What We Learned at MIDA Florence: Toys, Signage and a Bigger Boat

MIDA (Mostra Internazionale dell'Artigianato) is Florence's international craft exhibition, organised by Firenze Fiera at the Fortezza da Basso. The 90th edition ran from 25 April to 3 May 2026 with about 500 exhibitors. We spent a day there, and the clearest lesson was how much good signage and pricing displays change the way a stall reads.

This post is about the fair itself and what we took away from a day walking the floor. Our earlier post, signage ideas from the Pisa Botanical Garden, came from the same trip to Italy.

MIDA is a large, ticketed exhibition open to the public as well as to trade visitors, not a weekend market. Its sections run from furnishings, clothing and jewellery to design, beauty, international crafts and food. For a maker who works with laser engravers every day, it was like being let loose in a very good library. You don't need everything. But you notice things.

The wooden toys: inspiring, but not for us

The stall that stopped me in my tracks first was Evolve Design (find them on Instagram), a company making laser-cut wooden toys under the banner Giochi in Legno, wooden games. Medieval swords and shields, wooden bows, interlocking puzzle boards, a game called Turbotris, noughts and crosses sets cut from ply with cleanly machined pieces. The whole range was clearly laser-cut and laser-engraved, the same process we use every day in Wales.

It was genuinely brilliant. Clever, playful, well-made products that were going down a storm with visitors: there was a crowd around that stall for most of the time we were nearby. But here's the honest truth: it's not for us. The design, tooling and product development time involved in a toy range is a completely different discipline to what we do. Seeing it confirmed that rather than tempting us in that direction. Sometimes inspiration is useful precisely because it clarifies what you're not going to do.

What it did remind me is that laser cutting can do far more than signs and badges. The creativity on show was a useful nudge to keep pushing our own product development.

Signage and point-of-sale displays: where we came away with real ideas

If there was one consistent thread across the better stalls at MIDA, it was how much thought had gone into their point-of-sale displays and pricing presentation. Not the products themselves: the way they were presented, priced and signed.

Dolomiti BioHemp, a hemp products company from Predazzo in the Trentino Dolomites, had built a wooden counter with large-format photographic panels set into the front: mountain landscapes, their products in situ. The counter itself was simple pine construction, but it looked considered. Their pricing and product information was clear and consistent, and the whole thing had a coherent visual identity from the banner to the product labels.

Svalvonautariciclo, a stall selling upcycled leather goods, had decorated its OSB counter with laser-cut metal cog shapes and a backlit letter R for riciclo, recycling. Functional materials made to look intentional. It's the kind of thing that takes ten minutes to execute and completely changes how a stall reads from the aisle.

Across the show there were consistent patterns in how the better stalls handled pricing: small engraved wooden price tags rather than paper stickers, consistent label formats, and signs that explained the product story briefly rather than just listing a price.

Some of that is already in our range. Branded wooden swing tags in birch plywood carry a logo on every item, custom text solid oak Blocks stand on a counter with a short product story or price, the custom logo display sign, in A4 or A5 with an optional stand, puts a brand on a stall or counter, and wooden garment rail dividers do the same job for clothing rails.

We're gonna need a bigger boat

Somewhere in the show there was a laser engraver sign. A big one. I mean genuinely impressive: large-format engraving on a scale that made our machines look like very enthusiastic notebooks. The kind of thing that makes a maker stop, stare, and quietly calculate how many name badges you'd need to sell to justify the upgrade.

Our two lasers do what we need them to do very well. But there are things we see at shows like MIDA, such as large-format wall art, oversized display pieces and the kind of sweeping decorative engraving you see in hotel lobbies, that need a machine with a bed several times the size of ours. We're not there yet. For now, as Chief Brody put it in Jaws: we're gonna need a bigger boat.

It goes on the list.

The other stalls worth a mention

Xingiso had a wall covered floor to ceiling in laser-cut metal wall art (portraits, cyclists, horses), the kind of fine-detail cutting that makes you appreciate what the technology can do when you push it. A completely different application to ours, and very well executed.

There was a stall making hand-built natural wooden villages, tiny houses with terracotta tile roofs, miniature windows and driftwood trees, that had nothing to do with laser engraving and everything to do with patience and craft skill. The kind of work that reminds you that technology is just one route to a well-made object.

And Alberom, with their driftwood and natural wood sculptures (glowing fairy-light dioramas built from found wood and foraged materials), had a stall you stand in front of for five minutes without saying very much.

The mandatory food section

MIDA has a food section. Of course it does: this is Italy. If you're going to run a craft fair in Florence and not include an area dedicated to small food producers, you've misunderstood the assignment entirely.

We did what any responsible business visitors would do and conducted a thorough and rigorous inspection of the available products. Cured meats, regional cheeses, olive oils, wines, condiments, freshly made pasta. All consumed in the spirit of professional research.

What I noticed, because apparently I can't turn the work brain off even at a food stall, was how good the signage was. Handwritten chalkboard menus, small printed origin cards, laser-engraved wooden boards with producer names. The food producers understood that provenance and presentation are the same thing. A lump of Pecorino with a hand-lettered origin card feels like a completely different product from the same cheese on a supermarket shelf. The sign is doing real work. It wasn't only the stalls, either: even the digital displays at Florence bus stops were clear and well laid out.

It's the same principle that applies to every wooden sign we make in Wales. The material matters. What's written on it matters. How it's presented matters. MIDA was a useful reminder that this is true across every category of craft, not just ours.

What we're taking back to the workshop

A list of ideas around pricing displays and point-of-sale pieces. A clearer sense of what we're not going to make. A renewed appreciation for the creative range of laser cutting and engraving. Some very good olive oil.

And the ongoing item on the wishlist labelled: bigger laser.

We'll be back at MIDA. It's that kind of show.

Frequently asked questions

What is MIDA in Florence?
MIDA (Mostra Internazionale dell'Artigianato) is Florence's international craft exhibition, organised by Firenze Fiera at the Fortezza da Basso. The 2026 show was its 90th edition, with about 500 Italian and international exhibitors.

When is the next MIDA?
The official MIDA website lists the next edition for 24 April to 2 May 2027, at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence. Check the official site before travelling, as dates can change.

Is MIDA open to the public?
Yes. MIDA is a ticketed exhibition open to the public as well as to trade visitors, with sections from furnishings, jewellery and design to international crafts and food.

Did Cherry Grove Craft exhibit at MIDA?
No. We visited MIDA 2026 as visitors, to see how other makers present, sign and price their work.

Sources: the official MIDA website and Firenze Fiera's 2026 announcements.

Cherry Grove Craft makes personalised wooden signs, name badges, keyrings and displays to order in our workshop in North Wales. For counter signs, swing tags or custom business signage, see our products for shops, cafés and offices and our wooden business signs.