inside the student center. The tents for artist alley were visible in the quad area (a central point of campus) and we got to hear music playing and lots of people would just hang out and walk around because it wasn't crowded outside. I stopped inside the student center exhibitor's hall briefly to go to the restroom and it was pretty packed in there and hot because of all the bodies, so in retrospect it was a blessing to be outside in a nice breeze.

Weather conditions throughout the day were about average. It was cloudy in the morning but cleared up to be sunny in the afternoon. Then it got cold towards the end. Also since it was outside we had to deal with a pretty windy day (not awful but still a little nerve-wracking). 

Left early because it was cold as heck around 6pm after the sun went down... But the staff said it was cool to pack up early anyway (actually they suggested it haha).

Table notes:

I was selling t-shirts, tote bags, coasters, and keychains. Fandoms were granblue fantasy and fate/grand order and like 2 idolm@ster items. Surprisingly the granblue stuff sold pretty well and I got to talk to some people about the game so that was fun. A few im@s P's came by as well.

I changed up my set up from the previous con I tabled at (Anime Los Angeles). You can read the report here. I used the wire cubes set up instead because I needed something sturdy for being outdoors. I got them from Bed Bath & Beyond with a 20% coupon so it’s the same price as amazon and they’re useful around the house so it’s a good investment. Flexible with the way you can set it up too, lots of cool combinations I’ve seen the way people utilize it. 

Last thoughts:

Would totally do this con again even if they raised the prices a little bit for vendors, as long as they keep the cost for attending free if possible (helps that it’s on a college campus so they probably don’t pay to rent the space?). Staff was nice too so props to them for running a good show. Single-day cons are great and not as tiring. Also, I actually had a friend be my table helper this time so it was so much easier than trying to do everything by myself haha.

Photos from around my table:

Panoramic shot from the quad area:

[anwo-prinz]

I’ll be tabling at a local con this upcoming Saturday (April 7). It’s in Costa Mesa at OCC campus. SoCal fam come through. (´・ω・`)

[anwo-prinz]

pen and ink

[anwo-prinz]

So I was looking at your pros and cons for tabling post and I was wondering if those white wire crate things that you have your merch on, did you have to buy that and bring it yourself or did the con provide them? If you bought them, where did you buy them??

Yes, I bought them myself. The con does not provide anything other than the table and 2 chairs. I bought them at Daiso for $2 each, they are usually found in the kitchen section and you can hang dishwashing baskets on them. 

[anwo-prinz]

it’s been a while.

[anwo-prinz]

Opening some preorders for t-shirts.  Feb. 11 - Feb 20 (closing around 11PM PST). Check the etsy link! Thank you!

[anwo-prinz]

I dunno, Helena just reminds me of Arisu sometimes...

[anwo-prinz]

[anwo-prinz]

probably nobody cares about genderbend arisu except me but oh well 

[anwo-prinz]

Launched my online store! Here’s some photos of the goods I’ve got offered.

[anwo-prinz]

ALA Artist Alley post-con writeup

Here’s my general experience from tabling & what I plan to do going forward. Photos also included after the cut. Long post.

So, overall I had a pretty good experience. It was my first western/American artist alley experience, I was curious to try it out after my circle experience for Comic Market 92. Skip this section and scroll down if you just wanna see photos (these are just reposted from twitter though).

The Good:

Had quite a few followers + friends stop by to buy stuff! Thank you so much, seriously - I really appreciated the support because my table would have been dead otherwise..! I also met some GBF artists which made me so happy! 

Felt really great to see people have a positive reaction to my merch, just laughing or smiling at the Salty tote or Dont @ Me shirt. My best seller was the shirt & the mugs sold out quite quickly. I sold a decent number of coasters (though I still have way too many lol). 

Was a huge learning experience and I feel like all my prepration for organizing & promoting my goods paid off! 

Tabling made it really easy for friends to find me - something that isn’t common at cons, usually. People are usually all over the place. 

So much space! The pavilion tent was a good choice overall. There was lots of room to walk around for attendees to browse casually since it wasn’t crowded or narrow. Also, even behind the tables there was a lot of space to spread our stuff out as artists! It was also climate controlled & A/C so I appreciated it not being too hot and dank.

AA staff was really cool - the organizer even stopped by my table to apologize about all the miscommunication and bad reactions. They also gave out water to us, and one of my friends was staff so he checked up on me every now and then.

The Bad:

The hours were so long... Friday & Saturday, it was open 10AM-7PM, then Sunday 10AM-5PM. I stayed most of the time and I was very exhausted, and doing it back-to-back for 3 days was rough. I wasn’t used to it, and the chairs were uncomfortable. Plus I didn’t have a table partner... I was also mentally exhausted from having to try to smile & be outgoing with conversation for so long. I’m normally not used to so much interaction face-to-face. 

The strong winds on Sunday were really alarming! The whole tent was shaking, the support beams even creaking and moving a bit. It also got pretty chilly at nighttime. 

I felt like a lot of the buyers for western artists are still very print-focused consumers? Or perhaps it’s because I’m a new artist without an established western following (I’d say my following is very small/niche due to my fandoms). I was selling coasters/mugs & tote bags/shirts, which I mistakenly thought would do pretty well (I overestimated myself on the bags & coasters). But most of the people who bought stuff from my table seemed to be people who were referred or knew me already, not really any impulse buyers. I thought my prices were quite fair ($5 coaster, $15 tote, and $22 shirt). But people would still have rather bought $15 prints, it seemed. Perhaps there was just a lot of competition because of how many artists were there, so people had to spend money really carefully. 

Another thing is that even though people liked my stuff, I think it was harder to sell because the customers browsing might not have felt any attachment to the characters of my merch. Like I thought the Kaede rubber strap would do better but not many people bought it probably because they didn’t know the character, the Narmaya charm did OK though. 

Doing stuff from Granblue Fantasy & iDOLM@STER when the fandom isn’t too popular in the west is pretty hard. However, there’s a small but dedicated fan base which helped a lot. A few iM@S Producers stopped by my table, and I was happy to chat with fellow GBF fans who were burnt out after fire guild wars!

In conclusion...

I did make enough from sales to cover all my expenses and also make a bit of profit (surprising especially as a 1st time tabling artist at a western con) so I feel pretty good about it! However, doing the 3-days-in-a-row thing was absolutely awful. I think I’ll stick to single-day events from now on, even if they’re just small events. No Fanime or Anime Expo for me. 

I still plan on making stuff from GBF/iM@S just because those are my 2 main fandoms, I don’t really want to expand to making merch for series I’m not super passionate about even if it’d sell better. Just not my style. I am into Type Moon so maybe I’ll also make some FGO stuff on the side too, but not as a main focus. 

I’m glad I did have a waitlist open for people who wanted to buy leftover goods, I have a decent amount of stuff that people asked for. I plan to open an online store too (after setting aside some stock for Ronin Expo, just a 1-day event in June in Los Angeles). I want to design more merch! Especially shirts and mugs. Also want to draw another book.

Feels like doing Comike spoiled me for doing cons though... I really would love to try to do an only-event like Cool Star Festiv@l in Japan or another Comike (maybe winter?). Maybe I’ll try it for the future! 

Photos!

My table set-up! You can see an example of how the table looks behind me, which is just bare and white, with 2 chairs. The PVC pipe set up, the wire stands, hangers, blue tablecloth, bookstands, etc, are all stuff I brought from home (I got most of the stuff via home depot or daiso). It’s similar to Comike, you just get that little half table and some chairs; the rest you have to bring to set up for yourself. 

Close-up for the price tags too.

The 4 shikishis I drew during the convention (3 were commissions, the other was just for fun)!

Lastly, some merch trades I did with new friends! 

Sticker sheet: twitter/alyssaucy or tumblr/peachfuel

Neko Lancey keychain: tumblr/deerscritches

Lancelot+Siegfried rose keychain: tumblr/mitikokite

[anwo-prinz]

MAO face from GBF Fes.

Narmaya’s CV. 

[anwo-prinz]

here’s the menu for my goods for ALA Artist Alley! 

I’m selling the Dont @ Me T-shirt, a Triad Primus Mug, tote bags, cork coasters, and charms.

[anwo-prinz]

Waitlist for leftover merch I will sell after ALA: https://goo.gl/forms/bBpvjoT4konhrMzv2

[anwo-prinz]

here’s the menu for my goods for ALA Artist Alley! 

I’m selling the Dont @ Me T-shirt, a Triad Primus Mug, tote bags, cork coasters, and charms.

[anwo-prinz]

she glo up.

[anwo-prinz]

ALA is next week, so here's a merch preview! Also some pricing. I'll post a catalog/map closer to the event. 

※ If you aren't going to ALA I have a waitlist for leftover merch→ https://goo.gl/forms/GMBWtpIEcVywhiKN2