Las Vegas, Chicago and Orlando are the three major cities that are home to about 50% of the largest 200 trade shows in the United States. In 2014, a study by B2B Magazine showed that events are cited as the second largest area of growth in media spending just behind digital. On average, a company allocates 31.6% of its total marketing budget to events and exhibiting. With all the money being spent on these events, you can imagine every little detail must be taken into account.
Space
In exhibit design, this is true down to the square footage. For example, for every 100 square feet of exhibit space there are 2.2 trade show visitors on average in the U.S. This is true for exhibit booth design and interactive booth designs. The overall rule of thumb for booth design graphics is that they should be 40% empty space. Yes, that’s a stone-cold fact. Almost half of your graphics space should be totally blank. That is because what your message does not say is just as important as what it does say.
Graphics
Graphics are hugely important in the world of exhibit design. Depending on how far away attendees can stand from your booth, you may need to have three main types of graphics: long-range, medium-range, and short-range. Traditionally, long-range graphics should be as high as possible within trade show regulation limits. Medium-range graphics go above eye level, around 6 ? 8 feet above the floor, while short-range would be 5 ? 6 feet above the floor.
Font Size
Believe it or not, font size is very important in the trade show exhibit design and custom exhibits. Generally, it is always a good idea to add an inch of height to the font for every foot away that viewers will stand. If you want visitors to read your text comfortably from 10 feet away, for example, add 10 inches to the font size. Sans-serif fonts like Helvetica are usually considered to be the most easily read. Depending on your brand?s style guide some of these font decisions will already be strictly enforced. Even if this is the case, whether you are doing a custom exhibit design or not, remember not to use more than 2 or 3 different fonts at the same time.