It can be tough to stand out from the crowd at a trade show. There’s a lot going on there! If you don’t have eye catching display graphics, you might not get as many visitors to your trade show exhibit as you’d like. Sure, you’ll get some people stopping by who already know what you have to offer, coming by to check out your latest and greatest product or service. But what about those people who don’t know your brand? Isn’t that the goal here, to obtain new leads and prospects? If you don’t have great graphics, you’re missing out on attracting the most new prospects possible!
It’s easy to see how people might miss your booth completely without the right graphics. The floor is crowded with people; everyone is talking, whether to colleagues, other brands in their booths, or on their cell phones; there are announcements taking place over the loudspeaker; presentations and demonstrations are underway in certain booths; and let’s not forget the wandering salespeople, weaving their way through the crowd to pass out cards or coupons or other marketing materials.
Don’t Fool Yourself
Just because you have assembled the best literature and informational handouts of all time, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll draw a crowd to your booth. And if you aren’t getting people to come to your booth, what good are those handouts doing? None! At the same time, don’t think that setting up a bright, neon booth with flashing LED signs will attract people. This might actually turn people away from your booth!
Instead, you should be thinking long and hard about a clear and clean message. You want people to look at your booth and understand your message in an instant, drawing them in to take a closer look. While it may not be easy, it isn’t so hard it becomes impossible. If you imagine the booth as a whole to be like a billboard, you’re on the right track. It should communicate with a glance what your brand is all about, and entice those walking by to stop and get more information.
Tip: the average person takes only three seconds to decide whether or not they will visit a booth.
Graphic Design Tips
The most important thing to keep in mind is your audience. Let’s say you have set up a booth representing the fashion industry. The booth you would use at a consumer-focused trade show is going to communicate to a much different audience than an industry-focused trade show.
Although it should be common knowledge, I’ll point it out anyway. Your display should align with the mission and purpose of your brand. Otherwise it’s just plain confusing. And be sure to apply this to the entire booth, not just the attention-grabbing banner. Everything should look consistent.
Take it easy on the graphics. A display that has too much going on will probably turn off a lot of people. Try to find one powerful image, and keep text short and sweet. Again, don’t forget that three-second rule. The less you have going on, the more effective it will be.
Be sure your text isn’t getting lost in the background. You would be surprised how many people think that black text against a gray background is appealing (it isn’t!) or rely on patterned backgrounds that are just too busy.
Try to keep text on your banners to a minimum. Try to keep it to a single, short sentence if possible.
Stay away from script-y, cutesy fonts. Instead, select simple, classic and clean fonts. Another note on fonts – if you’re going to mix up fonts throughout your display, try to use two different fonts at most.
Don’t cram your words together. Whitespace is a good thing!
Booth Design Tips
Besides knowing the exact space you have to work with (you don’t want to end up with a banner two times the size of your allotted space), you should decide what kinds of signs will work for your brand. Header signs are great for communicating a message to those close to your booth and can include more information than a hanging sign, which is great for long-distance attention grabbing. When you have a large message to communicate or a series of messages, banner displays are great.
You should also be aware that your color choice could have some influence on visitors. The psychology of colors is a useful guide; so try incorporating colors that align with your message like:
Red is the color of love. It is also a way to draw attention.
Yellow is the “smart” color – it’s the color of intellect and the mind.
Black is the color representative of power.
Green, not surprisingly, is the color of nature.
Blue is associated with tranquility and peace.
There are negative traits associated with certain colors as well, so do your research carefully in order to draw the people in.
Your Best Bet
Does all of this seem like too much work? There is one more solution – contact us to take care of the hard work for you. Just tell us what you’re trying to say with your display, and we’ll provide you with an eye-catching display that is guaranteed to get people to visit your booth, no graphic design skills necessary! Our professionals know exactly how to create a powerful and effective trade show display.
You can get back to important things, like lining up the keynote speakers and printing out marketing materials for the show.
How effective is your booth design?