Exhibition stand design
Exhibition stand design is the one discipline where the deadline genuinely cannot move. The show opens on the published date whether the graphics turned up or not, and the organiser artwork deadline usually falls weeks before that. It changes how the whole project has to be run.
- More than 10 years of experience
- More than 200 clients
- Barcelona, Miami and London
What the stand has to do before anyone speaks to you
Most visitors decide whether to walk in from about five metres away, while moving, with several hundred other stands competing for the same glance. That is the actual brief. Everything else is detail.
So the opening questions are not aesthetic. What must a passer by understand without stopping, where does a conversation physically happen, and what should somebody do once they are standing inside the space.
Stands fail for dull reasons. The message sits at the wrong height, the counter blocks the entrance, or the graphics were approved on a laptop at A4 and never checked at full size.
What we design and what the stand builder builds
Worth being blunt about this before anyone signs anything. We are a design studio, not a contractor. There is no workshop here, no warehouse of modular frames and no crew of fitters.
Exhibition stand builders and exhibition stand contractors manufacture, transport, install and dismantle. Most of them also offer design, usually shaped around the system they already stock, and for a small stand on a tight budget that is often the sensible answer.
What a studio adds sits before fabrication: the concept, the brand handled at scale, the graphic system, and drawings a manufacturer can quote from without inventing anything. You keep that package, which means you can put it out to more than one builder instead of being tied to whoever drew it.
From concept to build drawings
The calendar runs backwards from the show rather than forwards from the brief.
- Brief and floor plan. Stand size, which sides are open, height limits, neighbours, and the rules in the organiser manual, which are stricter than most first time exhibitors expect.
- Concept. Two directions at most, shown in context with a figure for scale, because a stand drawn without people in it always looks larger than it is.
- Graphics. Messaging hierarchy, the brand resolved at three metres and at thirty centimetres, and artwork prepared for large format printing rather than scaled up from a brochure.
- Technical drawings. Plans, elevations and a written specification the builder can price: materials, finishes, lighting positions, power, and exactly where each graphic panel sits.
- Production. Print files to the builder specification, proofs checked, and an on site review during the build when the show justifies it.
Bespoke, custom and modular, and which you actually need
Bespoke exhibition stand design means the structure is drawn for you and built once. That earns its keep when the stand has to do something unusual, or when one big show a year carries the whole pipeline.
Modular systems are reconfigurable frames that you hire or already own. A custom exhibition stand design built on a modular frame can look nothing like the catalogue version, and it travels far better if there are six shows in the calendar.
We ask how many shows you do before recommending either, because the honest answer changes completely between one and six.
Trade show booth design for shows in the United States
The vocabulary changes across the Atlantic. An exhibition stand in Birmingham is a trade show booth in Chicago, and more than the name changes with it.
US shows tend to run tighter on rigging, drayage and labour rules, and the show contractor holds more authority over what may happen on the floor. Those constraints belong in the design phase. Discovering them three weeks out is how a stand gets redrawn at the worst possible moment.
What we will tell you before you book the space
If the stand is the smallest shell scheme on offer and the budget went on the floor space, the honest recommendation is usually a single strong graphic wall, decent lighting and nothing else. Cleverness at that size reads as clutter.
How we work
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Free consultation
We work out what you need, who it is for and what it has to achieve. You leave with a budget range and a proposal for where to start.
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Scope in writing
The exact pieces, versions, review rounds and dates. You know what you will pay before anything starts.
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Design in stages
Concept, development and final artwork, with an agreed review at the end of each stage and one person at the studio who answers.
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Delivery and follow-up
Production-ready files, the usage rules in writing, and follow-up with the printer whenever print is involved.
Frequent questions
Do you build the stand as well as design it?
No. We design it and produce the drawings and artwork, then work alongside the exhibition stand builders or manufacturers who fabricate and install. If you do not have a contractor we can help you compare quotes. Keeping the two separate means the design is not written around one supplier stock list.
What is the difference between a bespoke and a modular exhibition stand?
Bespoke is drawn and built for you, and the structure is yours. Modular uses a reconfigurable frame system that gets rebuilt into different shapes for different shows. Bespoke gives more freedom on form. Modular is easier to reuse, store and transport, and with good graphics it does not have to look generic.
What separates the best trade show booth designs from the rest?
One idea instead of five, and a clear decision about where people stand. The strongest stands are usually simpler than the runners up: a single legible message high enough to be seen over crowds, an obvious way in, and lighting that is actually specified rather than left to whatever the hall provides.
Do you work on trade show booth design in the United States?
Yes, and on European shows too. The design process is the same. What changes is the organiser rulebook, the contractor arrangements and the terminology, so we read the specific show manual early rather than assuming the last show applies.
Is it better to use a local exhibition stand design company?
For the design, location matters very little, since drawings and artwork are reviewed on screen. It matters for the build, and there the relevant proximity is your builder to the venue, not your designer to you. We work remotely and arrange meetings by appointment in London, Barcelona or Miami.
Tell us which show you are exhibiting at
Use the qualification form to tell us the show, the stand size, which sides are open and the date the organiser wants artwork. We come back with an approach and a calendar that works backwards from the deadline. The first call is free.