#grid cubes

Hi anon! I’m not entirely sure what you mean by plastic rackets, do you mean grid cubes? Here’s a couple of posts I’ve made about my display setup:

Artist Alley Tips: The Photography Stand Primer

Artist Alley Tips: A Guide to Grids

Kiriska: I recommend getting actual retail grid walls, which usually have feet, in this scenario, rather than relying on the modular grid cubes most artists use on tables. 

If you must use the latter, you can do something like this:

Pieces flat on the ground and on the side will really help with stability. If you can build the side wall up as high as the rest, that will help even more. You can also stack heavy items or boxes on the pieces that are on the ground, to hold them there.

This is how I made my acrylic charm packaging! <3 Took me half a day but it was so much fun to do! Cutting and glueing and figuring things out! And it fits perfectly on my new grid cube accessoires! *0*

Kiriska: Gonna assume you’re talking about grid cubes/wire grids, but man, I think 10 minutes to set those up is really good????

I’ve never personally used grid cubes because I hate how heavy they are and think the connectors are The Worst, but I’ve helped many a friend set theirs up and it’s always a big ordeal. I assume it gets easier with practice, as most things do, but I also think there’s a limit on quickly you can put them up and still have them be reasonably secure. Zip ties do help provide extra security when your connector pieces get worn out over time and things get dinged and dented though.

I use PVC instead of grids, but I can count on a minimum of 10 minutes to set them up too, depending on the size of the table and which particular PVC configuration I want to go with. It usually takes me about 30-45 minutes to fully set up my table with PVC, print displays, precise arrangements/etc, but I usually try to give myself double that amount of time so I’m not rushing.

Being able to set up quickly is great, but being able to take your time and triple-check everything is better.

If you do need to speed things up, I don’t think speeding up the building of your primary table foundation/structure is the thing to speed up. That’s the thing that’s most important to take your time on! Instead, maybe try to speed up how you hang up your prints or how you set up items on your table.

Are there things you can leave partially set up and still pack? Can you store things a certain way so they’re quick and easy to find when you unpack? I think not having to look frantically for every piece of your set up when you set up is the best thing you can do to cut down on setup time.Nattosoup:  I use wiregrids, and have for a few years!  It always takes me a while to set up those grids (just a fact of life, I’m afraid), and I have several years practice and do demo setups before each con.

Some tips:

Standardize your setup

Make a chart of your grid setup, in case you have assistants

Take photos of setups you enjoyed

Simplify if possible

Bring zip ties and scissors

Plan that your grid setup will take a while to get set up- take advantage of early set up times

kiriska: Most people use binder clips to secure prints to grids. You can see an example here and here, in dragonbeak‘s table. She sleeves her prints, then clips the sleeve to the grid, so the print itself isn’t damaged. I’ve heard of other people using magnets, but I’m not sure how effective that is. Here’s another example of an artist using binder clips to secure prints to a grid.