The traditional system exhibition stand design is rectangular in footprint. Often referred to as a shell scheme, this is the stand shape that most of your clients will be using – booked in months or even years in advance, they’ll occupy one or a multiple of these stand footprints in an aisle of their exhibition centre.
Traditionally designed stands for these spaces have made use of the walls included with the scheme – the “shell”. That means one long back wall and two short end walls, with the stand operating as a kind of open office or dials space inside the rectangular area so defined.
Modern display stand design, though, enables client companies to create a much more bespoke feel to their space without being beholden to the rectangular shell space. This modern type of stand design oils often referred to as box designing. It’s the practice of making a three dimensional structure to fill the rectangular footprint, so the stand itself dispenses with the shell walls and becomes a three dimensional environment in its own right. In this way, you can embody the look and feel of the client’s branding, and create an impression of much more space in the same small footprint area.
In 2010, around three quarters of all the winners of the Exhibitor Magazine stand design awards used this box technique, creating brand consistent shapes and feels despite the apparent restrictions of the rectangular footprint. The box exhibition stand design was used in these instances to make internal shapes much more consistent with the branding of the company – with curved edges, oval spaces and higher limits that the original height of the shell scheme stands. Once you take the walls out of the equation, that rectangular footprint can be the basis for anything: in effect, a genuinely bespoke installation without the client having to pay for a bespoke location at the exhibition.
Exhibition stand designing is about light and colour too. You can use on stand lighting to create a variety of effects without the client having to pay for extra materials or a more complicated physical design. Indeed, much modern box stand design is about creating a simple structure within the rectangular footprint and fleshing it out with a lighting design.
By using lighting design to bring life to the exhibition stand, it is possible to make stands that can be changed over time – or even stands that change in mood according to the time of day it is when they are in use. Exhibition stand designs capable of creating appropriate atmospheres give the client more flexibility over the kinds of events and installations they can include within the confines of their rectangle – from product demonstrations to competitions and after show parties.
Modern exhibition stand design allows stand designers to free up their client’s brands – giving them space to create unique installations within the rectangular footprint of a shell scheme. Once the walls are lost, that space is capable of sustaining any shape and almost any branding message.