When deciding to host a trade show stand at an industry exhibition, one must spend a lot of time thinking about the design of the display. No matter if your company is planning on designing its own graphics or if you are a designer looking to break into exhibit design, there are certain rules you will need to follow. Primarily, it is important to get across the marketing message quickly through bold, attention-grabbing graphics. Show attendees are not going to be spending a lot of time observing each booth, so their attention needs to be captured immediately.

Simple Graphics Are The Key

Don't rely on previously designed print ads or brochures to use in a trade show exhibit. These often contain too much extraneous text and are not designed with large proportions in mind. Trade event graphics are much larger than other pieces. Of course, you can use elements from this literature, but edit them so that the images are larger, headlines are concise, and verbal content is short and easily read.

Do keep things simple. When designing trade show stand graphics, you must get across three things: who you are, what you do, and why a potential client should choose your company's products or services. Not only this, but you must communicate these three things in only a few seconds. Think about billboards along the highway. They are designed to be read by cars going by at upwards of 55 miles per hour. Trade event attendees are like these cars, speeding by uninteresting booths at record speed. Design with size and a short attention span in mind.

Be Careful With Graphic Size

Don't find images for your trade show exhibit by surfing the internet and saving images from websites (unless they are stock photography websites). Images optimized for web usage are usually at a low resolution, meaning that while they may look great on the computer, they won't print very clearly. Dpi is the industry standard for resolution, referring to dots per inch. Web images are often only at 72 dpi. To get a high quality print, you will need images to be at least 200 dpi, and even higher for large-format graphics.

Do see a proof of your design in its final size. This way, you can assess the impact of the size of your trade show exhibit graphics and catch any problems with image resolution.

Hire The Experts

Don't use a standard desktop printer to print your display graphics. Home office printers are great for word processing documents and even smaller color pictures, but you need professional printing capabilities to handle larger designs for a trade show exhibit.

Do make use of professional printers and other skilled workers in the design field. They are trained in this sort of work and will be able to provide advice on everything from exhibit design to color choices to printing options.

Because trade show stand graphics are an integral part of your exhibit, it is crucial to follow these tips for greater success at trade events.