Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Hair Fair '08 - Dear Stylists... (Pt. 2)

I love you all, I really do. The time and work involved, the effort and the experimentation - not to mention the sheer creativity of creating hair out of prims - amazing. And I know that preparing for a event like Hair Fair is an additional drain on already scarce time, but as I walked (OK, slogged) through the Rezzable sims, I found myself scribbling notes. Once I got home and started sifting and sorting and swapping I have to admit that, on more than one occasion I found myself saying "What were they thinking?" or "Oooooh!" or "Yoiks!". So, the good, the bad and the downright weird, with Fair Goer Tips for navigating them and pictures of more wonderful freebies...

1. Hidden and obscured gifts - Hunts are a lot of fun (sometimes), but a massively overcrowded sim just isn't the right place to give folks a challenge. Trust me, just getting to your booth is a challenge - do you really need a lagging gaggle of bald, near naked avatars crowded in your booth digging under the shrubs only to fall into gridlock when Barbie Lagalicious blings past?
Fair Goer Tip - if you don't see a gift, take your time and keep your eyes open, walk all the way into the booths and read the signs. Not all booths have freebies, but it's worth your while to check and it gives you more time to browse while everything shows up. Make a note on your designers card when you pick up something and check back at the booths where you didn't.

2. Stuff that didn't sell - While the main point is to raise money for Locks of Love, the Hair Fair is a huge opportunity to draw new customers. Trust me, it's better to not put out a freebie than to put out one that isn't representative of your current line. I would far rather have one unusual color of a great style or a full set of style demos than 45098735 "normal" colors of something that didn't quite work out. First impressions and all that, yanno?
Fair Goer Tip - Take some spare change and buy at least one demo from shops you haven't seen before. Oh and delete anything you don't love - my inventory expanded by close to 3K just from freebies and demos. Eeep!
3. Textures, labels and landmarks - One day, Hair Fair will end and you will go back to your home sims and wonder why we aren't coming to see you. If you didn't include a LM in your freebies, named your folder something like "Neat Junk Goodie Box" or require that a megapack of four billion colors be rezzed just to see what the style looks like - that may be the reason.
Fair Goer Tip - Take notes and buy demos. Use that designer list for each sim so that when you start digging through objects named "Putrid Green Snickerdoodle 24DL3" you have some reference point. Rename folders. Also, create 4 new folders named "Orange", "Purple", "Red" and "Pink", put your sim map and designer lists into them and sort as you go.
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Finally, I'd like to thank each and every one of the stylists participating in the fair for their time, effort and generosity. I am incredibly grateful for all your work and for the fun I've had trying on the incredible range of hairstyles at Hair Fair 2008. So much so that Part 3 is going to be all about what I went back and bought and the stores I discovered...
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Individual Sim Landmarks are in Hair Fair '08 (Pt. 1)
Hair is all Hair Fair 2008 Freebies
(Jewelry by EarthStones, Top by Persona)
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Top left - Puety by Eat Rice!

Center right (clockwise from upper left)
Miya by Dernier Cri
Shay by Exile
Mandi by Curl Up and Dye
Flow II by Magika

Lower left - Monique by Sinsation

2 comments:

Faerie said...

If I think I might be interesed to come back to a booth later I make my own LM right there and then drop it into the demo folder straight away.

Retribution Fall said...

Nice idea, thank you for taking the time to add it! :)