Design and Why it is Important

Deep down there is a little bit of designer in all of us. Whether it’s the way you pick your clothing, the detailing of your car or the cushions in the lounge room we all have a style and like to bring that out.

Designing a stand though is different. Designing a stand is a delicate path of balancing brand,dbudget, exhibition goals, space and personalities all at the same time. If handled poorly, it costs you TIME, MONEY and STRESS.

At Grand Stand Events we like to listen first and design second. Easy to say but so much harder to do. We like to design stands for their exact purpose. So to help you prepare your next design brief, here are some of our tips to make the process easier and save you TIME in the long run.

Objectives

Why are you exhibiting and what is the single biggest objective for you at the show. It could be to sell products directly from the space, to introduce your self to the market or to re connect with the market. What ever the objective, make sure you have it clearly defined along with what your measure of success will be.

Function

Perhaps the hardest part of writing a brief. What is the functions that will occur on the stand? For example, to facilitate meetings, to sell a specific item direct to the public, to demonstrate a product or hands on experience. Then ask your self how will this happen? Cash sale, EFTPOS transaction, testing of product, samples to touch, taste or feel. This will help your designer plan the space to ensure it is conducive to the audience.

History

Share with your designer what has worked and what has not. Save time by cutting to the point. It reminds of a stand I built for the Government of Dubai where my clients brief specifically said “No Camels – Pictures or props”. To me I thought camels was a logic inclusion, however for my client they had the history and knew that it did not add value for their stand. Telling me this saved both of us time and allowed us to design the right stand, quicker.

Budget

It is important you set a realistic budget so that your stand builder can prepare the best possible design that meets both your objectives, function and cost expectations. Be specific for what you expect included and excluded.

Product

If you have product, we need dimensions. Without them it is like driving with no lights on at night. We want to help make your products fit in the space you have allocated from the event organiser.

Sketch

Try your hand at it. Include a sketch of what you think will work as it will help us ask more questions. Don’t worry some of us can’t sketch either.

Show Info

So this we consider the foundations. This is your stand size, floor plan for the event, exhibitor manual if you have it and any other important information shared by the organiser.

Corporate Identitiy

Include your marketing guideleines so we can make sure we are designing to your corporate identity.

Their is lots of other elements to design, such as materials, finishes, technology and signage but they should all come out as part of the listening stage when designing a stand. Check out some of our work at www.grandstandevents.com.au we are happy to prepare your next design for you.