Bringing D&F’s Brand to Life: A Collaboration Between BAP Agency and Ion Exhibits at IPPE 2026 

TL;DR: When BAP Agency had a clear vision for D&F’s IPPE booth, they needed a partner who could execute without reworking the idea. Ion Exhibits’ in-house fabrication didn’t redesign—it solved. Reinforced the red toolbox so it actually functioned. Refined the corners to guide traffic and display products. The result: a booth that felt intentional, not patched together. That’s what happens when an agency’s vision meets a fabrication partner who understands their role.

For IPPE 2026, D&F Equipment Sales, Inc. was not looking to start over or entirely rethink how they showed up on the show floor. That had already taken place through their ongoing work with BAP Agency, a Branding & Advertising agency in Albertville, AL, who had diligently worked to make D&F’s IPPE booth of the previous year stand out and align with their refreshed brand presence. While the IPPE 2025 booth was functional, BAP knew it wasn’t quite where it needed to be to make the most impact. 

Before the D&F crew and BAP team even left the 2025 show floor, it became clear that there were parts of the space that could do more in 2026. Not in a way that called for complete redesign, but in practical ways that roadblock exhibitors from getting the most out of their exhibit space. 

D&F operates in a highly technical world, engineering and manufacturing equipment for the food processing industry. Because of the nature of their work, people attending IPPE don’t just walk by and glance. They stop, they ask questions, and they look closely. Any show booth of D&F must support that kind of client interaction, and there were a few areas where that wasn’t the case. 

The corners were one of those areas. 

In 2025, the corners were strategically used, but they had fallacy. They didn’t guide people in, they didn’t naturally create space for products, and they didn’t support the team behind the booth in the way they could have. At the same time, there were smaller, more practical needs-like storage and usability-that had to be accounted for without making the booth feel disconnected or overly complicated. 

And then there was the idea of adding something that would simply make people stop. Not something flashy for the sake of it, but something that felt connected to D&F and the kind of work they do. 

BAP Agency had a clear sense of all of this. The vision was securely in place by their team, but the question was, “How do we bring our ideas into the exhibit without sacrificing the integrity of the booth we just entirely redesigned?” 

That’s where Ion Exhibits came in-not to redesign the booth, but to help build what the BAP vision required to adequately showcase the D&F equipment and capabilities. 

“I really wanted to highlight the booth corners to something that’s more functional. So I began dreaming about what I wanted those to look like. I had visions in my head. We went to some other trade shows. I tried to showcase what some of those visions were. I had to get people to think outside the box.” – Beth Ann Parnell, CEO/President, BAP Agency 

From there, the work wasn’t about creating something new. It was about figuring out how each piece booth should function once it was built. 

The corner elements were rethought first, as BAP‘s primary goal. Instead of having four identical pieces, they became the place of showcasing D&F main capabilities products. They created natural places to pause, to look, to engage with products, while also quietly solving storage in a way that didn’t need to be obvious. 

Beyond their functional application, they were visually aligned with D&F-edge-lit plexiglass was etched with engineering drawings to highlight D&F’s core services, the countertops were made of plywood to safely support any equipment on top and to function as a workspace, and that plywood was covered to look like the stainless steel that would be found in the plants and shops D&F operates within. 

A key motif of the D&F brand is a red toolbox that the founder originally worked from in the earliest years of the company. In the previous IPPE year, BAP had this toolbox replicated to sit nearly center stage and draw people into the D&F story of humble beginnings to industry leaders. The issue with the toolbox that featured in the IPPE 2025 booth was durability-not only would the cheaper materials mean less longevity, but they also were not able to use the original in a practical way. Ion Exhibits upgraded this to a version durable enough to hold significant weight, so D&F could store promotional items in it. Prospects noticed it, walked toward it, interacted with it, and BAP effectively maximized the D&F booth real estate. 

None of these changes were major on their own. But together, they intentionally shifted how the space worked. 

Behind the scenes, a lot of that came down to how the ideas were built. BAP had a clear direction, but bringing those elements into reality required fabrication, materials, and a level of control that allowed things to be adjusted and refined along the way. 

That is where Ion’s in-house carpentry and fabrication made a difference. It meant the ideas did not have to be simplified to be built-they could be worked through, tested, and executed in a way that held up once everything was installed. 

“When you’re working with an agency, the vision is already there. Our role is to step in and make sure what gets built performs the way it’s intended to. It’s about supporting the idea, not reworking it.” – John Larson, Sr. Account Executive, Ion Exhibits 

By the time everything came together in Atlanta, nothing felt like it had been added late or forced into place. 

It just felt right. 

The space moved better. People naturally found their way through it. Products had a clearer place within the overall story. And the details-both the ones you notice immediately, and the ones you discover a bit later-worked together in a way that felt intentional without trying too hard. 

“We were excited to have a lot of engagement this year, and it was wonderful to see how many people were intrigued by our booth. Many people wanted to hear more about D&F and what the company offers, and the booth was a working example of what we’re able to provide to our customers. ” – Adam Walker, Senior Vice President, D&F Equipment Sales, Inc. 

Not every project is about doing something completely new. Sometimes, it’s about understanding what already works, seeing where it can go a bit further, and having the right people involved to make that happen.