Unfortunately I was at the Gift Fair for only a short time.  And I was carrying a baby.  Why?  Well I seem to be doing that a lot lately.  And evidently, as I found out when I arrived, the Gift Fair does not allow strollers.  Gift Fair… what the heck?  Thank goodness Jamie was there to help.  So… I sucked it up, stashed the stroller and carried the mini boss. 

The first booth I stopped by was neo-utility, run by Kip Kotzen.  Kip looked up, said ‘hi’ and the kid immediately started crying.  Uh-oh… was this all a bad idea?  I had no idea what I was doing.  Was I in over my head in terms of my skill as a care-taker?  I quickly walked him to the wall to show him neo-utility’s new ‘ShapeMaker’ blocks by Miller Goodman.  That seemed to capture his attention.  Very cute and done in nice bright colors.  Somewhere around this moment the drool started flowing.  Triggered by the block animals?  Not wanting to bother Kip any longer, or risk another crying jag, I kept moving.

A quick stop and ‘hello’ at Suck UK was next.  A fun group that immediately took to the kid’s ‘Life Is Good’ socks.  Suck UK is one company that has seemed to weather the global financial freeze without too much trouble.  Their collection of cheeky and clever products continues to expand with every show. 

Another fave in the ‘UK’ category are our friends at W2 Products.  Victoria Whitbread and Jackie Wilkinson.  Lovely people.  W2 is the comapny behind the ridiculously successful ‘Panotone’ line of mugs, bags, etc.  They have been expanding their collection into Eames design stationary as well as a growing collection of baby products.  The drooliong accelerated when they gave my sidekick a teething ring to chew on.  Great to see them and catch up a little.

The AREAWARE booth has grown into an anchor of the ‘Accent on Design’ section of the show.  Always a good place to stop.  The ‘Transport’ section of their product line has developed into a collection of really cool bikes.  The ‘STRiDA’bike that AREAWARE is representing continues to get great exposure.  We had a nice chat with Noel Wiggins, AREAWARE’s president, who took to the little guy right away.  Unfortunately this was the moment in our Gift Show adventure that he decides to start barfing.  The kid, not Noel.  I found myself wiping Noel’s jacket with a wet-wipe and apologizing profusely.  Thankfully Noel was very good natured about it all.  Evidently he has experience with this parenting thing.

Not wanting to wear out my welcome any more than I already had, we said goodbye and moved on.  The rest of the ‘Accent on Design’ section of the Gift Show went rather quickly.  I did not get the sense that there was much new to be seen.  The Artecnica booth looked great as usual.  Mint is always nice.  But not much was jumping out at me as new and exciting.

But what was strange to me was that everyone that I had talked to said that they were having a good show.  A good amount of traffic and orders.  So what was at play here?  Maybe it was that 2009 had been so bleak that people were happy to just get back to something that felt more comfortable.  And the absence of much new product might just be that companies have been trying to sustain themselves in a holding pattern over the world’s economic turmoil.  2009 claimed the lives of many small design companies.  This Spring Gift Fair might just have been those that survived breathing a little sigh of relief.  Hopefully this is a sign of a wave of new products and design directions for the next Gift Fair in August.  I look forward to it.