Trade show booths that stop the walk-by.

The three-second rule

Someone walking an aisle gives your booth a glance from about fifteen feet. In that glance they need to answer one question: is this relevant to me? Not your company name — what you do.

Which means the biggest text in your booth should describe the problem you solve, not your brand. "COMMERCIAL ROOFING" stops the right person. A logo alone, however nice, stops nobody who doesn't already know you.

What a 10x10 actually needs

• A back wall. A fabric or vinyl backdrop that fills the space. This is the single biggest visual difference between a booth and a table.
• One or two retractable banners. Portable, self-standing, and they frame the opening. Easy to reuse at every event after.
• A fitted table cover. Printed, to the floor. A bare rental table with a draped cloth undoes everything else you spent money on.
• Something in hand. A card or one-page leaver — see below.

Keep the message consistent across all of it. Four pieces saying four different things reads as clutter; four saying one thing reads as a brand.

What to skip

Walls of text. Nobody reads a booth. Anything longer than a phrase belongs in the handout.

A table across the front. It's a barrier. Push it to one side or the back and leave the front open — you'll get more people stepping in, and you can stand with them rather than across from them.

Heavy brochures. They're expensive, they get abandoned at the end of the day, and they get thrown away at the hotel. A single well-designed page is more likely to survive the trip home.

Sitting down. Costs nothing to fix and changes everything.

Details that catch people out

• Height limits. Most shows cap back-wall height for in-line booths. Check the exhibitor kit before you design.
• Lighting. Convention halls are dimmer than you remember. If lighting isn't included, ask.
• Power and flooring. Both are usually extra, and both are cheaper ordered in advance than on site.
• Transport. Retractables live in hard cases for a reason. Anything that ships loose arrives creased.

Design once, reuse for years

Keep dated content — year, show name, a specific offer — off the expensive permanent pieces and onto a cheap reprintable one. Then the backdrop and retractables work for every event, and you reprint one banner a year instead of a booth.

See trade show displays, or tell us your booth size and show date.