These Trade Show Booth Design Ideas are Sure to Inspire You

When you need a trade show display, you need more than a few moving parts and modular pieces – you need a complete design that will entice customers. It’s tough knowing the best way to set up your exhibit if you don’t do this full time and only go to a few trade shows a year. We’ve put together a few trade show booth design ideas to kick-start that inspiration.

Look at the following examples not to overwhelm yourself, but to get inspired. You most likely won’t have as large of a budget as some of these big name brands, but you can pull out a few ideas that you like and use them in your own exhibit.

1. Clean White Design and Pretty Lights

We like the Apple-store feel to Qualcomm’s booth from CES 2013. It has clean white design and a heavy use of digital projections onto the walls. They chose colors all across the spectrum that worked very well together.

Qualcomm’s CES 2013 booth had a focus on mobile and connectivity, which was a big theme of the show. Qualcomm keynoted this show and debuted a few new technologies like their SnapDragon processor.

They included plenty of seating for guests as well as created multiple different rooms to walk through – including a second story area.

Idea Takeaways:

• Choose a harmonious color design that looks beautiful
• Include areas for people just to sit and rest
• Use digital projectors in lieu of heavy TV displays

2. Shock and Awe Trade Show Booth Design

Sony went for the shock and awe technique at CES 2014. They created a huge, spaceship like structure that is definitely not a trade show booth, it’s a whole separate room on the exhibit floor.

Sony also made use of purple mood lighting and digital imaging everywhere with projections. The lighting also changed colors throughout the event. This display is so over the top that most exhibitors could never afford this, but take away some inspiration anyways.

Idea Takeaways:

• Create a space that’s inviting for attendees to enter
• Use interesting props to draw people in
• Use digital projections on the walls for added ambiance

3. Take People on a Vacation

The reality is that most trade shows and conferences are in large, expansive, boring convention centers in the middle of the city. That doesn’t mean your booth creativity has to be limited though. These following ideas were from the Great Big Home + Garden Show 2014.

Bring the outside in and add some beauty and fake nature to your visitors’ day. In this example the visitors can walk through a trellis and garden. Bringing in the outside world works especially well for home and garden shows.

You can also use live human actors to demonstrate your wares and give viewers the impression of what you’re trying to sell. A lot of purchases are emotional decisions and adding that inspiration will encourage the sale.

Idea Takeaways:

• Transport visitors to a better place with imagery and nature
• Create an emotional connection to your customers with your design
• Use real human actors to add that extra human connection

Just as aspiring film-makers can be inspired by Scorsese films, so you too can be inspired by big budget, over the top trade show displays. Take these booth and exhibit ideas home with you and apply them to your next trade show exhibit design.

Video projectors have dropped in price over the last few years, banners and pop up displays are not too expensive, and I’m sure you can convince your cousin to be a booth model to demonstrate your wares. These big budget features can be done at a smaller scale and still have a strong impact on your visitors.