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Published: 24 Mar 2017

Crafts and design: Marketing and pricing

It was a friendly atmosphere at Seigla on Saturday 18th March where the guests were actively involved in the conversation and showed great interest in the topic of the day. Many active crafts people, members of craft groups and designers attended the creative exchange.

Anita Guttesen manager of Seigla Creative Space welcomed guests and told them a little bit about Seigla Creative Space. Then Ragnheidur Jona Ingimarsdottir from the Cultural Council of North East Iceland introduced ‘a creative momentum project’ and the speakers of this Creative Exchange that had the theme of marketing and pricing of craft and design.

Birna Kristin Fridriksdottir owner of the design company Gjoska talked about how Gjoska came to existance and how the company came to be a success. Birna has been working as a designer, both close to the capital area and later she moved to a farm in North East Iceland, where she has her workshop. She, along with her husband, has been expanding her business internationally with unique textile products where she connects design and traditional craft. The product lines have reference to Icelandic nature such as lava and aurora borealis. In a short time the company has been quite successful and has now five full time employees. Birna said that her experience is that it‘s not an obstacle to work so far from the the company‘s biggest market.

Sunneva Hafsteinsdottir is manager of the organization Crafts and Design that has the goal to strengthen craft and design as well as promoting its cultural, artistic and practical value. She spoke about pricing and marketing craft and design where she emphasised on the importance of working professionally and for people to find their own voice in creating craft and design.

She spoke about the difference between craft as a profession vs craft as a hobby, which is also a factor in finding the right price for the product. When selling craft, a product that is unique should have a different price than a more general product. She also encouraged craft groups to be critical when choosing products for their shops as well as how they are displayed and to find their uniqueness. She said it‘s also important to use the experience when developing the shops.

The last speaker was ‚a creative momentum project’ regional project manager Hulda Jonsdottir who talked about the benefits of MyCreativeEdge, how to register and make a profile. The guests showed great interest in registering to the website and Hulda offered assistance.

After the event the guests were invited to take a tour of Seigla.




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