Building the Best Trade Show Booth
The most awe-inspiring trade show booths draw attention with LED light walls and Hollywood-style screen projections.
But the props and visual-display company Judith Von Hopf Inc. has been winning top awards for trade show–booth designs by mostly using simple paper and cardboard.
For the company’s own booth, called “Winter Forest,” set up at the GlobalShop trade show in Las Vegas earlier this year, the Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.–based company featured a fountain, tall trees and theatrical wigs for people to play with. The estimated cost of the booth was $50,000, and most of that money was spent not for its expensive materials but on paying staff to design and build the booth, said Melissa Hopf, president of Judith Von Hopf Inc., which was started in 1976 by her mother, Judith Hopf.
For its “Winter Forest” booth, the company won the “Best in Show” award, handed out by DDI magazine, and “Outstanding Booth,” which was awarded by VMSD magazine.
Hopf noted that elegantly folded paper and some playful props can create another world without breaking the bank. “We try to tell a story with the booth,” she said. “We take inspiration from pop-up books, and if you think of a booth as walking into a three-dimensional book, you become part of the story.”
In the 10-by-20-foot booth, visitors found two 12-foot trees made out of corrugated cardboard. One tree had leaves made from pages out of books.
Also installed in the booth was a fully functional water fountain. The fountain’s water looked as if it were running into a solid tile foundation. But there were no permanent structures placed in this trade show booth. The fountain was constructed of a strong but lightweight foam-board material, made out of resin and paper.
To give the wonderland a winter look, the booth floor was covered in “snowballs,” which were Styrofoam balls peppered with flocking to give them the look of snow. The booth also contained white paper flowers, white paper feathers, and a deer with antlers constructed out of falcon board, a rigid board material often used to make signage.
The booth was a good advertisement for the Judith Von Hopf company, whose name was prominently displayed in the middle of the booth. But Hopf didn’t want people to merely comment on how beautiful the booth was.
She wanted them to spend time and become part of the booth’s story. This required creating a “dress-up” game. The company constructed wigs made out of paper. A Princess Leia wig, a Marie Antoinette wig and a Marilyn Monroe wig were placed in the booth. The majority of the people passing through the booth donned the wigs for laughs and for a whimsical break from trekking around the big and busy trade show.
Hopf’s booth showed that you can go a long way with creativity, especially because most companies have a limited budget to spend on their trade show booths.
For those with a slim budget or limited time, Hopf suggested placing leaves and flower petals on the table to add some texture or installing an interesting-looking chair in the booth.
Most American fashion trade show vendors set up shop at a spare booth provided by trade show producers. At the popular Agenda trade show, a streetwear- and action sports–focused event, only eight out of the 500 vendors at the January show created their own booths. However, many trade show vendors accessorize their booths to spice up the look, said Aaron Levant, Agenda’s president.
Most vendors drop brand graphics into panels of the booths provided by show producers. Others accessorize booths by placing bamboo flooring on the ground, hanging shelves with reclaimed wood from old barns, or installing props, such as motorcycles, in the booth.
Companies with deep pockets can spend a large sum, ranging between $10,000 and $500,000, for a trade show installation. Installations can feature glittering LED curtains and tables with touch-screen computers touting company products, said James Schnauer, creative and managing director of Glow, a Los Angeles–area company that builds booths for auto companies and Hollywood film studios.
Yet no matter if your trade show budget is less than $100 or a proverbial king’s ransom, Schnauer said, the goal of the booth is the same. “It’s storytelling. You’re trying to tell a story about this product, and you’ve got to tell it in an engaging way.”
