AntSol Travel

Part 1: About the Show

DesignerCon is an annual art & design show that was recently held at the Anaheim Convention Center on December 15 to 17, 2023, a collectible arts & art industry show and a fan convention for collectors of collectibles & art pieces. According to an interview with Juxtapoz, the idea for DesignerCon was by Ben Goretsky, one of the biggest art & toy collectors, who still owns & operates the show. When he went to San Diego Comic-Con in 2001, Tower Records had a display of vinyl toys that acted as a canvas for artists for their interpretive twist of the toy’s aesthetics. Ben had a huge passion for art & collecting it, and then the vinyl toys became another avenue of art collecting, so much so, that he opened an online store. That was not enough and wanted to meet & network with collectors & toy vendors in person. However, comic book conventions like San Diego Comic-Con did not take a liking to toy vendors back then and decided to start his vinyl toy convention instead.

In 2005, Ben started his first show, Vinyl Toy Network at the Pasadena Convention Center’s 1,100 sq ft meeting room to eventually “…bring together artists, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in the vinyl toy/collectible figures market.” This is to help expand the vinyl toy & collectible figures industry and promote artists. Over the years, it expanded in Pasadena and then moved to the Anaheim Convention Center’s nearly 300,000 sq ft of event space with over 700 vendors, live art demonstrations, art shows, and more to encompass many aspects of design. For 2024, they will move the show to Las Vegas as their office is located in neighboring Henderson, Nevada.

Part 2: About Me

I am Anthony Solhtalab, I work guest services at one of the hotels in the Anaheim Resort area, working the last seven years working my way from housekeeping, food & beverage, and to guest services. Since I started working in hospitality, I have always kept my colleagues, managers, and our hotel guests in the loop about events & destinations in the area of the hotels I have worked at, kickstarting my blog, AntSol Travel. I analyze the hospitality, travel, tourism, events, conventions, and transportation of Anaheim & the greater Southern California. Welcome to AntSol Travel! Check out my about Me page for more details about me.

I applied and received a press pass for DesignerCon, however, I only scratched the surface about the show as I was not able to bring any of my colleagues or friends to the show with me, so could not their insight to the show. These are my observations at DesignerCon from a hospitality professional perspective who appreciates the arts and analyzes conventions.

Part 2: Show Registration

DesignerCon 2023, was held on December 15 was the preview night for VIP pass holders and the press, and then December 16 & 17, 2023 to the general public It is normally held in November on the weekend before Thanksgiving for the last two years, however, since there was a huge conference during then, it was moved to December for this year. 

For registering online for attendees, VIP passes get Friday preview night, Saturday, and Sunday for $90, and an additional $40 for an exclusive t-shirt. Saturday & Sunday are $40, and Saturday or Sunday are $25 for each day. All passes have a $4.75 service fee. Attendees, the press, and vendors obtain badges by redeeming their QR codes on their emails at the registration desk upon their arrival at the show.

The application process for the press was to apply to the press application form and get free passes as needed. To get the press pass, you must fill out the form with the publication/media name, contact name, phone number, email, website, and amount of badges. I got confirmation seven days before the start of the show on December 8, 2023, from TAG PR, the public relations firm for DesignerCon.

The vendor application process for vendors was to fill out the vendor registration form, however, table rates are not publicly posted. The type of vendors is the show looking for art & design companies of collectibles, artist’s collectives, independent artists, art certificates of authenticity, and more. 

Part 3: Lodging Options

The Anaheim Convention Center is located across the street from Disneyland, making it a great location for going to Disneyland after the conferences & shows, and plenty of hotel rooms to go around. There are plenty of lodging options with over a hundred hotels in the Anaheim Resort, Garden Grove’s Grove District, and Uptown Orange, ranging from simple motor lodges to brand-new high-end resorts. I also made a guide to all hotels in the area on Google Sheets.  

DesignerCon has two midscale hotels as their room block, SpringHill Suites at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center for a rate of $229 per night, and Residence Inn at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center for a rate: of $245 per night. Both hotels are a .4 Miles or 10-minute walk to the Grand Plaza entrance of the Anaheim Convention Center. There are a few hotels adjacent to the convention center that are not in the group block, such as the Anaheim Marriott, Hilton Anaheim, Westin Anaheim Resort, Sheraton Park Hotel, and Clarion Hotel Anaheim.

Part 4: Transportation to the Show by Car & Transit

If you live in Southern California and drive each day to the show, you would take Interstate 5 and exit at Katella Boulevard. The Anaheim Convention Center has several parking garages to accommodate a portion of attendees driving into the area. However, I took the bus in, so I don’t know how much parking was as it was not posted on DeisngerCon’s website. You could also park at a nearby hotel or Disneyland Resort’s Toy Story Parking Lot for $35 and walk across Harbor Boulevard.

If you fly into the Anaheim Resort area, it is located twelve miles from John Wayne Santa Ana Airport (SNA), most flights connect to western destinations with only a few airline carriers doing cross-country flights. Comprising only 22 gates, a passenger cap of 11.8 million passengers annually due to its small size, adjacent land is already developed and protected wetlands, and a short runway of 5,700 feet that makes landings rough, SNA is not the most optimal airport for cross-country flights. If your carrier does not do SNA directly or connect, I recommend Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Los Angeles International Airport is located 45 miles from the Anaheim Resort area, has a maximum runway length of 12,000 feet, and comprises over 150 gates and nine terminals, there are many more airline carriers to take you to many destinations. However, due to the distance to Anaheim, most airport transfers via shuttles, taxis, and rideshares from LAX are well over $100, while SNA is less than $50, depending on the company like California Yellow Cab.

From John Wayne Santa Ana Airport to Anaheim, there is Anaheim Resort Transportation (ART), a tourist-oriented bus service by the city of Anaheim, launched the Everyone Ventures Everywhere (EVE) shuttle service earlier this year. For $15 per person per way, guests can get a direct ride in a nine-person passenger van, or ART bus if all vans are dispatched, from SNA to the guest’s hotel in Anaheim, Garden Grove, and Orange. However, with many of the resort area guests caught wind of the shuttle services, it got harder & harder for other guests to request a ride as some of the guests were not able to get a ride back to the airport from the hotel I work at. I don’t recommend the service for now until ART can increase the amount of vehicles and drivers that can do EVE, otherwise, get a rideshare or taxi. They should have a scheduled route from a resort area hub to the airport for more reliable transportation.

Part 5: Me heading to the Show By Transit

As part of my AntSol Travel via Transit commitment for 2024, I am going to take transit to events & destinations I cover on my blog & YouTube videos, if feasible. However, some destinations are not accessible or not feasible by transit, and a car may be necessary. For this case, I live in Anaheim, so I will show you how to get from the Anaheim train station to the Anaheim Convention Center by bus.

For this case, taking transit to Anaheim, you can take Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, Metrolink, or Grayhound/Filx Bus to the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC). Then you can take the OC Bus 50 West to the Anaheim Convention Convention by deboarding at Katella & Convention Center. This also can be accomplished by doing an On-Demand function for the A-Way We Go app for Anaheim Resort Transportation (ART) shuttle buses for a more direct route to the convention center. 

When I got to bus bay 5 for the OC Bus 50 West, I missed the bus. Then I tried to take the ART on demand. However, there weren’t any buses available for dispatch, forcing me to wait for the next OC Bus 50 West for another thirty minutes. My only option at that point due to the lack of ART buses, was to wait thirty minutes for the next OC Bus 50 line west to the Anaheim Convention Center, which I did. After waiting at the ARTIC for thirty minutes, the following OC Bus 50 arrived and paid for my fare of $2 through the OC Bus app. After a three-mile bus ride through the Anaheim Resort area to the Katella & Convention Center bus stop, I crossed Katella to the Anaheim Convention Center.

Part 6: Badge Pick-Up & Security Checks

When I arrived at the Anaheim Convention Center, DesignerCon was held at the Anaheim Convention Center’s Hall D exhibit hall, located on the opposite side of the convention center from Katella. Outside in the Grand Plaza between the Anaheim Marriott & Hilton Anaheim are food trucks that are part of the Food Truck Smackdown Network. Even though it was noon, I was not hungry yet and rushed over to badge pick up.

According to the emails from TAG PR, press badge pick-up was in the foyer in front of hall D, and pick-up was only during the first two hours of the show from 10 A.M. to 12 P.M. However, I did not get to the show until noon and slept in since it was my only day off between continued work weeks. Along with missing the original bus to the convention center. The main press pass booth staff already left, however, the attendee pass staff gave me my press badge after checking my ID and email confirmation from TAG PR. I was grateful that they were able to do that for me. Time to do coverage of DesignerCon!

To get into the exhibit hall, contracted security staff just check if you have a badge, and then you are on your way, which is on the more relaxed end of the security spectrum. Each convention has its level of security detail depending on how big the show is that year and previous incidents. WonderCon, a comic book convention that’s held at the Anaheim Convention Center, is mostly a badge check, and making sure that you don’t have anything that will poke out could hurt someone if you wear an elaborate cosplay. On the other hand, VidCon, a social media creator convention, has one of the most rigorous security details as they do a bag check, badge check, and tap of an RFID band every time you enter or exit the secured area. According to Polygon, this was due to incidents at previous VidCons in 2017, Logan Paul, a huge social media influencer, hid money around the convention center, starting a frenzy, which led him to be ejected from the show that year, and security was increased thereafter.

All events at the Anaheim Convention Center has Anaheim Police Department officers walking the event floor and the building premises.

Part 7: In the Expo Hall & Vendors

After the badge check, I went into hall D exhibit hall, composed of over 700 artists, artist collectives, toy designers, collectors, designers, and more. I am always overwhelmed by how many booths there are, however, none caught my eye as many have their collection that do not appeal to me and I am not as invested in any artists as some people are. I am not the right person to ask about the exhibit floor. The only real way for me to buy anything from the vendors would be that they have their spin on some of the video games and T.V. shows I like, surprisingly, there were not a lot of vendors producing art-inspired video games and T.V. shows that I liked, except for one I could not take my eye off of. 

One of my favorite Nickelodeon TV series was Avatar the Last Airbender, a world where people can manipulate the elements of earth, fire, water, and air. The bending of the elements was inspired by Asian martial arts. My first & only purchase of the day was an Avatar the Last Airbender chibi-style blind box figurine for $15 by MightyJaxx with art by Kwistal Fewmz. I got my favorite character, the waterbender, Katara. Waterbending manipulates water with the smooth flow of Tai Chi. There is a whole scene included with the figure which I assembled when I got home.

There was an art showcase that artists could enter. At each show year, artists have blank vinyl to showcase their art style with different blank vinyl each year to act as their canvas. This year is celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Hollywood Sign. It was curated by Carmen Acosta, @janedopeness on Instagram, the Creative Director at SoFi Stadium, Hollywood Park, and YouTube Theater. The art is purchasable at a later date with costs ranging from a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars.

They also have car recreations such as Sally from Cars, the Jurassic Park Jeep, the ice cream truck from the Twisted Metal video game, the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo, and KITT from Knight Rider. Then the top artist of the Joker-themed car. If you are tired of walking the exhibit hall floor like I was, you can rest your feet and learn something new on the stage for panels and events.

Part 8: Panels & Events

My favorite part of DesignerCon was the panel & events at the stage on the far left of Hall D. All panels at the stage were hosted by Mark Brickey, who hosts the podcast, Adventure in Design, where he hosts episodes with many artists & creatives about their experiences and work. He knows many of the artists at DesignerCon as well, making him more than qualified to run the panels. I went to three panels and an art competition, more on the competition later.

The first panel I watched, which I arrived midway through due to just getting after noon, Mark Brikey had an interview with Chris Crump, the son of the late Disney Imagineer, a Disney Parks Imagination Engineer, Rolly Crump (1930 – March 2023). Chris & Mark talked about the life & legacy that Rolly had on themselves, the world as Rolly designed many of the attractions at the Disney parks, and the artist community that met up at DesignerCon. To not make things too long, the Walt Disney Company has a remembrance of the life of Rolly Crump.

The second panel was with three of the toy designers at Mondo, a designer & manufacturer of vinyl records in 2004, who later expanded into posters, apparel, books, games, and their entry for DesignerCon, high-end collectible toys. Mondo was bought by Funko in 2022, known for their Funko Pop figures, a natural fit for Funko to expand its toy offerings and collectibles. The designers from Mondo were there to showcase their latest designs, which were Godzilla in new artistic directions, such as toys of Godzilla being red, rounded, & made of soft vinyl, posters, artwork, soundtracks on custom vinyl record design, t-shirts, pins, and more. Mondo has proven to be a merchandising machine with all the collaborations that they had between artists and companies that they worked with. However, Mondo had to prove to the Japanese company, Toho, who holds the rights to Godzilla, that they could pair up the right artists to create the limited edition merchandise, and that even meant working on a toy model by one of the artists overnight to show to Toho.

The third panel was Jermaine Rogers, who produces rock posters, gig posters, fine art, and designer toys. This discussion was about Frank Kozik (1962-May 2023), an artist from Spain who came to the U.S. as a child, pioneered art for rock clients for gig posters & then later album covers in his teenage years, and eventually started his record label in his young adult years, where he sold prints themselves to spread the word and make a living off his art and a record label. In the 1990s, he closed the record label to shift his creativity toward toys & collectibles. He was always reinventing each industry as he went along. Frank always asks what could be changed and where is the fanbase to buy art.

The fourth panel was an art competition by an artist collective called Secret Walls. Started in East London in 2006, now based in Los Angeles in 2016, they wanted to make art into a spectator sport, to give people a look into the creativity of artists by making head-to-head speed art competitions. Two teams of three underground artists, each have their large blank canvas to paint in black marker & paint in 90 minutes. Teams are judged in the overall look, design, composition, and more, as art is subjective anyway. The team on the left was “The Frog Eaters” and the team on the right was “The DCon (DesignerCon) Destroyers)”, each of the artists had their table selling their art on the exhibit hall floor if you like their art style. The winning team wins a wrestling-like championship belt.

To keep things interesting, they had two M.C.s, that interacted with the crowd and the artists throughout the competition, which included Mark Brickey and one of the Secret Walls staff. They would have audience participation segments as well including a toy show from the audience purchases, a wrestler smack talk with the championship belt, a 90-second art competition between one of the previous speed art competition winners vs. a nine-year-old kid who said he could take them on in the competition, and audience sketches on a cardboard. While all of this was happening, the artists were working feverishly to get their team’s canvas filled with characters.

After 90 minutes, the time was up, and the artists dropped their black markers & paint brushes. Teams are judged by one overall audience vote & six of the Secret Walls staff in the overall look, design, composition, and more. In the end, the Frog Eaters won, as their piece had an octopus as the centerpiece and everything came off of the eight arms for a more composed design. However, the DCon Destroyers were all over the place as each artist had their own style & characters and no central theming, thus giving the Frog Eaters win by one vote.

Part 9: Food & Beverage

The Anaheim Convention Center has a concession stand that has pizza by the slice for $7.50, nachos for $9, burgers for $8, and sandwiches & wraps for $7.50. The concession stands need to be competitive since Food Truck Smackdown has a network of food trucks in the Grand Plaza during the weekend for attendees who want higher-quality dishes as the concession stands were okay in quality. I had the pizza by the slice at 2 PM since my breakfast held me over until then. Surprisingly, the pizza lasted until 7 P.M. after the Secret Walls competition ended, which was closing time exhibit hall. Could I still get food from the food trucks?

Part 10: Closing Time

At 7 PM, after the Secret Walls competition was over, the public address system chimed in that the exhibit hall was closing for the night. I was hoping that they would have the food trucks open through the evening, however, all the food trucks were packing up. Seven P.M. is a prime dinner time and everyone would be exiting the hall, missing out on hungry attendees and vendors who tried to hold themselves over until the halls closed. Lost revenue for them then. I decided to head back to the apartment to make dinner at home as many higher quality counter service restaurants closed up by now in the resort area.

Part 11: Conclusions & Would I Go Again?

Going to all of the interviews, panels, competitions, and exhibit halls helped increase my knowledge of the artist community and camaraderie that has been enhanced by DesignerCon as it is like a professional conference, but for artists that are open to the public. That’s what makes DesignerCon a unique opportunity for artists to network in the arts & design community and grow a community of art collectors & enthusiasts, just like Ben Gorsesky set out for DesignerCon to be. 

As a curious local of every fan convention that rolls through the Anaheim Convention Center, I loved going to DesignerCon since it focuses on artists, how they can make a living or side hustle making & selling their art, but also brings the community of artists together seen in the panels and Secret Walls competition.

What could be improved for next year with the show relocation to Las Vegas is space for more vendors. Hall D could allegedly fit 700 booths according to DesignerCon’s website, and surprisingly did not expand to Hall C, which I am sure costs too much for DesignerCon to eat the costs or additionally charge for the space. Many of the artists’ booths were small ten by ten feet, and expanding to another hall could bring more revenue for the artists by showcasing more art, getting more artists in, and giving more space for the corporate vendors as some were a bit small. The venue for the Las Vegas 2024 show has not been announced yet, hopefully, it will be bigger than 300,000 sq. ft., probably either at a casino resort hotel like the Venetian or a couple of halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center. 

Would I go to DesignerCon in 2024? Unfortunately, probably not. Even though DesignerCon was cool to check out, as a local wanting to see the show, it was good to check out last year and got to be pressed this year. However, for 2024, the show will be relocated to Las Vegas as their offices are located in neighboring Henderson, Nevada. Considering I only bought the Katara figure this year and I don’t die heartily following any of the artists, I am not going to 2024, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Thank you for reading if you made it this far in my really detailed blog about DesignerCon. The blog’s Final tally: 3,863 words. Pages if double spaced in Times New Roman 12 font: 12 pages. Estimated read time: 27 minutes per WordPress. Citation style: Associated Press Style.