Moulding your stand

We hope that you can find inspiration for your stand ideas from the work we have done with other clients and your conversations with us, but ultimately it will depend on your aims and outcome targets for the show. Maybe you already have artwork for the event that is nearing sign off. Or maybe you want to choose the hardware and then design the artwork to suit that.

Designing your exhibition stand can be as much a process of collaboration with Rounded Edge as you want it to be, following on from initial requirement discussions. Whilst there may some final decisions to be made on budget, stand space, ambition and so on, you'll probably have a reasonable idea of which hardware system you're interested in.

It may seem odd to push for a stand design that is (structurally, at least) fairly final at this still-early stage. But hitting deadlines and finding the optimum exhibition solution does require a modicum of decisiveness. We need to be able to provide a quote or estimate at this point, and whilst tweaks and changes are inevitable, a quotation will lean heavily on something that's more like a piece of pottery than a lump of clay.

Fortunately, we have an ace up our sleeve to help you with this task. Stand design is made a whole lot easier by using CAD to visualise your hardware systems and other objects in situ.

CAD: a vital exhibition service

For our design team, computer aided design is a powerful tool and one which saves them an enormous amount of time and effort. It allows them (and by extension, you) to place virtual objects in a 3D construct, then look at it from any angle. We use Cinema 4D for this work.

All of our exhibition products and accessories are fully realised 3D objects in our library, ready to be placed in a construct in any of their possible configurations. Should any bespoke elements be required, they can be drawn as new objects, ready for inclusion.

Since all the objects are to scale, and the exhibition stand space is usually known in advance, it's possible to quickly try a few configurations to arrive at some cracking options for the best use of that space, including any seating or other meeting points, literature stands, counters and so on.

It quickly becomes clear if the space is too sparse or overcrowded, allowing insight into how easily people would be able to move around the stand. It also shows how easily visitors will be able to see each part of the stand from any angle, envisioning the flow of footfall around a venue. This insight can sometimes result in a re-assessment of an object's position and its necessity.

Once the visibility, access, flow and practicality (which all depend on what the stand is being used for) have been considered, there may be further thought needed for lighting requirements and the position of electrical points.

CAD, therefore, is undeniably instrumental in helping to arrive at a final exhibition stand design. But you'll find working with Rounded Edge Studio gets you to that endpoint even quicker, because our experience can guide you to the appropriate objects, layout and even stand space for any given exhibition or conference situation.

Further refinements

The above describes a process of collaboration that usually occurs as we tender for a client's job. We know that offering this service for free is generous, but important because it saves time, as well as reducing the kind of ambiguity and doubt that might lead to last-minute changes.

Speaking of time, it's amazing how often the threat of a looming deadline spurs people to act at a time when it's already too late to do things properly. We always recommend building in an appropriate amount of time (depending on the size and complexity) for design considerations.

On larger builds, particularly custom build stands where every element might be bespoke, the CAD visuals become even more important, taking out much of the guesswork. We can furnish the drawings with details of both lighting (which looks pretty) and electrical points (which the venue or event organiser will appreciate).

In the header image at the top of this page, we've shown a composite transition between a wireframe view and a rendered view. Because as this stage, we don't have your final artwork, the graphics used for the rendered view are necessarily generic - so you'll see our Twist logo on the Twist graphic panels, for example.

Render

If there is time available, we can take your final artwork and place it onto the graphic panels and other objects in the construct, before generating full rendered images that include your artwork. Again, this can be done from a number of angles if required. The rendering process is pretty resource-hungry and time-consuming though, so we tend to insist on all details being finalised first.

Fully rendered CADs really are almost as good as browsing photographs of the finished stand. You'll see in many of our blog posts about events just how close the CAD images we generated look to the photos we or the client took at the show itself.