Trade shows are a way for small businesses, startups, and even big brands to come together and show off their products and services to attendees. It can be a challenge to capture people’s attention if you’re still an unknown company. However, you can get an advantage by sprucing up your trade show booth design.

That way, you can get more visitors to your booth, and they can go home while they remember your company and brand.

In this article, we discuss trade show booth designs you can implement for your booth. You can also get inspiration from the examples we’ve seen.

 

1. Utilize Reusable Items

If your small business or startup frequent trade shows, it’s best to opt for a reusable trade show booth design material. That way, you can save up on costs and set aside money for the expenses that matter. 

You can even go for a DIY trade show booth option, and wood can be your primary material. It’s a popular material to use. Get plus points if you use sustainable items too! 

One good idea to execute is to use shipping containers. You can stick posters or put stickers to give your shipping container booth a dash of branding.

Here’s how Sunfed used a shipping container for their trade show booth. Brett Alan designed Sunfed’s shipping container to make sure it stands out among the crowd. It seems they printed the visual assets to place the graphic design materials seen on the shipping container. If Sunfed decides to go for another trade show, they can reuse the exhibition if needed.

 

2. Design Flooring

An overlooked part of a trade show booth design is the flooring. If you want booth visitors to get an overall fantastic experience, create a flooring design that won’t make your visitors regret looking down. You can ask a graphic designer to make an illustration. 

Also, you don’t have to go all out by having the illustration printed on every tile. You can use decals or have them printed on sustainable material. Or in the case of the Keolis trade show booth design, they used vinyl.

In aligning to what their company is (transportation), they added a train track design on the floor. Something as subtle as that can add to the brand identity of the company in a trade show. So that’s a plus for them.

 

3. Take Branding to the Next Level

One of the many best practices in designing trade show booths is to follow branding or a theme. Through branding, you’re able to make a visitor learn more about you. Meanwhile, a theme could be something fun to do for your trade show booth. If you have a theme, you can level up your branding further.

It’s subtle, but here’s the Big Prawn exhibition by the GGS design agency. They printed out sea-related graphics on their booth and even had a digital display. It’s a great trade show booth design because you’re associating the graphics and display to the brand, which makes it easier to remember.

 

4. Make the Attendees the Hero

Don’t make the product or your service the hero of your exhibition. Make it the attendee. Give them the spotlight. That way, you’re showing that it’s genuinely your target audience that shines when using the product. You can go for a photo booth so they can take photos and even tag you on social media.

In this case, you can check out the Smoko exhibition by Manny Stone. Aside from having graphic designs printed on the booth, you can see on the right side, and there seems to be a photo cutout stand where attendees can take pictures. The Smoko branding is on the stand, which is a plus. 

The photo cutout stand can make more visitors go, and it would enable them to become like a celebrity or an ambassador of the brand.

 

5. Tell a Story

If you want people to get to know your company or your product, tell your story visually. You can have your story printed on a board. Make it colorful or make it quirky. After all, you don’t have as much time to tell about the company’s background or the product, let the graphics or photos speak for themselves.

You can tell a story about a prominent person that would make your product more enticing. The person doesn’t have to be related to your company. So long as it has a connection to what you’re selling.

Check out this booth designed by Sam Rodgers for Scott Sports. You can see that there’s a copy for collections, items, and brief information about a world champion, Nico Schurer. That way, you let the text speak for itself, as you entertain and tend to attendees.

 

6. Visualize Data

Numbers can make people stop dead in their tracks. Marketers know the value of adding data to their content. That’s why you should get notes from marketers on this one, and realize how important data would be on your trade show booth.

As an example, check out how the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal (ASPCA) Kids used data in their trade show booth design. They surveyed kids and parents about volunteerism and ASPCA. People could stop and view the data on the booth. It’s a great way to introduce ASPCA to the general public.

 

7. Present your Freebies

Don’t leave your guests empty-handed. You want to make a long-lasting impression once they’ve stepped a few feet away from your booth.  You can set-up a table where your attendees can get free stuff like pins or stickers. 

To inspire you, check out how Meng Yang designed the Mango Languages trade show booth. They had a separate table where guests could get flyers and button pins. That’s where your graphic designer comes in. You can ask them to make visual assets like that so your visitors can take something home.

 

8. Display Graphics

If you have a big budget and can spend some more on signage or a huge banner, then go ahead. You can use graphic design for a backdrop too. 

Many would go for hanging banners, which might be expensive. But you don’t have to go as far as hanging something up on the ceiling.

Here’s an example that may inspire you. Check out how Klei used a backdrop thanks to Skyline. Even if it’s behind the computers, you can still see the copy in the backdrop and see the main characters from the game, Don’t Starve Together. Thanks to the copy, it makes you wonder what the game is (if you don’t know what it is).

 

9. Try Gamification

Take interactivity to the next level. Gamify your trade show booth by engaging your visitors to play games or do activities that give them a chance to win or get a reward. It’s one of the best practices companies use so they could have people come over to the booth. Not only that, but you can get to know how your audience is.

Take a look at this example from Thycotic.

They used a wheel similar to the one in The Price is Right. You can print out the materials that go inside the wheel and even make a design on it. An attendee can get a reward when they spin the wheel. It’s a great use of gamification because people might want to check out the commotion and see what they can win from the company.

 

10. Go Digital

Don’t rely on printing photos or posters on your trade show booth. Many are doing that already, and you want to stand out from the crowd. To make attendees flock your booth, let them view it on a screen.

If you’re using monitors or screens, you can have patterned illusions displayed on those. You can also make something in your backdrop pop like splashes of color. 

Many companies use digital displays to show videos as well. If video isn’t your thing, you can display images. It’s best to have a graphic designer to do this so they can customize your digital display while making it high-quality for you.

Here’s where you can get inspiration for your digital display. Samsung used digital displays for the Infocomm trade show. On their digital display, you see the graphic design on the biggest screen. In other trade shows, Samsung would even use several screens just to show one video or an image. You can try that out if that works for you or if you have money to spend.

 

Final Thoughts

These ten trade show booth ideas can help you get more visitors to your booth. You don’t have to settle for a simple booth and some trade show materials. Learn how others did it from the examples provided in this list. From there, you can proudly show off your trade show booth to your would-be customers.

Need trade show materials like flyers, posters, or banners? Design Doctor can provide those for you. You can request for other design assets like logos, social media graphics, and more. Click on the sign-up button when you check out the pricing and get more out of your subscription in one month!