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

Back in April I wrote about our trip to Italy and why we go - the inspiration, the craft culture, the sheer scale of what makers across Europe are producing. If you missed it, the first post is here. This one is specifically about MIDA, the craft fair we visited in Florence, and what we actually took away from a day walking the floor.

MIDA is run by CNA Artigiani - the Italian confederation of artisans - and it's a proper trade and craft show, not a weekend market. Hundreds of exhibitors across a vast exhibition hall, everything from jewellery and ceramics to leather goods, natural cosmetics and wood. For a maker who works with a laser engraver 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 beautifully 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.

The signage and POS displays - this is 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 natural hemp products company from the 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 and premium. 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 brilliant name, roughly translating as something between "valve astronaut" and "recycle" - made upcycled leather goods and had decorated their OSB counter with laser-cut metal cog shapes and a backlit letter R for Riciclo. 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, signs that explained the product story briefly rather than just listing a price. We came away with a clear list of new product ideas for pricing displays and POS solutions that we're actively developing - more on those when they're ready.

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 machine look like a very enthusiastic notebook. 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 laser does what we need it to do very well. But there are things we see at shows like MIDA - large-format wall art, oversized display pieces, the kind of sweeping decorative engraving you see in premium hospitality spaces - that require a machine with a bed several times the size of ours. We're not there yet. For now, as a certain shark-wary sea captain once put it: 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. Completely different application to ours but beautifully executed.

There was a stall making handmade natural wooden villages - tiny houses with terracotta tile roofs, miniature windows, 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 extraordinary driftwood and natural wood sculptures - glowing fairy-light dioramas built from found wood and foraged materials - was simply beautiful. The kind of thing you stand in front of for five minutes and don't say very much.

The mandatory food section

MIDA had a food hall. Of course it did - this is Italy. If you're going to run a craft fair in Florence and not include an area dedicated to artisan 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'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 artisan product - not just ours.

What we're taking back to the workshop

A list of new product ideas around pricing displays and POS solutions. 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.

Cherry Grove Craft makes personalised wooden signs, name badges, keyrings and displays from our workshop in North Wales. If you're looking for wooden POS displays, pricing signs or custom business signage, take a look at what we make.