While a large trade show booth can bring people in because of its size, having a smaller booth can still provide a solid experience for your attendees. Because of the size restriction of a smaller space, there needs to be a clear design strategy for your smaller display booth. Here are some easy-to-follow do’s and don’ts for your smaller booth design.
Do use the entire space. This may seem obvious, but sometimes corners or sides of a small booth do not get used in a design. Leave open areas for traffic and engagement and be sure to identify these areas with seating or tables. And use all your space to provide areas of engagement for your attendees.
Don’t miss an opportunity to provide a visually interesting display. It may feel easier to just have a table and some literature, but there is no reason to skimp on a booth display for a smaller booth. Use your booth space to have a true booth design that provides visual interest, eye-popping graphics and clear demarcation of the areas of the booth.
Do keep colors light and graphics simple. Colors and graphics should not compete for the attendee’s attention, so keep them simple. Lighter colors create a larger feeling in a booth, which will give an appearance of space. Graphics can also be ‘lighter’ with white space used strategically.
Don’t skimp on graphic printing. When you have a smaller booth, your graphics will be on full display. Having poor quality graphics due to inferior printing, lower resolution graphics or poor materials will be very obvious in a smaller booth. Work with your graphic designer to make sure your graphics will look professional and be high quality.
Do use lighting to highlight areas and graphics for easy viewing. Lighting is a great way to help attendees know where to look within your booth. It not only showcases different parts of your booth design, it also makes sure your attendee can see your booth fully.
Don’t try to fit too much copy on your graphics. This is a common mistake. Because there is a limited amount of graphics in a smaller booth, there is a temptation to add as much copy as there is white space. Copy in graphics needs to be succinct and provide enough information for the attendee to want to learn more. Also, copy that is not around eye level or above can be very difficult to read.
Small display booths can be just as powerful for booth engagement. Keep in mind these do’s and don’ts as you develop your booth design.