Brief
Having worked with Risual Ltd on last year’s exhibition stand, we were approached at the end of September to design and install a bespoke exhibition stand for the Microsoft Future Decoded exhibition at ExCel, London. As one of the headline sponsors for the event, we were asked to create a 10m x 6m stand which was bigger and better than last year!
In addition, we had the extra challenge of creating four 3m x 3m smaller stands which matched the same theme as the main theme but had individual elements relating to the separate business areas.
The brief was to recreate a Shoreditch pub theme with suspended screens which depicted different images just like this year. This year we had a ‘space only’ area to work with so we had the challenge of creating an impressive structure from scratch for all five stands.
Design
To ensure that our Production Designer had enough inspiration to begin creating a 3D model, Cait, the Project Manager, put together a presentation depicting various images and examples of how she interpreted the client’s request. From here, our contact at Risual informed us of which elements fit their brief. The design process started with rough sketches which were then passed through to our designer.
3D renders were then put together using our 3D modelling software. The images were then put together within a detailed proposal, including descriptions of the items and a breakdown of costs.
The finalised equipment included the following key features, including more bespoke furniture than last year which we fabricated in house:
- A Wall Made of Doors
- A Custom-Made Meeting Pod
- A Custom-Made Curved Seating Area w/Cable Reel Table
- Lots of Lighting
- A PA System For Background Music
We also worked with Risual to ensure that there was enough branding by incorporating their logo into the video more as well as sourcing vinyl prints for the tables.
Fabrication
As soon as the final design was confirmed, we immediately started to fabricate the stand in house. A detailed schedule was put together, ensuring that no important part of the build was missed.
We spent a long time searching for the perfect lighting, wooden flooring and materials to start the build. The tables were built to a bespoke size, using wooden panels and acrylic tops to fit in with the Shoreditch theme. We created a curved seating area out of wooden panels to fit around the cable reel table. This was finished with seating pads made to fit in-house.
The wall of doors was created by one of our warehouse assistants who studied art at college. He took each of the doors and made each of them unique by using different distressing techniques
In terms of the video content, last year Risual emailed through a lot of content for us to be able to create the perfect slideshow to be played on loop throughout the exhibition. We pieced together two and three second video clips, static images and even 90’s Windows screensavers to produce a 5 minute long video. The idea was to imitate the idea of a television changing channels quickly. This year we extended on this, incorporating their latest promotional video.
Build
At 6am on the Saturday, our projects team headed down to ExCel, London to start the build. Our team started by installing the truss boxes on the individual stand areas.
When this was secure, we installed the sub-floor and floor sheets around the truss, creating a stable base for the main stand. The wooden vinyl flooring was then cut to size, fixed to the sub-floor and held with aluminium trim.
The door wall and curved seating areas were installed next, with the power and cabling being distributed at the same time. The various lighting fixtures and tables were then amended to fit the stand and installed.
Shelving was then installed onto the custom-made meeting room, finished with a variety of accessories which were in keeping with the Shoreditch theme.
To finish the stand, twelve screens in four different sizes were then hung from the truss from scaff bars at different heights and the Risual video was played on the videos starting from different times.
Feedback
All in all, the stand was a great success with Risual loving some of the stand elements so much they have been kept for their offices!
