Prime Art Deco Festival sponsor Simon Tremain said he would not be surprised if he grew a moustache over the next few days.
"I think there could be a few moustaches," he said with a smile as he joined a gathering of what Tremains is dubbing the "Simon mini-me" brigade at the Napier Art Deco Centre yesterday.
But he's not too worried - "it would show they noticed it", he said of the possibility someone may add their own piece of art to the cut-outs.
The army of miniature Simons effectively puts to bed the old saying "you can't be everywhere at once" because with the assistance of his 150-strong deco-clad army of "mini-mes" ... he can.
Mr Tremain said the best profile for the company was its signage around Hawke's Bay and coupling it with a build-up to the big festival next month was a good union.
The company has given its real estate sales signage an Art Deco touch, and now they would be receiving an additional touch in the form of a mini-me Simon - compete in dapper deco garb.
Mr Tremain laughed and said there had been a reaction to the miniatures already as one vendor had asked "is the chap in the picture married?"
"And the next day it disappeared."
The miniatures were created by signage company Branded and one of the Tremains staff, and family, took on the big job over the Christmas break of cutting each one out.
To add to the build-up of the five-day festival Tremains staff would also be dressing up in Art Deco-era fashions at open days.
"Everyone gets into it - it's going to be great," Mr Tremain said.
Art Deco Trust general manager Sally Jackson said adding a deco touch to signage was another way of spreading the word far and wide.
Mrs Jackson said ticket sales for the events were significantly up over last year.
"It is very strong and we are seeing a growing level of tourists coming in already - there's a really good buzz around."
She said while Australians topped the visiting list there were also a large number of German visitors, and tourists from Asia were on a noticeable rise.