Designing interactive exhibition stands within the constraints of a moderate budget has become a regular challenge for the team at Ignition who recently delivered hi high tech stand for Bold Communications Limited at IFSEC.

Clearly client confidentiality prevents me from disclosing too much but needless to say once the exhibition is underway Ignition will be proud to showcase the project as it demonstrates a great exhibition stand design within a sensible budget.

One area that Ignition is keen to develop further is Commercial Interior Design in the Manchester and the North West. Despite tight budgets cool and funky office interiors and reception areas can be achieved with limited funds. Jonathan Absalom, Creative director commented “At Ignition we enjoy all challenges. We are constantly pushed to deliver creativity but more recently we have been asked to work within clients reduced budgets. This makes us work harder. It would be really nice if all of our clients had unlimited budgets but they don’t. We are in a economic climate where all projects need to have a form of commercial justification and interior design is no different. It is just another form of marketing. Customers feel good, staff feel good and the knock on effect is that the business becomes more effective.” Ignition is now out looking for commercial interior design projects in both Manchester and the Northwest so if you feel like benefiting from some appropriate creativity get in touch.

Commissioning the design of a custom exhibition stand takes financial commitment and time. Choosing an exhibition stand designer that understands your needs and you can trust is a complex task but if you prepare beforehand the process can be smooth and even enjoyable. Ignition - creative exhibition stand designers - has compiled this guideline to help you the client through the process of exhibition stand design, the planning of your exhibition stand through to the preparation of your exhibition stand and how to manage the results of the pitch process.

Bespoke Exhibition Stands - ROI
With any exhibition stand, your company is about to invest a large proportion of the Marketing Budget and resources into an event that often lasts no more than three days. It is vital that you are able to maximise the return on that investment on your exhibition stand. This exhibition stand guide will help you to define success, measure the success and contribute to the success of the process.

Exhibition Stand designs - Writing the brief
If you have the time it is always worth writing a brief. However simple your exhibition stand brief is, a written document can become the basis of the brief and a good design consultancy will be able to work with you and develop a detailed exhibition stand brief.
If you have had an exhibition stand in the past, it is a good idea to have a good think about what has happened and what was good and what didn’t work so well. If you can get some photos of the last exhibition stand it is always helpful.

If you have not had an exhibition stand before then the task is slightly more difficult and you might be more dependent on the experience and competence of the exhibition stand designers to help you explore opportunities with the layout, possible exhibition stand activities and key components of the exhibition stand. If you have visited an exhibition stand that you have liked in the past then try to write down things that you feel worked as a delegate and maybe things that worked less well.

As a simple guide a brief should consist of the following headings
. Project Title - What where when
. Project contact details - who is the primary client contact – Project Champion
. Project Background - Any information that might help the designer understand the history of the brief
. Project Objectives - Decide whether the objective is out shine the competition, sales, new product launch or a combination.
. Details - How many, how big
. Desired outcome - Ideally how would success be achieved
. Considerations - any other information etc

Once you have written the brief there are certain activities that will need to be undertaken to move the process along to the final goal, of ensuring that you investment produces the return that you are anticipating.

The World Expo Exhibition Stand Design Shanghai 2010 is set to open in 166 days, and Secretary Clinton talked about the role of the USA pavilion Exhibition Stand Design, to strengthen the cooperation and partnership between the US and China.

“We’re grateful for your generosity and your steadfast belief in the importance of the Expo, the American role here and what this USA pavilion here can do to strengthen cooperation and partnership between the American people and the people of China.
We are building it and we believe that when the Expo opens in 166 days 70 million people will come.

And with this rain today, maybe a hundred million people with even greater good fortune will come. Thank you all very much.” Secretary Clinton Exhibition Stand Design

The exhibition design provides a backdrop to showcase a private collection of Everton memorabilia through the ages. Visitors are invited into the Picton Reading Rooms at Liverpool’s grand Central Library through a players tunnel. The exhibition consists of a series of themed exhibits where visitors can explore the history of the Club, watch video while sitting in a mock up Goodison stand and pick your ‘all time 11′ team form bygone years.

Ignition has worked on permanant installations in the past but these have been more specifically aimed at the commercial sector. Lewis (Director at Ignition said “it is always a pleaseure to work on exhibitions that deliver an educational function. We are often involved in commercial trade exhibitions that are built for three days and then returned to storage. This exhibition is going to be open to the public for about twelve months which is great because I can invite my nephews along to see it. Especially because they are Liverpool fans!”

If you find yourself needing an injection of culture, sport, architecture and fun, get along to the FREE exhibition at the Central Library Liverpool.

On day four I am called from the office as we have been invited to pitch on an exhibition design project that needs to to be presented while I am under canvas. I had my laptop with me (it is a really useful tool when making sandcastles) and by chance was staying on a campsite that not only had wireless internet access but also had a little desk.

The creative exhibition stand design proposal was emailed over to me and I was able to break it down into critical components to be able to quote against. All this was emailed back to the office and I was left to continue sitting in the rain while the exhibition stand design was presented back in Manchester.

We won…which made me start to wonder whether there is any need for an office at all? Should I move into a tent, set up a desk and manage all my responsibilities from a tent in Wales.

At Ignition we have a great appreciation for technology and when the right projects come along we can’t wait to use it. You might remember the stand we did for Plastribution for example where we used some clever lighting effects. We have a lot of fun with that project and the E3 expo reminded us that if technology is used in the right way and can be used to magical effect.

Although new technology is becoming used more and more its important not to get dragged in to using it for the sake of using it. The technology should fit in to your design rather than basing a trade show booth design around one technology. It’s an easy mistake to make and usually result in a fairly low quality design.

Technology also plays a large part in the user experience of a stand. Stand designers can add a whole new level of engagement with audiences but importantly the visitors journey needs to be considered. Do you place technology such as flat screens and computers at the front of the stand or do you put them in the middle or at the end? How much technology do use? How much is to much? These are all things that need to be considered. I personally think that the best use of technology is when its not overly apparent that its there. By that i mean something that is working in the background to help create a great experience.

It will be interesting to see what appears at next years show.