Monday, September 6, 2010

About Marché Maroc

Marché Maroc is series of craft fairs and the brain child of one of our Stagemates, Lynn. If you've been following this blog, you've heard us talk about it in several posts, which include; Craft Fair Products for Marché Maroc in Marrakesh, A Paper Making Tale..., Embroidered t-shirts and new banner photo, Creating a Business Card, and most recently in the post, Fun with Paper Beads!

The purpose behind Marché Maroc is to create a venue and opportunity for Artisans (who work with Peace Corps Volunteers) to sell their products and participate in hands-on workshops to improve their businesses. The women of Al Falah have been fortunate enough to have participated in all three Marchés so far;

Fes-October, 2009


Marrakesh-April, 2010


Rabat-May, 2010.


They have come a long way in their product development, product display, book keeping, and general business practices since the first Marché Maroc last October. Without these craft fairs, the cooperative is severely limited as to where they can afford to sell their products. The only craft fair that they attend besides the Marchés is a craft fair that takes place in a nearby town every July. This year it was a 14-day-long affair and they sold a fraction of the amount that they did at either of the previous two Marché Marocs.

But sales figures aside, Marché Maroc has been a great opportunity for the women to network with other crafts people from around the country and to create friendships with people they otherwise would never have met.

It's for these reasons that I am so disappointed that the Marché Maroc, scheduled to be held in Fes again this October, was canceled.

Another unfortunate side effect of the cancellation of Marché Maroc Fes is that I am now unable to pass on important knowledge of how to prepare the marketing materials for future Marché Marocs to a first year volunteer who could take my place. These materials were extremely time-consuming to produce (especially the first time around), but on top of that, we (second year volunteers) had hoped that future Marché Marocs continue with the same brand identity that we have created, so as to maintains a cohesion from one Marché to the next. As the program continues through the years (we hope) it will gain recognition as a craft fair worth attending.

Below are examples of the marketing materials I designed and created in Adobe Illustrator:
Large banner (printed on vinyl)


11x17 Poster (printed in color)


1/4 sheet size flier (printed double sided in black and white)


Program, outside (printed as a full sheet, double sided and folded. Black and white)


Program, inside (opposite side of above image)

Name tags for artisans and volunteers (printed on a full sheet then cut. Names written out by hand. Black and white)


T-shirt design (silk-screened)

2 comments:

Jonathan aka Si Yousef said...

Great work on the marketing materials. It was well thought out branding. Tbark llah 3lik! You should go into advertising.

Emily and Jon said...

Thanks Jonathan! I don't think advertising is in my future though...I'd have to REALLY learn how to use illustrator, and I just don't have the patience for that