We made our booth memorable enough to get on the cover of Landscape Architecture Magazine.
In November 2021, we had 14 days to figure out how to make a killer expo design guaranteed to get noticed. (Check out the inspiration for it here.)
Let’s prove the point first.
This magazine showed up the other day. What grabs your attention?
Cover of Landscape Architecture Magazine, Dec 2021
Were your eyes drawn to the bear?
You wouldn’t be the only one!
Outshaped’s 11-foot long “Golden Bear” at the 2021 ASLA Expo, Nashville Tennessee
Flypaper for humans!
In the big noisy world of an expo, everything is flashy lights, bright colors, vivid contrast.. and it all just blends together. Standing out in an environment like that means being strikingly different. When everything else is a wild jumble of colors, being different means being plain.
Instead of a regular animal like the Wall Street Harambe, to make our object imposing we chose a “low-polygon animal” and scaled it to the biggest size we could fit in the shipping container.
Interesting sidenote, it’s common to adjust projects according to the door it has to go through.
Digital Mockup of the ’21 Outshaped ASLA booth
How should you design your expo booth?
Many of us at Outshaped have been to dozens of expos, and I think you’ll agree they’re all the same. Banners, desks, slacks and button-downs. What else do you remember, the tallest feather flag?
If everyone is doing it, do something else.
I’m a huge proponent of using a small number of big things. One big whale. Two big pillars, one in ruins. They’re a pipe dream for most people, but not for you. You’re in the right place!
Your display doesn’t necessarily have to be your logo or business name, just pick something related to what you do. For the bear: we deal with high-poly (i.e. having a high number of data points) models all the time. Go far enough in the opposite direction and a blocky, faceted bear becomes an art piece. What would your logo look like if you did the opposite concept? Or made it wrong enough to be appealing? All you need to do is get people to stop and chat, and you’ll make it happen. You got this!
The golden bear is a slightly modified model from CG Trader, with a royalty free license. Here’s a walkthrough you can use to find a 3D model for your expo.