Engage your audience with graphics

Graphic design is everywhere. From product packaging on our morning cereal, to the traffic signs we pass on our way to work, it affects us daily, and has an influence on the choices we make and the spaces where we interact.

At the core, graphic design is the visual communication of information and ideas, presented both to be beautiful, and to make sense.

 Graphic design tells your story beyond words. Therefore, ensuring great design should be a high priority when you plan your trade show booth. You’ll communicate your brand to attendees, and your booth will look fantastic!

Brand strategist and identity designer Alexander Isley may have said it best:

“Good design encourages a viewer to want to learn more.”

Whether that be more about your company, more about your products or more about you, strong, engaging design is a gateway between you and your audience.

Let’s take a look at one of our showroom exhibits.

We created this blank 10×20 inline booth by adding a custom shelf and counter to our nVision panel system. This is one example of the many versatile ways you can use nVision. However, rather than picking a booth and trying to fit graphics to it, best practice is to develop your graphic and booth design hand-in-hand to ensure all booth elements work together.

Here’s a sneak peek into our design process:

1. Decide on a key MESSAGE

We realized some of our clients who come to us for a specific need might not realize the wide range of products and services we offer. We needed a creative way to illustrate our myriad capabilities (such as trade show rentals, design services, show services, I&D and more).  Hats became the metaphor to represent our offerings, paired with the tagline, “We do that too!”

When you’re trying to determine the right key thought for your booth, a good place to start may be to consider the core of your company brand, your mission statement, or any specific product lines you want to highlight.

2. Build your CONTENT

In this stage, we take our message and run with it, coming up with taglines, quotes, and photos that we want to display in the booth. For this exhibit, in addition to the core message and the hats, we created a slide show that runs on the monitor linking the hat to the product or service the hat represents. To further display our capabilities, we also wanted to showcase a variety of graphic treatments: vinyl graphics, fabric graphics, and typography.

Once you’ve created a key message, this step could be as simple as taking quality product photos, or finding appropriate stock photography to display along with the headlines that will be displayed on your booth.

3. Determine your PRIORITIES

In graphic design, we work on a hierarchy basis. What do you want your audience to see first? What will grab their attention? We made sure to get our message across with a strong sentence that encapsulates the key thought, paired with hat imagery.

For your booth, choose the “best of the best” of your content and put that front and center.

4. Create impact through FOCAL POINTS

Your most impactful content should be placed in areas where visitors’ eyes will naturally be drawn. For example, hanging signs and a wide expanse on a back wall are primary areas of visual impact. We chose to highlight the front of the counter with an eye-catching photo, and add a large fabric graphic with our key quote on the right side of the booth.

When you’re in this stage, you’ll match your marketing message to the purpose of each area within your booth. For example, your messaging in a product demonstration area would be more targeted than the message in your welcoming space. Think about how your visitors will navigate the space and what they will see from the aisles.

 

5. Ensure brand ALIGNMENT

We used high contrast colors (black and white) with splashes of our pantone blue to make our brand color pop. We also added a triangular sign on the shelf to match the triangle theme repeated on many of our printed materials. We used color to highlight the products and services that we wanted our clients to especially notice.

This is where help from a designer or your branding guide comes in handy. Make sure that colors/themes still align with your brand.

From start to finish, it is easy to see that graphic design makes a big impact on the overall beauty of your booth, and the memorability of your brand. With so many details to consider, expert guidance can be a big help.

When you need graphic assistance for your trade show display, contact us at gonichols.com.

 

With you, every step of the way!

Jenn Jenison for

Team Nichols