Our 25th Anniversary Show is about to unfold on October 12th – 14th, 2012 (classes starting on the 10th). Just for kicks, Rita Gramsch, founder of Creativ Festival, pulled out her notes to reflect how far the show has come over the years.
“Our very first show was featured at the Arts & Crafts Building on the CNE Grounds in Toronto. Creativ Festival has always been a big show with a lot of planning behind the scenes. Many people don’t realize our October show is a year of planning in advance to make it all come together.”
Rita was laughing so hard imagining how organization and promotions were done 25 years ago. My mouth fell wide open when she told me that the original brochure was all done on a typewriter. I’m not sure why that surprises me but I think we take computers for granted in today’s society. The original booklet that was for the show floor was 50 cents — today it’s free.
One of the biggest surprises was about the original poster created for the festival back in 1988. Think about this, this is before photo shop. At this time, computers are still using DOS and computer graphics were square boxes.
The original cost of this design was over $10,000. Can you imagine that? This is when graphics had to be done ‘old school’. Today, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator are incredible for creating graphics and marketing materials. Rita reflected that the needle in the poster was a huge deal as it had to be air brushed in and it just wasn’t looking right and several versions needed to be created to obtain the final look. It may have been a graphic artists nightmare back then.
Over the years, Rita’s two children have grown up and are a vital part of the organization of Creativ Festival. I work with Krystal in the social media aspect as Krystal proofs my articles and is a whiz at catching my grammar on more formal posts such as this. She also works in other areas for Creativ Festival. She is a lot of fun to work with and really insightful on new ideas too. Previously she was the show manager, before having her daughter 2 years ago.
Today, the marketing graphics and design of the 80 page brochure is done by Erik, Rita’s son. He does a tremendous job in keeping the graphics and content clean and professional.
The final comparison of looking back 25 years ago is seeing the huge difference of show sponsors that help make Creativ Festival what it is today. Some of our sponsors have been with us since the beginning. Some companies have gone out of business or been bought by other companies along our journey. Creativity is important to many people who use hobbies to relax, express themselves and/or use it as a healing tool for personal growth.
Creativ Festival celebrates 25 years this fall and has morphed over the years as industry changes, trends change and the economy fluctuates up and down.