The Mock-up; From an idea to a booth

Happy 2015!
I decided not to wait another 2 years before my next blog posting, :-)
I have been asked over and over again - Nadine, how do you come up with fresh booth ideas for smaller companies who don't want to spend a gazillion bucks and who want an awesome booth but with a relatively quick set up and tear down.
Here it is, my (now) not so secret process.
I start with A LOT of thought, much is pretty straight forward, but each case is always a little different. I think about the product that is being sold, how it will be sold at retail, who I want to sell it to, and, what type of a setting suits the product. I go through the obvious list of what the exhibiting company has or has not already done in terms of a booth pre- Nadine.
Do they have a catalog? great photography? full on branding? or maybe things are a little scattered look-wise, maybe we want to make the look more cohesive and pardon the expression "on brand" (ugh). So many questions, but SO important to know before you start to mock things up.
...How big is the booth? (usually my client's booths are between a 10x10 and 10x15), how many products do we need to show? do we want to do a lot of repeat? ie: 12 of each item? if there are only a few items in the line, or, is the line vast and the booth space limited?

Now, what about style? Visual inspiration.
The line could be gorgeous dainty jewelry, but how am I going to get buyers out of the aisle and into this booth to take the time to look at the gorgeous dainty jewelry, when there's a daiquiri machine a few booths down and a clown and puppies? (not quite, but almost)

Does my client's line have great style already? or does it need to find its look? Is there something in the line that can inspire the entire look of the booth, maybe a great photo in their catalog that can get the ball rolling?... How extravagant can I get with this booth? What's the budget? Can we ship in 10ft antique armoires?, yeah, didn't think so.

I happen to think in images, I can build a booth in my head first, literally swapping out fixtures, paint colors and signage with my eyes closed, lying in bed. Odd? probably, but it's how I roll.  Funny thing is, when I was doing my own booths, I rarely did any kinds of visual mock-ups, I imagined my booths and simply made lists. (When I look back on it, I probably would have saved some time by mocking it up after imagining it, but too late now). Most of my clients are not into the whole imagining thing, understandably, they want to see it, or something very close to it, before they show up in the booth, so I create mock-ups, and that is what we are going to talk about today.

I am going to take the initial launch of the lovely Eleven Point - Fragrance Merchants line, this past summer. Before we did anything in terms of a trade show for his newest brand, David (the owner) wanted to see something that he could really sink his teeth into, all the pretty words and descriptions weren't going to cut it, he wanted visuals. Here is what the very first mock-up looked like.

A little background, the line is inspired by nature, the fragrances, memories and experiences David and his family had growing up on the Eleven Point River. The initial launch would show 6 different fragrances in 6 different product categories (white glass vessel candle, black glass vessel candle, reed diffuser, room mist, travel tin candle and fragrant sachet). The line was designed to coordinate in rustic or modern settings, for women or for men. To have a lived-in comfortable, relaxed look with sophistication and elegance, focusing on the amazing fragrances of the line; River Fern, Bonfire, Cotton Creek, Honeysuckle Rain, Coconut Moon (my favorite) and Blackberry.

Charcoal painted walls with the box pattern as wallpaper down each wall, gold wall sconces, signage like the brand's packaging, two perfectly weathered leather club chairs, one large wooden wall shelf, large nested table set and weathered wooden floors. I knew this was simply a jumping off point to get things moving along, it might not all be feasible, but we needed a start. Also, when starting with a mock-up like this, you can really walk through a few orders in your head and really think about what you need in your booth in terms of supplies and what you need to show in terms of product. And yes, it's a wholesale show and buyers know how to buy, but buyers are also regular people who shop too, so I like to think about what I like, what attracts me to a store, how I like to shop.

It just so happened that before doing the Eleven Point booth, reps and showrooms were hired, so we quickly switched things up for the limited space of a showroom. Here are the mock-ups.

Dallas showroom, approximately 8 feet of wall and approx 6 feet of floor. 

Here's the Mock -up

 

in progress

 

end result (very bad photo/color)

Las Vegas showroom, 8 feet of wall with about 10 feet of floor.

 

Wait, what now? I can have ceiling electricity?... we can do this.

They might have a table we can use? it's rectangular? okey dokey.

 

result (excuse the photo quality, it's all they sent me!)

 

 Atlanta - variation on the same theme, again with a round table

You are getting the idea now, right?
For technical info, I use Adobe Illustrator to create these mock-ups, truth be told, I wish I could use Illustrator for everything, it's amazing. But if you are not into the big guns software, you can certainly use other things, or even draw it out, or make your life a little simpler and call us.
(please note that we were NOT present for any of these showroom set-ups, they were done by the showrooms themselves based on our mock-ups, and, they did a great job! This go around of shows, I am getting really detailed about exactly where we want product displayed and on how many samples are sent to each show, you will see that soon, Atlanta is being set up right this second as I type this post :-)

Here are few sources for items that were used in the showrooms - round table in Las Vegas Showroom, battery powered wall sconces were purchased on ebay for all showrooms, custom self-adhesive wallpaper.

Next up, how we tried a few looks before settling on this NY Booth last summer.

Eleven Point - Booth Design

It has been forever. UGH. My apologies.
Lately I have had so many emails and messages and even a few phone calls from you awesome people who tell me that you are waiting for me to post more booth stuff.
Good news. I have new booth stuff for you.
It's actually from August 2014 NY NOW. Pretty new.

This is the Eleven Point Home Fragrance booth. It was on Pier 94 and the newest brand introduction of my awesome client Scentations Home Fragrance. I love love love working with this company, and am so proud of what we created for Eleven Point. I will post more about the line separately, but let's get to what you are asking for, the booth stuff.

This was a 10"x10" corner booth. As with most of us, they didn't want to spend a gazillion dollars on a booth but, they still wanted a presence. The goal was to create a little wholesale shop where buyers could see the line, quickly understand the line, experience the fragrances and place orders.
The NY NOW show is offering some new options for walls these days, so there was no need for foam board this time. We decided to order the MDF panel option and have them paint it for us, you just need to supply them with the Behr paint color (I chose a charcoal grey). We needed 2 ten foot walls done (since we had a corner). On the Piers we did this through FB International (via the show). The pricing was somewhere around $150 per panel (painted) and we needed 6 panels (they cut them and price them to just a little over 3' each since most of the booths are sold in 10' increments, if you go to Lowe's or Home Depot, they will be 4'x8' and you will pay around $25/panel unpainted), the unpainted was $120/panel. Not cheap. I know.
If you are local, the process they used to make the walls was super simple (explained below) and it could be easily done for WAY cheaper, but, if you are not local, it could be a pain to get this done on your own as the panels are not easy to transport and move around, they aren't heavy, this particular MDF was only 3/8" thick, these panels are floppy and cumbersome and 8 ft long.

If you decide to build a booth like this yourself, I would definitely go for the heavier MDF so that screwing into it wouldn't be an issue if you wanted to hang shelves or anything heavy-ish and remember to get the panels cut to your booth size so they fit your walls, or, you can always take 3 panels per wall and place your middle panel over the 2 others and the empty space, so that there wouldn't be cutting involved (and it looks pretty cool too).
I talked about this method with foam board here

Let's get to it...introducing the August 2014 Eleven Point booth

Here's what I did.
As mentioned the walls were ready to go - well, almost, when I got to the booth they were still being painted, but, it was done quickly. In a nutshell, this is what FB International did for the walls - they screwed in 2 little silver squared inverted U brackets at the top of each of the panels and simply hung them over the squared bars of the booth structure. (This is new too, remember how the booths were all loose drape over round poles? square now.)

No, they were not super strong and yes, a few of the brackets fell off and I had to have FB come and put them back in. MDF is not the greatest stuff to screw into, often screws don't catch and slip right out, this is what was happening, but it was fixable.

I had ordered a strip of wallpaper that was the same pattern I had designed in the line's packaging to personalize the space - I worked with Murals Your Way for this and used this same idea in all of our summer showrooms. It was easy and quick to install and is actually removable, so it can be used for a few shows if you need. Since my wall paint was pretty fresh, the vinyl didn't stick as securely as I would have liked, so I just added a few staples to make sure it was not going to unpeel.

For the booth sign, I had our graphics printed at Fedex Kinkos and I spray painted an old textured frame gold.
The wall sconces were a fun addition, they are battery operated, and don't shed much light, but they added a nice touch to the booth and didn't require wiring to install, only a plastic pushpin.
I bought several sets (again for all of our showrooms) on ebay. This particular set I sprayed gold quickly, to match the frame and the other booth details (they were originally a bronze color).

The frames on the wall were super lightweight black plastic Ikea frames (with plexi fronts rather than glass) and each one had a fragrance description from the Eleven Point line that I laid out and, again, printed at Kinkos. I had originally wanted to place 6 frames on one wall and 3 on the other, but that didn't happen, so I did a quick adjustment and put all 9 on the same wall.
Since the frames were so light, I used heavy duty velcro tape to stick them to the walls, MUCH faster and more forgiving than nails and hooks.
The cute linen grey bench was a score at TJ Max.

The table is from World Market, a gorgeous extendable table that we will be using for a while and was surprisingly easy to assemble (sign up for their emails and you will get great coupons and free shipping vouchers).

The carpet is from the wonderful Flokati Phil. I have had one of his Flokati rugs in our loft for many years and love it, so I called him to help me find the right one for the Eleven Point Booth. Once I was in the booth, I realized that an oval shape was the way to go, so all I did was tuck the corners under and it became this awesome puffy oval soft addition to the booth.


For the shelf under the Eleven Point sign, I used light metal brackets from Ikea and sprayed them gold, and a piece of wood that I had cut to the length I wanted at Home Depot. I added a coat of wood stain to it to bring it to the color of the other woods in the booth. I stained the extra piece they had cut off for me, and used it as a riser in the middle of the table to add a second layer to the main display.
Since the MDF walls were not very sturdy, I used my foam board trick and placed 2 pieces of scrap wood behind the shelf brackets to screw into - this added a lot of strength to the shelf.
(I would NOT have done a wall of shelves on these walls without doing some serious securing first, and even then, these thin MDF walls are not built for lots of shelving, I wouldn't risk it).

Here are some photos of the process, and the finished booth.

Wholesale Pricing

I wrote another piece for the very cool Vianza, this time about wholesale pricing.
I also spent some time this past week reading all a lot of the amazing information on their blog. So much great stuff. If you are starting a business, restructuring your business, a designer, a retailer or just interested in business in general and Indie Biz...you really need to get familiar with Vianza.
here is my latest article,

and, if I don't see you before this weekend,
Have a safe wonderful holiday weekend,

thank you for reading!

Thinking of doing a trade show?

It seems my blog posts about trade show booths get a lot of hits, especially right before trade show season starts (like here, here and here). I also get a little rush of emails with questions,
usually with a large HELP in the subject line.
I am thrilled that you like the info!
There is a new Indie Biz platform on the block called Vianza, I haven't seen anything like it and so far I like what I see. I am writing a few guest blog posts for them about trade shows and business.
Here is my first, things to think about or how to know if you're ready to do a trade show, hope you enjoy!
oh, and don't forget, if you have questions, comments, thoughts, feel free to let me know!

what's been going on, big hope + hard work

I always get that sinking feeling when I haven't posted anything on my blog for a while...it feels a little lonely and neglected and not very motivating. Sort of like trying to get back into shape, (ahem)...
I like to think (as cliche as it sounds), that things happen for a reason. I don't believe that across the board, there is way too much pain and suffering in the world and, I do not believe that happens for a reason, but to generalize, I try not to get too consumed by the details and strive to keep looking at the bigger picture. Sort of like stepping backfrom the painting you are creating, or climbing a tree fast to look down to get a different view on things. I try to stay excited about what might be waiting just around the next corner, rather than always planning or stressing about what's coming. I try.
I've made some pretty big decisions this past year, I probably should have blogged about every detail and event, but I didn't, I mostly kept trying to look forward and kept working and kept hoping, because let's face it, hoping and working is really what being an entrepreneur is all about. And honestly, I am not even sure which comes first, the hope or the work. There is no way I could work this hard without the huge amount of hope I seem to always have, and there is no way that I could even imagine hoping as big as I hope without working as hard as I work. I guess I have summed up entrepreneurship haven't I?
hard work + big hope, or, if you prefer, big hope + hard work.
As most of you know, BlueDogz Design is in transition, it might be safe to say that the transition has actually happened. If you look at the website, (which is where you might have been prior to ending up here), you will still see some of our best sellers available to purchase. Feel free to purchase! :-)
In the meantime, I have been busy trying to put some new projects into action.
In four words, manufacturing less, designing more.
Why?
After a decade or so of setting up and tearing down trade show booths, designing, manufacturing, taking orders, chasing or neglecting sales reps, shipping, selling out, closing out, and starting all over again, the past few years of shows started to feel a little futile. What I mean by that is when you are paying upwards of $6000 for a booth and you spend only the first day or so busy and the last dayS waiting to see if anyone will actually show up at all, this to me seems futile. I don't believe that this happened because of one thing, or even a few things, but many things. All I can really do though, is decide what's right for me. Listening to fellow exhibitors complaining and worrying, spending boatloads of money for not enough return and aging a good 4-5 years per show, because I do believe that 1 trade show day is like a year in normal life, I had had enough.
But what happens when you know you have had enough,  but are not too sure what to do about it?
I start calling, emailing, networking, basically, moving.
I decided that I would start taking on other projects and jobs, other than BlueDogz Design as I know it...I decided it was time to open up, broaden my horizons and see where I belonged again. I suppose I am still finding that out, but I can say that I have been trying like crazy, broadening and have had some interesting,  fabulous and horrible little adventures. Two New York Gift Fairs ago, I decided to pull the plug. No more trade shows for a while. On the one hand, such.a.relief, on the other, scary.as.hell. (how would I sell?) If transitioning and re-finding myself professionally wasn't challenging enough, I am also bringing up my perfect 2 and half year old on my own. Well, thankfully she's perfect right?
Here are some of the things I have been up to lately.
I helped the incredibly talented Genevieve Parent build a set for a photo shoot for a large Canadian bank.
I have sourced, product developed and written tag lines and copy for the fabulous Marc Tetro.
I have styled photo shoots.
I have designed for the wonderful Placetile Designs
I have brokered design/photo gigs for other artists and figured out how to make a few bucks doing so
(why is it always so much easier to market others?)
I have consulted for several companies (on design, branding, web design, business)
I have designed websites, business cards, newsletters and logos.
I have been a guest speaker (twice) at the John Molson School of Business on entrepreneurship (thanks to the wonderful Cheryl Gladu).
I even applied for a job as display coordinator at the soon to be first Montreal Anthropologie (more on that later).
In between I have worried a LOT, had many sleepless nights, had some great laughs, prayed, got very excited, dreamed, hoped and designed a lot. I took the advice of one of the first people I met on Twitter and whom I admire, Rob Frankel, and started making calls. He said something once that I never forgot, that if you aren't making 100 calls a day, you really aren't doing all you can to get business. Hearing that freaked me out a little. I admit, I have never made 100 calls in a day, but I started to keep a list of all the ideas I had and who I could get in touch with to help me implement these ideas. I started to email and call companies, fellow companies in the gift industry and let them know that I was available, that I could design for them.
This might have been one of the hardest things to do...on a lot of levels...but I told myself to get over it and just do it, and I just did. The response I got was overwhelming. I will never forget some of the things that my fellow gift community business owners emailed or told me. Although most explained that they too were cutting back, that they too didn't have a budget and were just trying to keep things rolling, everyone I contacted told me how much they loved my work and that, when they did have an opportunity to hire or use outside design work, they would absolutely contact me. I was thrilled. And touched.
Through all the calling, I got some great jobs. One was for my friend Kristin Bowen at www.placetiledesigns.com it was one of the first times that I got to really bring to life someone else's vision...it was an amazing feeling. I was also pushed, asked to design a piece with a golfing theme, something I had never done. I am loving these new challenges.
All through this time, I was sharing what was going on with my friend Marc Tetro. We had always bounced ideas off each other and one day he said to me, "Let me pay you for this. I would call you more and feel better about bouncing ideas off you if I paid you. Be my consultant." Here was a man who is famous in the art world, who has had one of the most successful careers around, who I admire and adore and he wants to pay me for this...I couldn't understand what he needed me for or even why, and, he was my dear friend, it felt a little weird.
I said yes.
stay tuned.

FoamWerks...run, don't walk!

I had told you that I was going to be test driving some Foamwerks tools out at this past NY show, and my raving review is long overdue!
May I just say this, OMG Foamwerks tools are AMAZING!
You might think I am exaggerating, I am not, they make working with foamboard a whole new experience, a fun one at that!
I have been working with foamboard for years now, and have learned some great tricks from my friend Marc Tetro along the way. These amazing little tools however, make clean cuts and specialty cuts so much easier. Honestly, if you use foamboard for anything...foamwerks tools are a must!
I actually think that from now on I won't have to order that extra sheet of 4x8 at shows anymore for the just in case moments.
I *heart* foamwerks!
http://www.foamwerks.com/

did you notice?...

Some would say I am nuts for blogging about this, but I am doing it!
I am quite sure that I am not the only little company going through this and my thoughts or experience might help others, or, others might want to help me!
Here it goes.
You might have noticed while looking at the photos of my booth from the last show to this show, that not much has changed...if you didn't notice, leave this post NOW...here, click here! (go shop or something!)

For those of you who did notice, you are absolutely right, congratulations!

january 2010

august 2010

Now, for starters, after many different attempts over the years of displaying my line (and yes, the line has evolved...I'll get to that in another post)...I have concluded that it looks best, (so far), on white!
I have used white for several years now, and although after a week in the booth I am usually jonesing for a new wall color, so far, it has served my look well.

This time however, it was not the white walls or the basic white furnishings it was the product line that hadn't changed, you might have also noticed that I didn't have any BIG news regarding NEW products...yes, it's true. I woke up in a cold sweat several nights prior to the show thinking - how can I do this? how can I spend all this money to go to the show and not have new product to introduce!????.

Truth is, I simply could not afford to produce new products!
When you produce domestically or yourself, you have this wonderful freedom to make something new, show it at a trade show and then see what happens. From there, depending on the volume of your sales, you can adapt, you can hire a few people to help you produce, you can farm out the work to a larger company that can produce what you are making or you can even go overseas and have it made there if you need to.
When you are producing your line overseas there is this magic word that pops up frequently, MINIMUMS!
You usually can't just order 150 pcs of something, you usually have to produce in the 1000's. From there, you need to get it to North America (or where ever you are based) and distribute. Let's say you have a new product and you would like to make it in 6 colors/patterns...that could mean 6000 pieces right there! (minimum)

Now, for the large companies, it's no big deal. But then again, I take that back, in the last 2 years, I would venture to say that even for the larger companies, it has been a big deal.
You produce overseas, because the cost per piece is MUCH less expensive than making it domestically (obviously it depends on what you are producing!), the flip side is that you need to buy high volume.
When trade shows are busy and buyers have lots of money to buy, this is great. When trade shows are quiet and buyers are very very careful and the economy is, well, like it has been...this can mean trouble.

Here is the scenario; You design lots of great new products, get samples from your factory overseas, show them at a trade show and place an order for goods to be transported to North America ready to ship to your retailers within 4-6 weeks or so. But, the trade shows are quiet, sales are what the trade calls soft (that means mucho dissappointing!) , and you are getting a boatload (literally) of fabulous new chatchkas to sell! Uh Oh...now what?
Some would say, why place your order with Asia before you do your shows and see what you can sell first?
I say, everytime I have done this, I have lost lots of sales because I couldn't quote shipping for less than 12 weeks from the show...too long for many clients to wait. Or, if there are any snags in the schedule and the clients were willing to wait 12 weeks, once it gets bumped up to 15 or 17 weeks, forget it!
You see, the point is, you want to sell the stuff as fast as you are getting it in. Once you have it warehoused and sitting around for months and you have to do another 6 shows to move it, it becomes, well, painful.

That's where I am...the painful place. For a designer like myself, who has boatloads of product ideas that are sellable and makeable with 10 years of designing products that sell under my belt (cough, so to speak), but who can't keep spending money while not moving enough inventory, it's just plain painful! Now don't get me wrong, I am selling and to most retailers, my line is still relatively new and untapped, but to me...OY VEY, I am so ready to move on...
So that is why you didn't see the fabulous new product launches and the exciting new press releases...I just had to suck it up this time, design a new booth sign, put together a new little press kit, keep my head up and try to sell sell sell!
I had an amazing professor at University who once told me that to have security in life one had to know how to surf...Surf? I asked...Yes surf! He said . Life is like a series of waves and you go through it on a surfboard...some waves might knock you down, some you might surf like a pro, some will be pretty, some really really messy, but if you keep surfing you will always have security...I try to surf daily and I thought of Dr. Backus often this past week at the show and I surfed! I welcomed the waves I hadn't ridden before and I  took the ride...I think in many ways this economy has humbled us, as sellers, as buyers, as people...Surfing always helps me...ever tried it?

still more great booths!

My booth piece continues with  more of my favorites in the simple, clean, lower budget-but-fabulous category from the August 2010 New York Gift Fair,  here they are:

http://www.9spotmonk.com/ did a GREAT booth! foamcore white walls, covered in a fabulous high gloss orange vinyl adhesive. They also built a wall right in the middle of their booth which not only added 2 extra walls for displaying but also added architecture to the square booth. They used a craft paper brown to offset the high gloss orange to make their wall, for their bench at the back of the booth and for their floor.

LOVE this booth!

(and hope to have a link to share with you soon on where they got their orange high gloss vinyl!

http://www.flipandtumble.com/ took white and clean to new heights!

They did a floor that looks like wood, simple white furnishings (Ikea) and white walls.

They lined their white walls with their fantastic bags, making the colors simply POP!

I think the simplicity of this booth and the almost laboratory look of it was a really smart way to showcase their products, let me tell you, walking down their aisle, you HAD to look in their booth, and that, as the fabulous martha would say, is a good thing!

Lastly in this series, one of my favorite little booths at the show, http://www.baileydoesntbark.com/ .

Everytime I walked past this booth, I would admire and swoon a little...

Using simple dark stained wooden shelves and tables with non color, natural textured extras and vintagy details they acheived a beautiful soft look yet with a very sophisticated feel, right down to their beautiful sign! (the font is amazing!).

Through their display, they did a great job showing their clients how easy and impactful it could be to show their products once clients order them and have them in store.

They are showing retailers that their products look great grouped  (hey retailers, buy a bunch of our stuff and you too can have this look!) Hello? who wouldn't want this look!?

So smart! So effective...YAYE Bailey Doesn't Bark!

(for some crazy reason I didn't ask...but I hope Bailey is a cat or a fish...or a pet rock...)

New York International Gift Fair - August 2010

Yes, I survived another NY Gift Fair...I would have posted sooner, however, I came home with a terrible cold and guess who got it?...Tess! The little one has been sick for a full week, fever, rash, no appetite, trouble sleeping, crying and so unhappy...it has been a LONG week, let me tell you! (happy to report that she is starting to turn a corner and it seems she is feeling a bit better...phew!)
I actually went into this show not really knowing what to expect. I think that generally, we are all hoping that something magical will happen, that suddenly trade show aisles will fill up with buyers aching to spend huge amounts of money, but so far, unfortunately, this is still not the case. Buyers are still careful, understandably so. There seemed to almost be high fiving going on, lots of "so happy to see you here" comments, lots of buyers stating simply, "well, you are still here and we are still here and that's something!".
We are all trying to weather this storm, come out the other end and still be standing somehow.
I suppose hearing everyone say the same thing in some way is reassuring. It's nice to somehow know that BlueDogz Design is not the only little company struggling. And it was great to see some of our long standing clients. Not necessarily buying HUGE, but buying nonetheless, and every little bit counts!

Arriving at the booth was a bit messy...my pallet, which I reported would be sitting quietly in my booth, waiting for my arrival and eager to be set up, was NOT waiting for me in my booth, but rather halfway up the aisle and partially in another nice exhibitor's booth...this was so NOT the plan.Getting that reassuring email from Freeman (the company in charge of drayage at the show) saying that my pallet had been delivered to my booth the day before leaving to drive to the show was apparently a bit of a stretch.
It would not have been so bad if the aisle had been clear enough to get one of the Freeman gentlemen to move my pallet to my booth for me, but our aisle was piled high with crates and bins and booths and junk, there was barely enough room to walk the aisle. This made life a little more complicated. I had to tear down the pallet up the aisle and lug everything piece by piece to my booth, via 3 aisles east and through other people's booths, where we could actually get stuff through.
Honestly? I don't have much compared to other companies in terms of booth decor and storage but this alone took about 3 hours, (always be ready for the worst!).
Ah, the booth...without the stretched canvas walls (as requested) and with the booth carpeting (which we had requested NOT be installed). Well, one out of two ain't bad!
We usually get the canvas and no carpet, eventhough we don't use either, but this time it was reversed.
I italisized the word carpeting because I have to say, WOW, that was a sad excuse for a Carpet!
Not only did it not cover the whole booth space that we rent, missing almost 2 feet along the entire frontage of the booth (if my math is right, in a booth that is 25 feet long that is about 50 square feet, right?). It was even more skinny and non carpetish than ever. Kind of like a piece of black felt taped to the floor. I'm very happy that we don't count on the show carpet to complete our booth look.
Here is the booth:

We ended up ordering electricity this time even if our booth comes equipped with lights. The extra lighting supplied by the clamp lights really brightened things up.

more to come ... stay tuned!

more layout options

I had shown you an easy foam board layout for a 10'x10' booth here , by using 3, 4'x8' foam board panels per wall. You would place a panel at each side, right to the corner and overlap a 3rd panel in the center of the wall, like this (this shows one wall).
For a 10'x 10' booth, this design layout would use 9 panels of foam board.

Here is another way to plan your layout.

Find the center of your wall. Line up 2 panels of foam board so that they meet in the center of your wall. Now you will have 1 foot left of space on either side to cover up.

At this point, you can play around with your design a little bit...

1- You can start putting up your side walls now, but start at the front poles on each side, like this.

You will have 2 panels per wall, on your back wall, the panels will be centered, on the side walls your panels will be lined up with the front poles. Result will be 2 feet of unfoamed wall on each of your side walls (the area near the back of your booth), plus, 1 foot on each side of your back wall that is unfoamed. In other words, your 2 back corners will be open.

2- Here comes the fun part...well, some of us weirdos think this is fun!...

You can now decide how you would like to cover your empty space in the back corners.

You might want to use a panel that is scored down the center to fit into the corners. You can slip the excess behind your already set panels, or trim them with a sharp box cutting tool/blade.

You might decide to make a diagonal wall, by attaching a panel from your back wall to your side wall. There are no rules here...you can do both corners differently, one as a fit corner and one as a diagonal, get creative! This can actually make your very square booth look a little bit more interesting and architectural.

* A note here on storing excess samples or supplies. If you decide to do a diagonal wall, you can actually use the space behind it for some storage! Sometimes we simply tape one side closed on the bottom near the floor and this way we can open the diagonal wall when we need to get back there. (very convenient!)

see our diagonal wall (below) on the right, we displayed our press features on it.

we also kept the trunk in front of it to keep the wall in place!

we did the same thing here (below) with a diagonal wall.

If you make a mistake, cut down your foam board in the wrong place or find that your booth is not exactly the dimensions you had planned for, or the perfect square you had hoped for, don't sweat it, once it's all up and your samples are displayed, if a seam is not perfect, or if one wall is not exactly the mirror image of the other, it won't show...relax, no one will notice! If you need to cleanly run white tape down all your seams to keep things straight and secure, do it! it will look fine (try to use matte rather than glossy tape for that!), if you need to use some heavy duty clamps or extra velcro tape or hot glue- do it!...this is all illusion, it doesn't have to withstand weeks or months of use, it's temporary and really just theater, keep that in mind!

shelves?

By now, you have probably noticed that some of the photos of my booth  feature shelves on the foam board walls...These amazing shelves were the perfect size and weight for trade shows and were available at Ikea for years, to make matters even better (at the time), they ran about $3 per shelf, can you believe it? They called it the STRIPPA shelf (trust me, it is taking every ounce of restraint I can muster to not comment on the name).
Back to the perfect $3 shelf. Kind of too good to be true!...Yes, yes it was! Ikea does not make them anymore. (Waaaaa WAAAA, can you hear that disappointment music?...) I will post a bunch of close up photos of them however, when I am reunited with them in August at the show, if you know a carpenter or woodworker, you might be able to have some made, the construction is crazy easy.
If you want to use another type of small shelf, you can, and hanging them might sound like a process, but in actual fact, it is not that horrible to do, it just takes a little patience, some measuring and some organizing.
Here it goes.

Basically, what you are going to do, is sandwich your foam board between a strip of wood and a shelf,
that is how the shelf will stay up.
In the case of the STRIPPA shelves, there were simply 2 holes supplied, right in the shelves to hang them up.
A screw in each and presto, the shelf was up.

here's a closer shot of a single shelf, you can see where the screws go in on either side of the clipboards.

My process went something like this.
1- I would decide how many shelves I wanted to use and where I wanted to place them on the walls.
2- I would organize my 4-5 ft wood strips and drill holes about a half inch from the top of each one (hole should be wide enough to get a tie wrap through).
3- I would tie wrap the strips of wood to the top pipe (through the drilled holes). The strips of wood would now be hanging down from the top pipe/bar.

you can repeat this step as many times as you need, ie: if you want to put 3 shelves up on this back wall, you will need to tie up 6 wood strips, 2 per shelf. You can do the same for your side walls.

4- Once my wood strips were in place, I would place a sheet of foam board in front of the wood strips, essentially hiding them. For example, if I was starting to put up my foam board in this example on the left side of the back wall it would look like this.

 5- Before you do anything else, it's time to attach a shelf!  I would simply hold my shelf where I wanted to hang it, have a helper hold it, or have the helper reach around and hold the wood strips in place, and drill! (I liked to put my handy little level on the shelf before drilling, just to make sure that it was straight)...As I drill the screw through the shelf holes, they go right through the foam board and into the wood strips behind it. The wood strips ensure that everything is solid and tight and able to bare weight without the foam board tearing. In essence, the wood is carrying the burden of the weight and the foam board is simply sandwiched between the wood and the shelf. It's that easy!

later that day...

but, here's what it will look like (without xray vision)

So, there you have it...the process I used to put up sturdy little shelves in an unstable little world!

I will be testing out lots of new ideas at the show this August however, as I am working with http://www.foamwerks.com/ testing out all their really cool products! I can't wait to share ideas, tips and tricks!