Every year The Stop Night Market fundraiser brings together talent from Toronto’s culinary and design scenes including over 70 chefs, 20 beverage providers and 35 locally designed food carts. As designers who have been involved in cart design and building in previous years, we love how the event brings food and design together in a way that the entire city can enjoy.

So much creativity and hard work goes into the delicious food and innovative designs. Here are some of our top tips for making stunning displays that will stand out in the crowd and last all season long. 

Go 3 Dimensional

With rapid prototyping tools, designers can really get creative with 3D form. The two food carts above by Dialogue 38 and Ingrain are excellent examples of using depth and volume to add character to a display. It not just a table or a food cart, it’s a whale to present sea food or a topographical landscape to focus on a geographical place.

Carts by Chanel Dehond, Encounters of the Human Kind and Outsider Spatial

Get Graphic

Planning for a pop of colour or a head-turning pattern are both great ways of making your display stand out. If you have a precise pattern or like to plan out your designs digitally, direct to board colour printing might be a good way to go. Try digitally printing  CMYK colours directly onto the materials like wood and acrylic, and then laser cutting design components or branded elements ready to install. It’s the perfect way to give your display a polished and festive look.

Carts by MarkUp and TANK

Think setup and teardown

Items that flatten, slats that slide, and hinges that fold will all make for an easy setup and teardown. The displays each year always turn out so beautiful, so making sure they can be used again is really worth the effort.

We’re so excited to see what everyone will come up with for this year’s Night Market!

Since everyone involved is donating their time and resources to the cause, we would like to do our part to support the talented individuals who are likely paying for their projects out of pocket. All participating teams can get 10% off laser cutting, laser engraving and 3d printing to help them make really awesome displays. Ready to get started?

 

Images via: The Festographer/ The Stop Community Food Centre, Mark Simmons Design