Businesses searching for materials for trade shows should keep in mind that backdrops, banners and display boards are not the only staples they should be considering for an effective display booth.
"It's not the biggest part of what we do," said James Lai, print specialist manager at Can-Design Printing. "At trade shows, there are many components that a client may need." Print collateral such as business cards, flyers and pamphlets are just a few examples.
Lai has seen the trade show print industry change dramatically over the past 10 years. Banner graphics, for example, used to be much more rudimentary.
"You'd have one or two colours, really simple, you'd have your company name, your logo, and that's basically it."
Many of the materials on which they were printed were also one-time use only. They could not be easily transported because they were large and ungainly, and they were difficult to set up.
Nowadays, he said, printers have the ability to print just about anything in nearly any size. They can print on an extensive variety of materials, and the ease of display-unit transport, assembly and reuse is much greater.
"Roll-up banners are the most popular trade show items," said Lai. These compactable, versatile visual aids range from three to six feet wide and up to seven feet tall. At around six pounds, they are easy to roll up and carry onto an airplane or transport in a car, and they only take only 30 seconds to set back up.
They're also reusable. The frame can be remounted with different printed graphics, a valuable tool for businesses that may want different looks for varying target audiences.
Anything larger, said Lai, can be printed on stretchable fabric, which is usually affixed with Velcro to a customized, prefabricated frame. But setting up these screens is the easy part.
"One of the biggest challenges," said Lai, "is that most of the time, customers do not have the required [data] file for us." In one case, a customer offered a business card and asked him to use the tiny image of the company logo as the base for a large-scale mock up.
Inadequate photos are not the only problem. Often, said Lai, customers are simply not what he calls "print ready"; that is, they don't have a clear idea of how they want their messages to be presented.
Randy Brown, sales manager at Dominion Blue Reprographics, sees many of these unprepared customers as well. "We're not just printing a sheet of paper," he said, pointing out that would-be customers need to plan well before reaching the print stage.
"If you're doing a tradeshow, there really is an unlimited offering out there now." Customers have the option of printing on everything from wood to plastic to various fabrics and synthetic materials, in a variety of configurations from floor mats to table tops.
To best prepare, he said, businesses should have an idea of the fonts they want for any text, which words they would like highlighted in bold or larger size font, and the layout and colour scheme, in addition to properly formatted photos.
Preparation time must also be considered. Customers often operate on a mistaken belief that turnaround time is always going to be one or two days. Allowing one week for turnaround is recommended.
Then there are the take-away products such as brochures, samples, trinkets or items such as golf balls to keep the memory of a business display fresh.
At Dominion Blue, for example, Brown uses a specialized cutter to create unique packaging usually only available in large batches, such as distinctive boxes or large-scale cutouts.
"It allows us to create short-run custom packaging and display products," he said, giving smaller companies the chance to display uniquely packaged products. And when the goal is to create a lasting impression, being unique goes a long way. •
