Use Maps, Posters, and Signs to Promote Your Open Studio

Contact the local Chamber of Commerce and leave 50 there. (Someone else may have done this, so call and save yourself a trip.)

Leave 5 each in five inns or B&B's in your area. This is a chance to introduce yourself and leave a business card or, better yet, some postcards of your work.

Keep 10 in your studio to distribute during the weekend. Visitors stumble upon Open Studio by following the yellow signs and need to get a map from you. Make sure to hold on to one for your own reference needs.

Find a local gallery, museum, or arts related site (like a restaurant that has exhibits on the walls) and leave 5 maps there.

For the remaining ten, mail five to your best customers, give five to your best friends.

Look at the suggestions above and the total maps you have and make a distribution plan for your area. Delegate sites to distribute to and encourage group members to check back to see if more maps are needed. You can always get more from us.

Supportive galleries, art supply stores, restaurants, libraries, chambers of commerce, information centers (We send 10,000 to the Vermont Tourist Information Centers on the interstates.) book stores, inns, Bed and Breakfasts.

Staple a freezer bag of the right size to the bottom of the poster and put a few maps in it. Then place the poster on a bulletin board in a library or food store and check back to replenish the supply.

There is a lot of space on each sign for you to use to give more information. Use a waterproof marker. You might include your site number, your type of business, your business name, an arrow especially if there are many signs to different studios in the same area. Remember to select only the info you need and to write big enough for drivers to read easily. Consider whether your sign needs to be double sided to direct traffic coming from both directions.

Our signs are heavy paper but must be weatherproofed and mounted before they will be functional.

You will need sturdy backing material, preferably not material that will deform if it is wet. Foam core works well.

Waterproof your sign by laminating it (Staples offers this but make friends with your local elementary school. Most have a laminater.) Or overlap layers of clear packing tape.

Use a garden stake or other sturdy pole to support your sign.

Place signs at every important turn on the way from a major village or town. Use arrows to point the way. Make sure that signs are visible to drivers, for example, don't place them too low to the ground. Give some thought to how you are going to affix signs to poles, fence posts etc.. If we have a really windy, rainy (snowy!!) weekend, you might need to check to make sure they are still up.

The zoning people we have consulted say that this event falls into the same category as a lawn sale or other temporary event and you should be able to put them up for the weekend. Put them up on Friday evening or early Saturday morning. Please take them down promptly on Sunday evening.