Artist Alley Setup for Design Festa 64 (Nov 2026): Booth Display Ideas and 3D Promo

Design Festa vol.64 takes place on Saturday and Sunday, November 14–15, 2026, from 10:00 to 18:00 in the West and South Halls of Tokyo Big Sight. If you already have a booth, what's left comes down to three jobs: arranging furniture and power, joining the official promo campaigns, and planning how your booth looks. Rental furniture orders close on November 1 and the official “Repost Festival” on X starts on October 31, so it pays to work backward from those dates.

The same order of work carries over to other artist alleys and creator markets — DesignerCon in Las Vegas runs November 13–15, the same weekend. This guide uses the dates and rules published on Design Festa's official site to lay out what to prepare and when, how to promote your booth, how to set it up, and what to expect on the day. It also shows how to use a 3D model and turntable video made from your own character illustration as promo material and booth samples.

Note: Figmee currently offers figurine-style images created from your drawings, 3D model data (GLB / 3MF), and turntable videos of your 3D models. Ordering physical 3D prints is Coming Soon, and when it launches, shipping will be limited to Japan.

Design Festa vol.64 at a glance, and a prep timeline worked back from the deadlines

Here's the event overview as published on the official site (checked on September 28, 2026).

Sources: Design Festa official site, event overview

Once your booth is confirmed, working backward from the official deadlines gives you this order:

Sources: Bright Booth application page, Repost Festival, Instagram collab post campaign, exhibitor FAQ

Details of the applications you may need once you're in — the fire safety application, the music and performance application, add-on options such as extra exhibitor passes, parking tickets and power supply, and the safety measures application — arrive in reminder emails the organizers send about once a month. Keep an eye on your inbox and your My Page.

Promo: use your character in 3D to give people a reason to visit

Many visitors pick which booths to seek out from what they see on social media. Design Festa gives exhibitors a few official channels for promotion:

• The “Repost Festival” on X: post the required details — your booth number, images of your work, and so on — on X, and Design Festa's official account reposts them. Days are split by area, all from 12:00 to 17:00: West Hall 1F (booth areas A–G) on Saturday, October 31; West Hall 4F (K–O) on Sunday, November 1; South Hall 1F (H–J) on Saturday, November 7; and South Hall 4F (P–R) on Sunday, November 8.
• The Instagram collab post campaign: post with the official frame attached to your reminder email, send a collab request to @designfesta from Instagram's post screen, then send your contract ID (a number starting with DF064-) by DM. Approval is random, and each contract ID gets one post. Put the frame on the first image, and don't write your contract ID in the post itself.
• The exhibitor showcase on the official site: if you'd like to be featured, send the required details, images, and a short introduction through the form on your My Page during the submission period. After a review by the organizers, you'll appear on the showcase page.

On its page asking exhibitors to help spread the word, Design Festa lists the hashtags #デザフェス and #designfesta.

Lead with the work you'll actually bring; put the 3D second

What people want to know from a promo post is what they can see and buy at your booth. Make the first image a photo of the physical work you'll bring, and add a turntable video or figurine-style image of your character from the second slot on, as a sample of “here's what this character looks like in 3D.” That way your actual work and the sample don't get mixed up. Because the Instagram collab campaign requires the frame on the first image, a turntable video will naturally go second or later there anyway.

If you're not selling anything three-dimensional, add a line such as “3D preview only — not for sale.” It saves you from visitors asking at the booth where the 3D piece is.

Booth display: keep your physical work and the on-screen 3D separate

A Design Festa booth is simply a patch of floor marked with tape. There are no walls, dividers, tables, or chairs, so you either order what you need as rental furniture or bring your own. These are the official rules that affect how you display:

Sources: exhibitor notes, exhibitor FAQ

Let your physical work lead, and let the 3D explain the character

From the aisle, what catches the eye first is a poster standing at the back of your booth or the silhouette of your work. For the people who stop, a screen or card beside your work showing “this is the character in 3D” fills in what flat artwork struggles to show — the back view and the sense of volume.

• Loop a turntable video on a tablet: if you don't order power, test beforehand whether a charged device plus a power bank will last through opening hours. Turn off auto-lock so the screen stays on, and save the video to the device so you don't depend on the venue's connection.
• Put your share link on a QR code: when you publish a piece on Figmee, its share link page lets anyone rotate the 3D model. Visitors can spin it on their own phones, so even a booth with no room for a screen can show the character in 3D. Any common QR code generator will do.
• Use a figurine-style image on a character profile card: add it as a 3D preview to a card with the character's name, backstory, and what you're selling. Print it at home or through a print shop, and run a test print at the final size to check it doesn't look rough.
• If you make physical pieces, show the next one as a rough draft: sofubi artists and sculptors can show a 3D model of a character they want to make next and ask visitors what they think.

Put a small sign next to the screen or sample — something like “3D preview made from my illustration (digital data)” — so visitors can tell what's for sale and what's a preview.

If video is the star, there's also the “Dark Booth” option

Design Festa also offers a “Dark Booth” format in a darkened area, which the organizers describe as suited to spatial staging such as video and lighting works. Since you choose the booth format when you apply, it's worth remembering if you'd like to build a video-centered booth at a future edition.

The day itself: logistics and photo etiquette

These are the official rules worth knowing for the show days:

• Move-in: there's no move-in the day before or early in the morning. If you bring things by car, unload at the designated vehicle entrance and aim to finish within 30 minutes.
• Shipping: the venue only accepts parcels sent through the designated service announced to exhibitors (SG Moving, part of Sagawa Express). Anything sent to the venue another way can't be received.
• Promotion: hand out flyers and promote only inside your own booth.
• Lines: if you expect a line, you can ask the office in advance where it should form.
• Photos: the visitor rules ask visitors to check with the exhibitor before photographing specific works or people. A sign saying whether photos are OK makes things easy for everyone. Photos taken at the venue and materials you submit may also be used in Design Festa's printed materials and publicity.
• Overnight: if you exhibit both days, packing up on Saturday night is optional, but the organizers take no responsibility for theft or trouble. Keep your valuables with you and let your neighbors know when you step away.

Sources: exhibitor FAQ, Bright Booth application page, visitor rules

How to make 3D promo material for your booth with Figmee

Here's how to turn your character illustration into a figurine-style image, a 3D model, and a turntable video with Figmee for your promo posts and booth. There's nothing to install — it all runs in the browser. If you make them before the Repost Festival starts on October 31, you can use them for the whole promo period.

1. Prepare your illustration: use a photo or scan of a drawing on paper, or a digital illustration. Supported formats are PNG, JPEG, and WebP, up to 20 MB per image.
2. Upload, choose a quality, and generate: choose Standard, Pro, or Max and press “Generate 3D Image” to create a figurine-style image. It usually takes 2–3 minutes.
3. Generate the 3D model: once you're happy with the image, press “Generate 3D Model.” It's ready in a few minutes, and you can rotate it 360° in your browser to check it.
4. Export a turntable video: on the artwork page, press “Create 360° video,” then “Export” once the preview appears, and “Save” when it's done. You get a square video in which the model turns twice in about 6 seconds.
5. Save and publish: from “Save” on the artwork page, you can download the figurine-style image (listed as “Generated 3D images,” with a square version as well) and the 3D model (GLB / 3MF). Switching on “Share your work” creates a share link.

On pricing: new accounts receive 5 free tokens as a sign-up bonus (valid for 3 months after registration, only for the first registration with a given email address). A figurine-style image costs 1–3 tokens depending on the quality, and a 3D model costs 5 tokens — your first 3D model is free, once per account. You can buy 5 more tokens for $5.99. Saving data, exporting turntable videos, and publishing your work don't use tokens.

Things to know before you prep for the event

• It won't work from photos of your pieces: Figmee turns drawn illustrations into 3D images. Photos of real people, animals, objects, or scenery, and images that look like photos, aren't supported. Instead of photos of accessories or sculptures, use your design sketches or character illustrations.
• Turntable export depends on the browser: Chrome and Edge on a computer and Chrome on Android support it, but Safari (including on iPhone and iPad) and Firefox may not. For a video you'll play on an iPad at your booth, export it on a computer first and then move it over. Browsers that can't export MP4 save WebM instead, and some social platforms don't accept WebM.
• A full-body front view works best: the AI infers the parts you didn't draw, such as the back, so they may not come out the way you intended.
• It's not built for animation: the 3D model is shape-and-color data. Rigging (adding a skeleton so the model can move) and VRM aren't supported.

For the full workflow of turning a character into 3D, see how to turn your original character into 3D. For ways to take a 3D character further into goods and portfolios, see turning your illustration into 3D goods.

Rules and rights: exhibit original work and be clear about how you use AI

Design Festa only accepts original work and expression. Fan works, displaying or selling other people's copyrighted work, resale, and ready-made products aren't allowed. Anything that isn't original may have to be changed, canceled, or removed on the day, and if your booth is removed for not fitting the event's purpose, the fee isn't refunded.

As of September 28, 2026, neither the official exhibitor notes nor the exhibitor FAQ has an item that specifically mentions generative AI. The absence of a rule doesn't mean anything goes, so dividing roles like this makes it easier to stay within the “original only” requirement:

• Make the work you sell and display your own original work
• Use the 3D models, turntable videos, and figurine-style images you make with Figmee as promo material and samples created from your own illustrations, and label them as samples
• If you're unsure about something — say, using a generated image as artwork on something you sell — ask the Design Festa office while you're preparing

On Figmee, you can only upload drawings you made yourself or images you have permission to use from the rights holder. Figmee's terms of service state that copyright in generated images follows applicable law. Licensed characters count as fan work at Design Festa and can't be exhibited, and even making a 3D sample of one may infringe on the rights holder, so prepare with an original character whose rights you hold. For how rights work with 3D goods, see can you sell original character or fan art figurines?.

Creator events from October to December 2026

After Design Festa, events where artists exhibit keep coming through the end of the year, in Japan and elsewhere. As a starting point for planning your next booth, here are the ones whose dates we could confirm from official sources (as of September 28, 2026).

What you can exhibit — whether an event is original-only or allows fan work — and how it treats things made with generative AI differ from event to event. COMITIA, for example, is a market for self-published comics limited to original work, and since COMITIA156 (June 2026) its rules state that works consisting mainly of generative-AI output may not be sold, distributed, or displayed (entry page, official blog, January 21, 2026). The organizers give an illustration cleaned up by generative AI from the artist's own rough as an example that doesn't count as "assistance," so the approach in this guide — showing 3D samples or turntable videos made with Figmee at your booth — can't be used at COMITIA. Check each organizer's rules before you apply.

If you're exhibiting or visiting from outside Japan

Design Festa's official site is mostly in Japanese. Here's what the official site confirms that's useful if you're coming from abroad to visit or exhibit:

• English updates: the official X presence includes an English-language account (@DesignFesta_EN_).
• Tickets: advance tickets are on sale from 12:00 on Saturday, September 19 until Friday, November 13, 2026. The official ticket page lists a ticket vendor whose sales page is also available in English and Chinese. Same-day tickets can also be bought at the ticket booth by the entrance.
• Shipping: the venue only accepts parcels sent through the designated service announced to exhibitors (SG Moving, part of Sagawa Express). If you're shipping from abroad, arrange it according to the exhibitor instructions.
• Shopping: prices and payment methods vary by booth, and the official FAQ tells visitors to ask each exhibitor directly.
• Photos: check with the exhibitor before photographing work or people. Streaming or filming for live commerce gets you removed from the venue.
• Using Figmee: tokens can be bought anywhere in the world, and figurine-style images and 3D model data can be created and saved from anywhere. Prices are shown in the currency for the language you browse in — US dollars for English. Ordering physical 3D prints is Coming Soon, and when it launches, shipping will be limited to Japan.

Sources: tickets, helping promote (official social media), visitor FAQ, visitor rules

FAQ

Can I still apply to exhibit at Design Festa vol.64?

Applications for Bright Booths ran from Tuesday, June 2 to Monday, June 15, 2026, and the lottery results are already out. If you're thinking about exhibiting, watch the official site for the next call for exhibitors and use the prep order in this guide next time.

Do I need power to show 3D on a screen at my booth?

You can't use the venue's wall outlets. If you'll keep a screen on for long stretches, apply for the power supply option within the application window (there are no same-day applications). If you don't, test beforehand whether a charged device plus a power bank will last through opening hours.

Can I display or sell images or 3D models made with AI at Design Festa?

As of September 28, 2026, the official exhibitor notes and FAQ don't have an item that specifically mentions generative AI, but exhibits are limited to original work and expression. The safe approach is to make your own work the focus and use anything made with AI as promo material or samples. If you'd like to use it on something you sell, or you're unsure, ask the Design Festa office.

Can I turn my 3D model into a physical piece for my booth?

Ordering physical 3D prints through Figmee is Coming Soon, so you can't order them yet (and when it launches, shipping will be limited to Japan). You can take the 3MF data you save to your own 3D printer or to a print service that accepts 3MF, but whether it prints as-is, and how well colors and fine details come through, depends on the printer and software.

I can't export the turntable video on my iPad.

Turntable export uses the recording feature built into the browser. Because it may not work in Safari (including on iPhone and iPad) or Firefox, export the video in Chrome or Edge on a computer, then move the file to your iPad to play it.

Summary

Preparing for Design Festa vol.64 goes more smoothly if you work backward from the official deadlines: first rental furniture (by November 1) and power, then the Repost Festival from October 31 and the Instagram collab campaign by November 8, and then your booth display. Lead your promo and your booth with the work you'll actually bring, and add a 3D model or turntable video of your character as a sample that shows it in the round — an approach that also sits comfortably with the event's “original only” rule.