Booth design

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

For what it's worth, we recently went through a booth design exercise. The
booth had to be 'air transportable' and inexpensive.

We settled on three panels in the booth: two large banners on either side,
showing promotional material. A third projection screen was between these
two banners.

The side banners are a flexible plastic sheet material. They were colour
printed at Print 3 in Richmond Hill and then equipped with eyelets in the
corners. (Banner printing cost varies enormously, these guys did a good
job at a reasonable price.) We designed a wooden X frame using dowels that
snapped into the eyelet holes and acted as a spreader to hold the banners
flat. Then we simply hung these from the exhibit rear pipe. (Print 3 had
stands, but they were $150 each and not exactly what we  wanted.) The
material and printing are surprisingly robust, apparently they can even be
used outside.

The centre panel was a 'darkout curtain' material that had been
recommended for  projection screens. We paid a seamstress to sew pockets
into the edges of this material. Then we theaded plastic pipe into these
pockets. The straight pipes popped into elbows in the corner, the pipes
dimensioned so that the screen was kept tight and flat. We spray painted
the bits of pipe that showed, to match the screen material.

We used a couple of Ikea 4-way lighting fixtures on the floor to project
light up on the side banners. I was advised that lighting is important and
it did make a big improvement. A digital projector under the booth table
projected on the centre screen.

This whole thing with other stuff fit into an 'art carrying tube' from
Curry's Art Store and a hockey bag from Canadian Tire. It cleared US
customs no problem, travelled well and looked good on site. Dunno the cost
total but it was a pittance compared to getting a profession booth
constructed.

Special credit goes to James Gaston who did the banner graphics, designed
and built the 'spring frames' for the banners and set up a rehearsal site
in his living room where we debugged the booth arrangement.

If there is interest, I can dig out pictures of the booth at the conference.

Peter

> As previously noted there is talk going on inside the
> executive regarding IT360. With that comes the
> question of furnishing a booth on the cheap.
>
> The current design view boils down to some sort of
> holder/frame at the back to hold up a backdrop +
> posters. In front of that 1 - 2 folding table(s)
> (covered and skirted in order to hold literature on
> top and hide coats/spare supplies underneath). In
> front of that 2 bar stools / bistro chairs for
> volunteers to sit on (we want people even when sitting
> to be at roughly eye height of visitors to the booth,
> so, no regular chairs).
>
> Beyond that, carpeting would be very nice, but not
> required. and nothing else...
>
> The closest thing to a controversy is centered around
> the design of the back holder/frame. Question is, do
> we want:
>
> - A T style holder where a center post holds out 2
> 4.75 foot hangers from which we hang our backdrop
> material.
>
> - An upside down U frame with posts at each end
> holding up a 9.5 foot pole across the back.
>
> Both ideas have a set of strengths and weaknesses. Key
> point in my books is that we want a booth design that
> can fold up and be dropped into the back of a small
> car or in a pinch be hauled away by 4-5 volunteers on
> the subway...
>
> Colin McGregor
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-- 
Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
647-839-0325

--
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