Exhibition Stand Design Tips and Advice

Event season is coming up, so we’re going to share our top tips on how to design an exhibition stand that’ll draw as many people to your business as possible!

Exhibition areas can be tiny table-tops with pop-up roller banners either side, all the way up to multi-size background graphics, podiums, and showcases. It doesn’t matter how large or small the event you’re attending will be: an eye-catching design will always help to draw customers to your stand.

1. Put Important Messages In The Top Third

Exhibitions are busy places, so it’s important to make sure your killer strapline is easily visible. Roller banners and exhibition stands are easy to see from a distance as they are tall products – so make sure that your important message is in the top third of your design.

This means that anybody looking across the exhibition space from a distance will still be able to identify the product or service that you’re selling, helping to entice people across to your stand. If your message is hidden in the lower half of your design, you risk it being hidden by passers-by, and that means fewer people will be drawn to you.

2. Stick To Your Brand Colours

While it’s tempting to brighten up your exhibition stand to try and draw the colour-magpies over to you, it’s essential to stick to your brand colours when you design any exhibition graphics.

This is because it helps people to identify your company from across the room: without using your brand colours, you can lose your identity and confuse potential customers about what you’re offering and who you are.

3. Keep Text To A Minimum

People only read exhibition graphics as they are walking past, so keep your text to an absolute minimum.

Classic but effective exhibition stands will have: a brand name, a website and/or telephone number, a strapline, and a large image or two of best-selling products.

The idea behind your exhibition stand design is to entice people over to talk to your representatives, too. If you give all the info away on your pop-up banners, there’s no reason for prospect customers to engage with people from your company – so you could lose out on valuable lead generation opportunities.

Remember, you can always have folded leaflets, brochures, business cards, posters, and flyers to hand out to people who visit your stand. This is a great way to build an interaction with them, and provide more information for them to read and remember at a later date.

4. Use A Combination Of Banners And Stands

If you have room in your exhibition space, consider using an exhibition stand AND a roller banner pop-up or two.

This will help you to create more brand presence at the event, without actually taking up a much larger footprint than just an exhibition stand would. You can also use roller banners to showcase your latest products and services, and keep these graphics updated at a low cost for future events, while keeping your main exhibition stand graphics on-brand to be used time and again for true economy.

5. Double Up Your Case As A Podium

When you design your exhibition stand space, consider using different levels and areas for visual interest and practicality.

An exhibition stand case can double up as a podium or desk, for example, which allows you to provide somewhere for prospect customers to fill out their details to receive more information. Having different levels, podiums, and showcase areas will also create a more visually appealing stand: it looks like there is more going on, so people are more likely to be drawn to the area than if you only have a background stand.

Doubling your carry case as a podium also provides you with an additional branding opportunity, as a graphic can be wrapped around the case. In addition, having something like this to stand behind looks professional to prospect customers.