So I’ve been attending two booth conventions with one week apart, it’s been a bunch of busy but fun weeks! I didn’t get to draw as much as I was mostly focusing on merch preparations. I also have the opportunity to open booth with my friend Kirara for the first time – we’ve known each other for years and finally we get to booth together, so I’m happy for it! It’s my first time running a booth with only two artists since I usually open booth in bigger groups, so it’s a fun challenge and also learning experience. It’s quite hectic overall, but a bunch of excitement.
Cocoma Day
On 25 February, I joined Cocoma (Cocoon Comic Market) in Dian Ballroom Mall Ciputra. It’s the first time for this event and it’s only one day, but I feel the place was pretty strategic to get to since it’s inside a mall. Our table was located in E13-14.
The first thing we noticed when we arrive is we were given some food and beverage – some mineral water and cute cookies of the event’s mascot! Also we’re given a big trash bag for our own booth use, and the table already got a tablecloth cover. We prepared our own but it’s a nice gesture from the event organizer to give us some useful items to begin the day. Main communication info was mostly through its Discord server.
The table was around 60 x 180 cm (we booked two tables), and some nice space behind the table to lay down our stuff. We got four nametags – the ticket to the event itself is 25k IDR. The ticket however was cash only payment on the day, but was available to purchase online on earlier days. The event ran from 10AM to 5PM, with around two hours ahead of time to prepare setting up booth. While it will be nice if we can prepare ahead of time, we managed to get things done on time.
The event went pretty smoothly and got a pretty good crowd in my opinion, the market quite reminds me of Comifuro – except that there are less booths and bigger area between booths so it is more spacious for the crowd to go around, and it doesn’t feel cramped. The staff are also helpful for crowd control to remind the visitors to not block the road, which I greatly appreciate. I get to see some cool cosplayers too, though it’s too bad I didn’t have much time to explore around the event itself.
I greatly appreciate our friends for dropping by our booth and even helping us to clean up the booth decoration after end of event! I wish the event lasted for two days like Comifuro since I can feel the event’s potential, and looking forward for joining the next ones!
New Merch - Collab Gacha Set!
In this event me and Kirara finally launched our first merch collab project – our animal dessert gacha merch collection! We even had Kirara’s actual gacha machine visitors can play out in our booth. It’s something excited to plan this out together and to see visitors’ excitement to try the gacha and see what they get!
For those who missed it out on the event, you can check it from Kirara’s Tokopedia shop.
Each set comes with two items – double-side print acrylic keychain and glitter sticker of the same design! You don’t have to worry of luck since you’ll always get both merch items! The item sizes are around 4-5cm to fit in a gacha ball like in the video.
Here’s a video preview of the gacha in action!
@devpotata ✨ Cute Animal Desserts Gacha! ✨ Keychain + Glitter sticker set by me - Devonazure and my friend @kirara_cecilvenes , excited to share this new collab project we made! Check out all the available designs! Which dessert and animal combo do you like most? Have a spin at our gacha machine in #cocomaday2024 (E13-14) and #kirakiraartmarket (Table 45) coming soon! Also available for pickup booking and mail orders! . . . #smallbusiness #gacha #gashapon #artistalley #keychain #cutestickers #stickers #kawaiiart #cuteart #conventionartistlife #artistalleylife #artistsoftiktok ♬ original sound - Devonazure
There are total 6 designs, each of us made 3 designs. Referring to above picture: Devonazure (me) made the top three designs: red panda cake, duck macaron, and jelly penguin. Kirara made the bottom three designs: shimaenaga roll cake, tanuki parfait, and neko cream puff.
It’s my first time doing this kind of design so I was quite worried how the reception will be, so I’m glad to hear when people like what they get or told me which ones are their favorites!
In this event I also started to add some more original merchandise like my capybara, sacabambaspis and Kokoba merch set since I want to expand my booth merch more beyond the fandom merch, since I haven’t been feeling as inspired for fanmerch as much lately somehow. It made me nervous to stock up the items and I feel I’m still learning what works and what doesn’t work on what merch form others enjoy, but it’s been really fun to try it out and makes me happy when people enjoy my original merch, and I learned a lot from people’s feedback too.
I know I’ve said this many times but I do mean it every time – thank you for all the support, for all the things from liking my art posts, visiting my booth, buying my merch, and those who even showed me they’ve still used my merch from years ago. It really means a lot for me and give me motivation to keep going. There are times I do feel unsure of the direction and effort I’ve been putting to, so it’s quite reassuring when events like this made me feel it’s worth it to keep trying.
In particular I’m really happy with the support for some of my latest items – the sticker book and the car-pybara car charm with driving license card set! It’s something new I made and my first time making these, I like how they turned out and glad that others enjoy them too. Unfortunately I didn’t stock enough for the events as it was beyond my expectations, but I hope to be able to restock them soon! Thank you everyone who have purchased them, and enjoy using them!
Kira Kira Art Market
The next event one week later is Kira Kira Art Market, on 2-3 March in Ad Premier Ballroom, Jakarta Selatan. This place is less common for art conventions and the second time for this event, but it looks well organized and I can feel the care given to the event to make it a comfortable experience for both visitors and artists. The event’s main source of information is from its Instagram account.
The event lasted on two days in the weekend, from 10AM to 7PM. The event has food & beverages stalls too and a dining area with easy access, and also some sponsor booths that are interesting to see for creators – such as Tamago Studio print services and Asaba supplier of Silhouette cutting machines – which do look tempting and useful for merch production so I do have been considering it!
We have a thorough technical meeting and documentation from when we joined, and each artist get an opportunity to get a highlight in the official event’s account with our own pictures and description we can prepare to get posted. Each table is limited to up to two artists, and I feel it’s a good way to be able to showcase and feature more of each individual artist’s work.
Each individual artist also was given a care package when we arrive at the booth consisting the package above – official event mascots merch and from the sponsors, parking voucher, and creator nametag, which are very thoughtful and so cute! I like the design of the promotional material and mascots of the event. We also get to prepare set up for the booth one day before, which is greatly helpful. The crew was friendly and helpful throughout the event days.
I also joined Draw This in Your Style (DTIYS) challenge from Kira Kira Art Market and Asaba cutting sticker distributor – the prize is tempting to get a Silhouette cutting machine which I saw its use to cut stickers and make our own merch production at home, but mostly the challenge looks fun to draw the event’s mascots Kari and Furi. I made them into stickers to give away as freebies on the day and it’s fun to collect other artists’ style versions of the mascots!
Another fun event on the event days is there’s a stamp rally – each booth got a set of mascot stickers that we can give out to visitors to stick on their rally card for minimum purchase of 75k. I feel it’s a fun way to encourage and reward customers to shop at different booths and artists, the prizes are interesting too as one of them even includes figure of the event mascots which look so cute!
New - Gacha Card Dispenser!
I finally got my cardboard gacha card dispenser I built, this time I used it for my Nijisanji ex-ID clear photocards. Check out the video to see how it works! It’s not as smooth as a machine gacha, but it’s a pretty neat and fun way to do randomizing of photocard size prints. I used this for my Nijisanji ex-ID graduated ‘almarhoomies’ cards and fun to see fellow Nijisanji ex-ID fans try it out! I didn’t get it prepared on time for Cocoma so it debuted first time in Kira Kira. I want to try to bring it in Comifuro!
@devpotata Nijisanji ex-ID Card Gacha! Get a random photocard with this gacha box, which graduated almarhoomies clear card will you get? Try it out at #kirakiraartmarket table 45 this weekend, or book yours to choose specific liver cards! . . . #artistalley #artistalleyprep #artistalleylife #gacha #photocard #nijisanjiid #nijisanjiexid #nijisanji #vtuberindonesia #vtuber #conventionartist
♬ original sound - Devonazure
In Kira Kira Art Market, I also enjoy that the event has plenty of space for the booth – table size is around 120 x 60 cm, with extra area around in total 200 x 160 cm to place items behind the booth and to go through each side. Honestly it’s been interesting and refreshing to see different boothing setups than Comifuro which is the only event I’ve been joining in the past few years.
Picture above is my booth setup this time! I didn’t get to add much new stuff since there’s only one week apart. Unfortunately I ran out of stock for some items like the carpybara car charms and sticker books, which I couldn’t get restock in a short time. It helped me though that I get to space out and tweak some of the decorations setup around to experiment the response to customers with.
I’m really grateful to get to join this event, and I learned a lot from my boothmate Kirara. She has been boothing more than I do and I admire her work and experience – from setting up the booth efficiently, variety of merch designs and taking care of all things from production to promotion on her own. I used to work in bigger circle groups so it was a bit different in this setup, but I learned from it to prepare better for my own stuff and make independent decisions while also looking out for your boothmate. It’s been a pleasure to be able to booth together with her and hope there’ll be other chances to come!
I also get the chance to talk with other creators from other booths and the crew in the event, which I’m happy about that the event got a cozy vibe to it for the creators. I often feel shy and intimidated to approach other artist booths to talk, but I’m happy to get to talk to them and even meet some of the artists I look up to and have been following for awhile there. I had fun and feel thankful for the opportunity to join Kira Kira Art Market, and hope I’ll be able to join the next ones!
What's Next?
My next boothing event will be back with the Mbol circle I joined with in Comifuro – but this time we’ll be going to Doujima Singapore in 11-12 May, booth I-13! I’m nervous since it’s been so long since I do an overseas event, but I’m also really excited and looking forward to it. Streams and commission may slow down, but I’ll do my best to still keep up some activity there. For Indonesian mail orders of current merch stock, you can fill up the form here.
While it’s unfortunate I can’t join Comifuro 18 since the event clashed schedule right on with Doujima, I hope I can join the next one after. Hope to see you on my next booth and look forward for my next merch updates! Thanks again for reading and all the support, have a nice day!
