Do it yourself exhibition booth design can be a terrific way to save money or a huge waste of this same resource, depending on many different things. Some people may be able to create their own trade show graphics and displays with little effort and get exceptional results, but for many others taking this step means wasting your time and money instead.

As an amateur trying the DIY method you might forget crucial parts of design. What about lighting, display stands, flooring, and banners?

From our article, Professional Custom Trade Show Exhibit Design or the DIY Approach? Want to read more? Click here.

The end results that you get will depend on many factors, some that you can change and others that are unchangeable. Your knowledge, your prior experience, and even the results that you are trying to achieve will all help determine whether you meet your goals for the event with a DIY exhibit or if you end up falling flat on the show floor.

What do you know about Exhibition Booth Design?

Exhibition booth design requires precision, creativity, and an understanding of the final results that are desired. If you have considerable knowledge in this type of project then you may be well qualified to make an attempt. If this is the first time that you will have an exhibit and you are a beginner then DIY is probably a very bad idea.

Exhibition Booth Design for Bergman Walls & Associates, Ltd. by the Design Factory

Can You Create Exceptional Trade Show Graphics?

The trade show graphics that you use in your exhibition booth design are a very important element, and these will either appeal to the people who attend the event or the images could cause your company to lose appeal instead. If you are a graphic artist then this should be a snap, but if you are artistically challenged you may not want to create the images to be used.

Many design companies have a graphic artist on staff to help clients decide on the most impressive images and help provide a big visual impact with your materials. If you do this on your own then the graphics that are designed may not be the best quality because you are not experienced.

If you already have the trade show graphics that will be used or you have decided on the color scheme to follow then provide these details to the exhibit designer as soon as possible.

Source: Choosing an Exhibit Designer is easy with these Helpful Tips. Read more here.

Do You Have any Experience with this Type of Project?

If you have previous experience with exhibition booth design and you have worked for a company that provides this service for many years then you may be well qualified to take a DIY approach because you are familiar with each step of the process. If you do not have the slightest idea of where to start, then DIY should be out of the question.

Will you Handle Everything or Hire Some Things Out?

Only do the things that you are comfortable with and never attempt any exhibit design element if you are not confident that you can handle it and get great results at the end. This is a common mistake that can be costly. You could end up with an exhibit that is not acceptable to represent your business and your products.

How Complicated is the Booth that you want to Create?

There are many levels of complexity when it comes to exhibition booth design. Do you want a standard booth that is square and fairly simple or are you looking to create an elaborate two story display that is massive and contains a number of interactive components. The complexity of the desired exhibit will help determine if you can DIY or not.

Is Saving Money More Important than the Best Possible Results?

If you insist on doing your own exhibition booth design and trade show graphics then you are placing a bigger importance on the cost than you are on getting the best possible results at the event where you exhibit. A professional can help ensure exceptional quality, appeal, and function.

Have you ever attempted DIY exhibition booth design? If so, how did it turn out?

It is essential that you make your expectations clear from the beginning so the exhibit designer knows your goals and anticipations. Another tip is to provide the desired trade show graphics or colors before the design process begins, so these are tied in and create a consistent look.

Always ask for suggestions and references from any design company so you can take advantage of the knowledge and experience offered. Make sure that you provide an overview of your company history so that the professional understands your company and your industry. Never make cost the top priority. Always balance price with other important aspects.

Always Let the Exhibit Designer Know what the Objectives Are

When you hire an exhibit designer it is very important to make the objectives that you have clear from the start. If these are not known then the professional may not be able to deliver what you want or help you meet these objectives during an event. The design team cannot give you what you want unless they understand what this is.

Make Your Expectations Clear Early On

Be very clear on your expectations even before you choose and hire an exhibit designer. From the initial consultation, make sure that your expectations can be met; otherwise, you may want to choose another company or professional instead. Any contract that you sign for services and products should include what is expected from the design team in order to clarify this issue.

Provide the Desired Trade Show Graphics to the Professional

If you already have the trade show graphics that will be used or you have decided on the color scheme to follow then provide these details to the exhibit designer as soon as possible. These resources can help the company or professional ensure that the overall appearance and appeal of the exhibit is spot on and there are no contrasts or unfavorable aspects.

Ask for Suggestions and References

When you are evaluating each exhibit designer always ask for suggestions. Since you will be paying for the professional help make sure to take advantage of the knowledge and advice that is available. References are also important, so make sure to ask for them. Any qualified company will be more than happy to provide these on request.

Give the Designer a Company History Overview

Prepare an overview of the history of the company and the industry, and give this to the exhibit designer before they start the design process. This will help the exhibit designer understand your industry and company better and will usually give you the best possible results. If the design team does not have this information, it could affect the finished exhibits and your success at the show.

Do not Make Cost the Top Priority

Cost should never be a top priority, whether you are choosing a final design, the right team of professionals, or the best trade show graphics. You want to get to quality at a reasonable price but avoid settling for less in exchange for a cheaper cost. This can be a big mistake that could cause you to fail to meet your event goals and objectives.

What other helpful exhibit designer tips have you learned? Do you have any tips that you think others would find useful and what are they?

Convention Booth by the Design Factory

When you go to the effort of having a convention booth at a trade show, you definitely want to get your money’s worth out of the time and energy you pour into it. Your booth should be the place where people are happy to stop. You want to be memorable, easily conveying the message you put forward in the first three seconds.

The best way to achieve this goal is by planning ahead with common sense. Your booth will help your presentation from the first minute someone encounters it. From the nature of your trade show graphics to the experience of your booth staffers, every little thing about the booth needs to be planned and considered.
Here are some elements to consider in planning your convention booth:

• Know your objective
• Who is your audience?
• Staff with experienced people
• Simplify your visuals
• Plan your use of space

Know your Convention Objectives

In planning your presence at a trade show, be clear from the beginning about what you want the event to achieve for you. Whether you are launching a new product or reminding attendees of the range of services you offer, have a purpose to your presence. Don’t head into a show just because your company has always been there. When you have a purpose, you become an attractive presence.

Part of planning the objectives for your convention booth involves knowing who your audience will be at the trade show. Are you trying to inspire buyers who will go back to their bosses saying, “We need this product!” Are you trying to make sales right there on the exhibit hall floor? Do you want to start advance word on a new product? Don’t just be lumps in the booth: have a goal.

Trade Show Graphics are Key

Key to declaring the purpose of your presence at the convention is how you handle your trade show graphics. Banners and displays should always be clear and distinct. They should be easy to read at a distance, and yet still aesthetically pleasing when an attendee stands right beside them. Garish color clashes might attract attention from across the hall, but can turn out to be a pain at close quarters.

Keep your Convention Booth Approachable

Simplifying the visuals of your convention booth is not just a matter of having simple and direct graphics. It also involves reducing the clutter of your space. Be sure the presentation does not get in the way of an attendee speaking to the booth personnel. Place your brochures to help the flow of traffic, not hinder it.

One of the surest ways of making your booth an ideal stopping place is to be certain that you staff your booth with experienced people. They need to know the purpose for your presence at the convention, so they can answer any question. When the booth staff are up-beat, your company will cling in attendees’ memories.

Keeping your trade show graphics crisp and clean also helps make a strong impression in the midst of the sensory overload of a convention exhibit hall. From the design of your banners to the presentation on your hand-outs, a unified visual appearance will help you stand out for the sea of distractions. You want your booth to be a landmark that people remember.

Britax Tradeshow Exhibit Booth

For many businesses and companies, Las Vegas trade show exhibits can bring in new clients and customers in a big way, as well as help spread news about your services by word of mouth. To make sure that the trade show exhibit you plan attracts the maximum amount of traffic, appealing trade show graphics,  tradeshow design, budgeting and having the right display booth are all critical points.

Las Vegas Trade Show Exhibits and Budgeting

Before making any purchases, renting any space, or hiring any staff, you will need to make a detailed list of your budget and what base costs will be involved in setting up a display to promote your business.

First, be realistic about your needs for the size of your company or service. Trying to budget in a huge display booth or several booths may not make much sense, especially if the trade show convention is a small or mid-sized one.

Plan out the cost of renting space, graphics and booth material, staffing needs (if any), and extra costs such as fliers, samples, business cards or demonstration materials. Transportation costs should also be taken into account for the budget, especially if you have to rent a trailer to move your display booth.

Trade Show Graphics

Trade show exhibits are all about directing the eye towards the most interesting and eye-catching displays, so positioning and graphics are both equally important. Try to rent a space you know can be enhanced by having good trade show graphics.

Make sure the trade show graphic you decide on is appropriate for the venue or convention it will be displayed at, but make it unique enough to pop out from the other booths. Avoid any graphics or themes that are ostentatious or gaudy; this may repel more customers than it attracts.

Choosing the Display Booth

Just as selecting the right trade show graphics for your trade show exhibits, finding a practical, appealing and durable display booth is just as key to bringing in traffic and making a success of the event. If you’ve already planned out your budget, you’ll know approximately how much you will have to spend on a display booth already.

Always compare several booths in your price range, and take into account the size you will need for proper display set up of any materials and items, as well as staff and anticipated traffic. A booth that is too large will make your trade show exhibits seem sparse or barren, but one too small will appear cluttered and messy.

Ease of set up, transportation and build quality is also something to research, and finding customer reviews and brand rankings for different display models and tables is another essential factor to choosing the right trade show exhibits.

Display Booth Layout

It is important to remember that trade show booths need to be accessible for the attendees and easy for your staff to navigate. A complicated footprint will only serve to reduce your staff’s ability to effectively communicate with clients.

Use as much open space in the middle of your booth as possible. If you want to create a sitting area where sales people can talk to prospects, then put it at the back of the booth so it is away from the traffic and the noise.

Display tables, information racks and operational product displays should be on the perimeter of your booth. Special products that have been getting significant press can be placed in the center. But the middle of your booth should be left open for sales people to interact with the attendees.

Gimmicks in Trade Show Booths

An exhibit display that shows your latest and greatest product should not be overshadowed by spinning gimmick and flashing lights. Display posters and static lighting is extremely effective. But the only thing that should have motion is your product display.

One gimmick that works for a trade show booth is having a celebrity available to talk to prospects and draw the interest of the attendees. Famous professional athletes or local television personalities work well for this purpose.

Trade Show Graphics

The more graphics and images you put on your trade show booth, the more traffic you will attract. There is a balancing act that you must do between graphic overload and effective marketing displays.

Keep your booth graphics focused on your company and your products. If you have a celebrity at your booth or you are doing a special promotion, then be sure to have a poster or image prominently displayed on your booth that advertises the attraction.

Information at the Trade Show Table

Your trade show booth needs to be fully stocked with marketing brochures, product sales literature, customer contact information sheets and the office supplies you need to run your booth.

Set up a table behind the scenes where you keep all of your extra literature and supplies. When you see that sales literature is getting low on the booth floor, replace it immediately. But keep the supply table out of the way and out of sight.

Trade show booths need to be practical and exciting. The practical part helps to supply your sales people with the information and resources they need to sell your products. The exciting aspect of trade show booths is what brings in foot traffic and drives revenue.

Bravado Tradeshow Exhibit by Design Factory

1. Multi-use Exhibit Display Booths Save You In The Long Run

Most people assume that exhibit booth rentals are a one-time marketing expense for a particular convention or trade show, but that is not always the case. Many exhibit display layouts can be reused in new ways for different events.

The key to creating reusable portable booths is to work with a professional trade show booth design company. Have them put together a setup that is configurable for differently-sized areas, as well as expandable for future marketing events.

This way the main core of the display booth is made to fix into a small area, but can be added on to with secondary components to fill in larger floor layouts or added to for featuring new products or services.

2. Marketing Themes Change And So Should Your Exhibit Display Graphics

Another thing to incorporate into versatile display booths is the ability to mix and match signage. Though most companies have specific uses for display booths they put together, it doesn’t take much design work to have interchangeable trade show graphics created that can be quickly assembled depending on the type of venue you are marketing your company at.

3. Reusable Portable Booths Have Certain Important Design Aspects

With today’s mindset of conserve and reuse, the last thing any company wants to do is to have excessive waste, whether it’s the materials used in the manufacturing of the display booths or it is what happens to it after the event. This is where it is important to also consider how compact the display booths are when disassembled.

The smaller the display booths break down after the event the better for several reasons. The main reason to design highly compactable portable booths is for storage between trade shows or venues. But an often overlooked reason has to do with the marketing team in charge of putting on the show.

Unless the company has a team of people that setup the display booths for an event, it usually ends up being the on-site marketing team that is tasked with assembly and clean up after the show. Poorly designed exhibit booths are not only hard to build and disassemble; they are also damaged easily in the process.

A Trade Show Booth Design: By Professionals, For Professionals

With your company’s big marketing push relying on how well your overall presentation looks; don’t you think that it’s in your best interest to do it right from the start? Make it easy on your team: have your marketing display booths done by a professional trade show booth design company.

Bravado Tradeshow Exhibit by Design Factory

A trade show rental is a good investment for most small-to-medium size businesses; they look professional yet won’t break your budget. Trade show rentals are especially convenient when you have just one or two very necessary trade shows to go to every year. After all, most good exhibit booths cost at least $10,000, and can easily shoot up into the mid five-figure range.

But exhibit rentals aren’t just a great way to conserve your budget. They’re also a good way to make sure you have the latest and most up-to-date look each year. A good exhibit booth company will keep you looking up-to-date and successful every year by focusing on the following three areas:

1. Exhibit Booth Flooring. This aspect of a convention exhibit is often overlooked, yet it can make your booth really stand out. You’re not just limited to a few kinds of expensive-looking carpeting, either.

A good exhibit provider can hook you up with classy wood flooring, impressive-looking interlocking tiles–even raised flooring that will help you stand head and shoulders above your competition.  Ask your exhibit rental provider what your options are when it comes to flooring.  If they only offer one option, find yourself another provider.

2. Trade Show Signage. This is one of the most important parts of your trade show booth, so it’d be a shame not to spend a little time on it–yet many exhibitors barely give it a second thought.  This is where your provider’s trade show graphics abilities can really shine.

More importantly, this is where you and your business can really shine.  Exhibit signage serves much the same purpose as a newspaper or advertisement headline. Its job is to snag your prospects’ eyes and attract them to your booth. That’s why good signage by itself can spell the difference between success or failure at your next convention.

3. Your Trade Show Exhibit Booth as a Whole. A good exhibit booth provider will work with you on a booth that is customized to fit your specific needs.  Not everyone needs a screen or presentation stage–but a good provider will have them as options! Other special features like canopies, extra storage, presentation staging, conference areas, and other features can really help you present your goods or services.

Even experienced convention exhibitors might overlook a special booth feature that can massively ramp up ROI.  Even if you have run a successful booth for many years, a good exhibit booth provider can recommend new features that can give your trade show booth that extra advantage.

The Panama trade show exhibit was a collaborative effort between IntegraDesign, Bogotá Columbia, and the Design Factory in Las Vegas. IntegraDesign designed the eye-catching 20×20 exhibit for the tourism bureau of Panama to promote awareness and tourism worldwide. What a better venue than the Travel Agent Show Forum?

With one month of planning, email correspondence and building we were able to pull off an incredible exhibit for this international client. The exhibit was clearly the “Rolls Royce” of the show and the Panama bureau was able to promote Panama’s diversity and contrasts.

Trade Show Graphics

The large format graphics beautifully displayed many of the country’s highlights and attracted attendees from all areas of the tradeshow floor. Brilliant colors in action packed images set the stage for enticing visitors to this top of the line trade show exhibit. That’s exactly what stunning trade show graphics can do for an exhibit booth! For more information on Panama visit: www.visitpanama.com

With many companies exhibiting internationally it is very important to have strong partners worldwide in our industry. The Design Factory is that Las Vegas partner that International exhibitors and exhibit builders are looking for. We have the bases covered when it comes to trade show exhibits.

Take a look at these live images from the Home Based Travel Agent Show Forum at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Give us a call at 702.656.0555 for more information.

Click on an image to enlarge!