5 Places to Look for Trade Show Display Ideas

Where do you go when you’re looking for trade show display ideas for your next project? Consider locations where extra effort has been made to create designs that stand out immediately. Here are 5 locations to look for inspiration and ideas:

Trade shows

Look for trade show display ideas during a trade show, what a fresh concept! You’re going to be there anyway, right? At the absolute least, you’ll examine your competitors’ trade show exhibits to discover how they differ from or complement your own marketing messages. Consider applying the same level of examination to non-competitors.

If you have the opportunity, stroll the show before it opens and make educated guesses about which designs will attract the most visitors. Then return during show hours to see whether you were correct — and to see which booths do in fact draw people. Then try to figure out what made them so effective. Even better, go to a show that isn’t in your business to watch how different exhibitors set up their booths.

Billboards

Billboards work best when they are designed to deliver a single message rapidly, using large, bold images and little writing. At 3 miles per hour, walking by 10-foot trade fair displays is akin to speeding past a billboard at 60 miles per hour, because you only have a few seconds to absorb the information.

A mall

While billboards can help you come up with ideas for inline exhibits, retail establishments can help you come up with ideas for island trade show exhibits. Take a walk through a mall and see how separate stores within the mall have constructed their entrance signage. Once you’re inside, consider how they’ve built their area to handle traffic flow.

Magazines

Although magazines are designed to be read at a slower speed, advertisements within them are designed to grab your attention quickly. Look for commercials with simple, engaging designs. What kind of visuals did they employ? What were their thoughts on the headline? Is the majority of the text large? Take a look at the page layouts of the articles itself, in addition to the advertisements.

For longer articles, especially the cover story, designers frequently create a larger billboard-like first-page spread. Look at the font, color schemes, images, and illustrations, as well as the textured backgrounds. You could forget to read the magazine once you start looking at them this way!

Online

You may search for trade fair exhibits and access a wealth of photographs online with just a few clicks. It’s a convenient way to view a large number of exhibits without having to leave your desk. We’ve photographed thousands of our clients’ trade show exhibits and put many of the best in our trade show display photo library, searchable by size and vertical market, to aid your online search. Keep in mind that online photos are typically small, two-dimensional, and low-resolution, whereas real exhibitions are larger and designed to be viewed on a human size. Although the internet is a great source of inspiration, nothing beats the real thing.