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View Full Version : Can you recommend good booth design co.s?



theDIfellas
07-13-2009, 04:52 PM
My company will be doing trade shows and expo's and we need a professional booth design along with maybe some stands yet nothing extravagant.


We've looked at Skyline and Nomadic but they are out of our price range. You can say that we would like something professional but cannot afford some of the best right now. Thank you.

KristineS
07-13-2009, 05:20 PM
You might consider working on doing it yourself. If you really plan and get creative you can create some awesome booths at a fraction of the cost of paying someone else to do it. We did this for a trade show in 2007 and ended up getting a mention in Exhibitor Magazine. I'm not going to deny that it was hard work, but it can be done.

theDIfellas
07-14-2009, 01:09 AM
You might consider working on doing it yourself. If you really plan and get creative you can create some awesome booths at a fraction of the cost of paying someone else to do it. We did this for a trade show in 2007 and ended up getting a mention in Exhibitor Magazine. I'm not going to deny that it was hard work, but it can be done.

I thought about that but I don't really know where to start. Did you guys build from the ground up? What were the dimensions?

We were quoted for about $5,000 for a single, large booth (dont know the exact size). I know my business partner was probably aiming for some of their best stuff but we cannot afford it and well I don't think we need it even if we did have the $$.

The only real issue I see with building your own is portability. I know the professionally-built ones can be packed up, crunched up, something of that sort. Thanks!

dynocat
07-14-2009, 10:53 AM
How well your booth "packs" for travel only matters if you're flying to the show(s) you do. If you drive to your show(s), like many do, your booth only needs to pack well enough to fit your vehicle.

An even more important reason to make your own booth is that it is very likely, you will change your mind about what you really need after one, two or ten shows. When you find out what works and what doesn't for you, you may wish you hadn't spend the $XX on a booth that looks good on paper and in photos.

As far as size, look at the types of shows and what their typical booth sizes are. They may be 10 x 10, 12 x 12, 14 x 12, etc.

Best of luck.

KristineS
07-14-2009, 01:50 PM
We designed a 20 x 20 booth. In retrospect we could have done a lot more to ensure portability. We ship everything by crate, because we often use truss. We build our own crates, and even then we ended up having someone run a forklift into one crate and complete destroy one set of panels.

This year, we're working on simplifying. We've built a couple of smaller displays that highlight some of our products, and the basic booth is fairly simple.

One nice thing is that a lot of people do cookie cutter booths or don't put a lot of thought into decorating their booth, so if you do try to be original it has a much larger impact.

theDIfellas
07-14-2009, 11:13 PM
How well your booth "packs" for travel only matters if you're flying to the show(s) you do. If you drive to your show(s), like many do, your booth only needs to pack well enough to fit your vehicle.

An even more important reason to make your own booth is that it is very likely, you will change your mind about what you really need after one, two or ten shows. When you find out what works and what doesn't for you, you may wish you hadn't spend the $XX on a booth that looks good on paper and in photos.

As far as size, look at the types of shows and what their typical booth sizes are. They may be 10 x 10, 12 x 12, 14 x 12, etc.

Best of luck.

We'll be driving everywhere, for now. Changing our mind about what we want to use, what we like could be a huge issue.

I'm just not sure where to start the building process. I'll do some research, I'm sure its a lot of work but worth the savings.

theDIfellas
07-14-2009, 11:16 PM
We designed a 20 x 20 booth. In retrospect we could have done a lot more to ensure portability. We ship everything by crate, because we often use truss. We build our own crates, and even then we ended up having someone run a forklift into one crate and complete destroy one set of panels.

This year, we're working on simplifying. We've built a couple of smaller displays that highlight some of our products, and the basic booth is fairly simple.

One nice thing is that a lot of people do cookie cutter booths or don't put a lot of thought into decorating their booth, so if you do try to be original it has a much larger impact.

What's truss? Also, when building your own crates, did you stick to the standard pallet size and shape (square base) and try to make it taller to fit more or did you guys go longer on the base, like maybe rectangular shaped?

Thanks for all the input everyone, this seems like a pretty big challenge but building our own is something my team needs to seriously consider.

dynocat
07-15-2009, 01:26 AM
We have been doing shows well over 10 years. What we thought would work and what we use now after probably 9 major changes is very different. It's not so much a matter of what we liked changing, as much as realizing what worked to improve sales. Product layout and visibility, number of products (for us that too has changed) and customer access all affected the booth design. It really takes a few (or a lot in our case) of shows under our belt before we had what we consider the perfect arrangement.

The past three years we've had the same booth design with purchased folding tables, custom made table coverings, signs and home-built displays. We are finally satisfied with the booth from colors to layout. We also get a lot of compliments on our booth. We're fortunate though because my husband is a woodworker and can build whatever display we need for a low cost.

What I'm trying to suggest is not too invest to heavily in your first booth. I have no idea what you will be selling, but I've seen many, many vendors change booth styles numerous times before settling on one that works.

Our booth is 16 x 10 and fits in a pickup bed (with a topper). If you'd like to see a photo, I'd post one or pm you one.

theDIfellas
07-21-2009, 06:40 PM
We have been doing shows well over 10 years. What we thought would work and what we use now after probably 9 major changes is very different. It's not so much a matter of what we liked changing, as much as realizing what worked to improve sales. Product layout and visibility, number of products (for us that too has changed) and customer access all affected the booth design. It really takes a few (or a lot in our case) of shows under our belt before we had what we consider the perfect arrangement.

The past three years we've had the same booth design with purchased folding tables, custom made table coverings, signs and home-built displays. We are finally satisfied with the booth from colors to layout. We also get a lot of compliments on our booth. We're fortunate though because my husband is a woodworker and can build whatever display we need for a low cost.

What I'm trying to suggest is not too invest to heavily in your first booth. I have no idea what you will be selling, but I've seen many, many vendors change booth styles numerous times before settling on one that works.

Our booth is 16 x 10 and fits in a pickup bed (with a topper). If you'd like to see a photo, I'd post one or pm you one.

Thanks, your booth is definitely more involving than what we're starting with but I understand we'll probably change things in the long run. Now that I've familiarized myself a lot more with the booth design industry and trade show industry, I just need some input on what companies are good.

So yeah we decided to shop. Skyline quotted us at $3700 for a 10x10 pop booth with a graphic covering the entire thing. Stand and lighting included. However, I see similar products from Camelback Displays and SD Sign Company at prices about below $2,000! However, these places don't have showrooms near me.

I will be looking at a couple other companies with showrooms tomorrow so I get a better idea of how Skyline quality stacks up.

For now.. of course I've heard of "you get what you pay for" but can someone shoot some advice my way?

lav
07-27-2009, 03:21 AM
If you were in Australia I could help. Try searching in your area for anyone who is an agent for Mark Bric (http://http://www.markbricdisplay.com/4_home.asp) If you want quality they have some great stuff that we use ourselves.


Skyline quotted us at $3700 for a 10x10 pop booth with a graphic covering the entire thingIm assuming your talking feet. Cause if thats metres thats a good price. You do have to be wary of cheap products Ive had many of my clients come to me asking to fix what they have bought elsewhere and some of it is really bad quality.

KristineS
07-27-2009, 01:38 PM
A truss is a metal scaffolding that you put around the edges of your booth. It gives form to the booth and can also be used for hanging things. We've hung panels off ours, televisions, mannequins, and signs.

Our crates are built to accommodate the biggest booth we think we might have. They're built from scratch, not around a pallet, and are built to work with whatever we're sending. Our latest crate was built with shelving for the truss and it's huge. We always have to ship it freight.

As for Skyline, I've heard of them but haven't done any work with them. $3700 seems a bit high to me, but that's part of why we tend to build our own. You can often find lights and stuff on Ebay, which could save you some money. You can find booths there as well. Also, you should keep in mind that a pop up booth is the most basic booth and isn't very flexible. If you think you may be inclined to change your look or add new products in the near future, you might want to consider other options.

We've worked with both Camelback Displays and SD Sign Company for booth accessories, and their prices were good and their merchandise was quality. SD Sign also has great customer service. We bought some banner displays for them, and when our salespeople killed a couple of them after one show, they replaced the broken stands at no charge.

theDIfellas
07-29-2009, 11:48 PM
If you were in Australia I could help. Try searching in your area for anyone who is an agent for Mark Bric (http://http://www.markbricdisplay.com/4_home.asp) If you want quality they have some great stuff that we use ourselves.

Im assuming your talking feet. Cause if thats metres thats a good price. You do have to be wary of cheap products Ive had many of my clients come to me asking to fix what they have bought elsewhere and some of it is really bad quality.

Australia! Man I hope to "vacation" there someday lol

We're pretty much set on going with Skyline (mainly my teammates' choice, I was leaning more towards a non-pop up booth model) and they are the best quality I have seen so far.

I just have to research video monitor stands in case we end up using video at show, which I believe would display our product much better than a plain banner.

theDIfellas
07-29-2009, 11:53 PM
A truss is a metal scaffolding that you put around the edges of your booth. It gives form to the booth and can also be used for hanging things. We've hung panels off ours, televisions, mannequins, and signs.

Our crates are built to accommodate the biggest booth we think we might have. They're built from scratch, not around a pallet, and are built to work with whatever we're sending. Our latest crate was built with shelving for the truss and it's huge. We always have to ship it freight.

As for Skyline, I've heard of them but haven't done any work with them. $3700 seems a bit high to me, but that's part of why we tend to build our own. You can often find lights and stuff on Ebay, which could save you some money. You can find booths there as well. Also, you should keep in mind that a pop up booth is the most basic booth and isn't very flexible. If you think you may be inclined to change your look or add new products in the near future, you might want to consider other options.

We've worked with both Camelback Displays and SD Sign Company for booth accessories, and their prices were good and their merchandise was quality. SD Sign also has great customer service. We bought some banner displays for them, and when our salespeople killed a couple of them after one show, they replaced the broken stands at no charge.

3,700 seemed much too high for me but I couldnt find comparable quality. Everything else was much less but just looked so mm, fragile and had a cheap-plastic look to it.

Thanks for the help. Like I mentioned above, we are leaning towards Skyline. I like the tension graphic 10x10 (don't know if you've seen those, its basically a large square or rectangular graphic fabric at an angle) And thanks for the feedback on Camelback and SD designs--I'll be looking into getting a video monitor stand... which brings me to my second question:


If I am playing video through a monitor, must the video come from say a laptop, a hardrive, etc or do some monitors store the video for you? Imagine a 10x10 pop up booth with a video monitor stand (since the add-on for the Skyline booth is too costly); how can I make that less cluttered?

Thank you everyone for all your help so far; the company is moving steadily and soon swiftly forward!

Patrysha
07-30-2009, 10:43 AM
I just used a 27inch flatscreen tv with a really small dvd player tucked in beside/behind it.

Mind you, it was a small town trade fair booth and we didn't have a traditional splashy type display...the stand was milk crates disguised by tablecloths...

KristineS
07-30-2009, 02:36 PM
We use flat screen televisions and very small dvd players. Much cheaper than other options and they can be set to run on a loop. When we use the truss, we mount the televisions on the truss itself which saves us space and makes a great attraction for traffic going by the booth.

As a side note, make sure whoever narrates your video has an attractive voice and pick music that you enjoy. You'll be listening to it over and over and over again.

theDIfellas
07-31-2009, 03:18 AM
^^ thanks for the replies.

I think we may go with a small Sony PS2.. if I can find a remote for it.

Automatic playback? I guess it depends on the player, I'll look into it! Thanks!

Im about to post another thread relating to trade shows.. hope u guys can offer some input :]

theDIfellas
10-15-2009, 07:00 PM
hey everyone i wanted to quickly chime in about the trade show and our booth.

The skyline booth we chose made a great impression on everyone at the show. The graphics we're awesome, colors were nice and bright. I'll be updating our blog tonight with more info!

Steve B
10-15-2009, 07:16 PM
How about some photos?

theDIfellas
10-18-2009, 03:12 AM
pics of the booth (not the best)

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu116/DuraDoggie/boothindoors.jpg

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu116/DuraDoggie/duradogieshirt.jpg

http://i639.photobucket.com/albums/uu116/DuraDoggie/booth.jpg

I'm updating the blog right now with more photos :]

KristineS
10-19-2009, 01:16 PM
That's a good graphic. Bright and eye catching. I bet a lot of people stopped when they saw it.

What kind of leads did you pull from the show?

theDIfellas
10-19-2009, 05:11 PM
^^ it looks better in person, a lot brighter.


We obtained many good leads and contacts. Some from huge companies like Hills (pet food), others like the president of the Pet Depot. Its been tough though since the season has changed and stores are buying less outdoor-type products.

This is why we are revamping our marketing strategy! Should be fun:]