At ESM, When we do an estimated cost for a stand concept we work very much from the ground up. Platform, then floorcovering. It’s how we work. When we consider flooring from an exhibition stand design perspective we work in reverse, it is almost the last thing we think about. Last doesn’t mean LEAST important however, far from it.
The floorcovering used on your stand can come to define it, set off everything else perfectly, or on the flip side become a living nightmare to deal with in practical terms and ruin the nature of the experiential environment everything else has been geared to creating, which is why your trade fair stand designer should always be mindful of every aspect of your brand in order to make your stand work for you.
Here are some of our top tips, from the most obvious to a few you may not have considered before:
1) Contrasts and Colour
If your stand is a sea of colour, contrast with a plain colour on the floor to allow the build and graphics to communicate the brand. If instead you have used clean white walling which allows your graphics to stand out, in those instances for example a bright corporate colour on the floor matching your brand guidelines can pull the whole thing together.
2) Take Delegates On A Journey
We see the science of this evident in retail environments. Use different floor finishes both in colour and texture to take your audience on a journey through the booth, or to bring focus to different areas of the stand. Highlight product displays with a different finish. Subconsciously guide your visitors through the stand and make a story of your company and brand which is possible on stands much smaller than you might think.
3) Accentuate Space
If you have a smaller booth, try selecting a light-coloured carpet to make your stand look larger. Use narrow cut ins to pull the attention of the delegate into the booth in and make the sides of the stand more peripheral; you will seem wider.
4) Find Brand Consistency
Ensure your stand is consistently experiential throughout from tip to toe. If you have a theme, carry it through. Natural outdoor finishes to walling can be twinned with Astroturf, of which there is a huge range available from short (cheap) through to long pile grassed effect. Surgically clean and clinical finishes can be paired with a white laminate floor.
Where you can’t find a specific colour that matches your brand flooring can be printed to match a specific pantone. Graphics can also be mounted to flooring to reinforce stand branding and graphics.
Is your brand luxurious? Then stay away from the cheapest pile carpets. Have you ever walked into a premium hotel or casino, and FELT the luxury underfoot as your feet sink into the pile of the carpet? Experiential means taking the values your brand holds dear and making people FEEL them and understand them so they buy from you. Don’t compromise.
5) Dare To Differentiate
Make the most of lighting at the show and attract more attention to your stand with the use of glitter – the lighting on your booth and around the exhibition will make the floor sparkle and catch the eye of passers-by.
Use of LED tile within floors that can be walked on enable you to present visual messages and brand information to delegates and more importantly present movement and flow to a space like nothing else can. Not the cheapest solution, but a real showstopper!
If you have the budget, go for a lit floor – use LED lighting to highlight key areas, create patterns or respond to people walking onto the stand. LED skirting is popular to define the area of your stand more effectively, but retail is detail!! A glazed floor lit from beneath as seen in retail shopping centres such as ‘Bluewater’ can stun. Check out this effort for our client ‘Commidea’; a brand selling POS software and support TO retail outlets. Thus presenting to them in THEIR language through finishes they expect.
Use your experience of stand designs your competitors have used in the past, and try to work in something that will make you stand out from the crowd.
6) Consider Practicalities
Whether you select interlocking carpet tiles, a roll of carpeting, printed flooring, laminate, artificial grass, decking, aggregate or tiles, take some time to really look at all options available to you and determine how appropriate they will be for use.
Don’t forget that your team will be standing on their feet all day, so your floor selection may need to take their comfort into account as well as the overall stand aesthetics. A pained sales team makes ROI targets suddenly look a great deal tougher to achieve.
Catering for your visitors, who WILL spill their coffee. Use vinyl or laminate that cleans easily for catered areas. Many a table has been moved to make a coffee stained carpet look acceptable by those not in the know.
And Finally......
Get samples from your exhibition stand contractors to bring back to the office and assess their suitability against your requirements. This will help you avoid costly mistakes and it will give you a visual reference point when you are presenting the final design to your team.
At ESM, we take the hard work out of selecting flooring for your stand. We anticipate your needs from the ground up. We’ll do the recommendations for you and know all the tricks there are that go into making the right choice. We’ll provide samples, listen to your needs and react to suit them where your choices subjectively differ from our own.
Flooring is always a key consideration when we design stands, we know how important it is to the overall final look, and no matter what the size of budget, our team of experts will give you the best possible advice and support.
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