Proper design requires meetings, and face to face conversation to discover, identify, and integrate all the important elements of any presentation. Colors must be coordinated with existing print documents, text styles need to compliment one another, and the general "feel" needs to reflect the companies overall position and identity in the marketplace. This is just not possible if I'm in Royal Oak, Michigan and you're in Orlando, for instance.

Some people may disagree with my position on this subject, but I've been producing graphics for exhibits since about 1980, and in my experience, remote graphics production is never easy, and holds the potential for errors and customer disappointment on many levels. Many suppliers do produce and sell graphics remotely, but I don't think it serves the customer's best interest.

How to Choose a Designer?
If you have in-house design capability, you may be able to accomplish the design yourself. You may even be able to prepare the production files as well. If not, then you will need to find a designer that has experience designing large format presentations. They would not necessarily have to be an "exhibit designer", but should have experience with large banners, vehicle wraps, or other physically large items as opposed to someone who usually works in brochure design or other small physical size projects.

The reason I say this is that what looks good as far as quantity of content in a brochure that is read from 12" away will usually be way "over the top" if it was used on an exhibit. Take a look at some of the examples I have here on the site. You'll see bold content, not too much text, elements that can be absorbed in just a few seconds. This is what's needed to attract the attention of a show visitor walking the aisle of a convention center. Your booth staffers will deliver the details, the exhibit is just there to make someone pause long enough for one of the booth staffers to strike up a conversation. Nothing more.

Use your own common sense and intuition in choosing a designer. Look at their work. Does it appeal to you? Have they produced projects that are similar to what you need? Like any selection process, I would talk to two or three prospective designers and choose one who's work appeals to you, but most important, a designer who's personality seems to be compatible with yours. This is most important, as good communication will be absolutely necessary to the success of the design.

Where Should I Get My Graphics Printed?
That depends. I'm not trying to be coy about this, but it depends on whether you plan on producing a mural, or using what we call "detachable" graphics. If you plan to use a fabric booth you'll be producing detachable graphics. Panels printed and laminated, that have a velcro hook perimeter border on the backside that will "stick" to the fabric. Many people prefer to use a fabric booth if they have a need to change graphics frequently for various reasons. A mural on the other hand, is a larger investment in terms of the cost of production and the only way it can be changed is to produce a new mural. This is the first decision that you will need to make: mural or fabric booth with detachable panels.

This is probably an appropriate time to mention that what I am trying to communicate here is some basic information that many experienced exhibit buyers or graphic professionals already know. My intent here is to pass along information to first time buyers and people with less experience with graphics production. Hopefully, some of the information will make the process easier, more understandable, and help to avoid some pitfalls and potential mistakes as well.

Fabric Booth, Detachable Panels.
OK. Let's say that you've decided to use a fabric booth and detachable panels. A few nice photos, a text panel or two, and maybe and identity header up top. First of all, just a reminder that every individual panel you produce will need to be positioned and applied to the booth, so I tend to put a couple photos and text on a larger panel rather than having to apply a dozen 8 x 10 photos and copy strips all over the booth. It's neater, quicker, and less frustrating during setup not to have to align a large number of individual panels on the booth.

The detachable panels that you want to have produced should be 20 to 25 mils in total thickness. Most print paper is about 5 or 6 mils thick, so a typical panel would consist of the 5 - 6 mil print, a 5 mil non-glare (lustre) front laminate, and a 10 mil back laminate. Most print papers and media are not opaque so I prefer an opaque white back laminate to prevent the potential show through of the booth fabric behind. Especially if you are using a dark color fabric. Do not accept thinner laminates, or a thinner overall thickness. The panels will not handle well, and they will tend to be wavy and not conform to the shape of the booth properly. If someone suggests a 3 mil front with a 15 mil back, that's fine as long as you maintain the overall thickness of 20 to 25 mils. On the other side of the coin, when you get up toward 30 mils, you're getting a little thick and the panels may not be flexible enough.

For detachable panel production, any reputable photo lab or inkjet printer should be able to do a fine job producing your panels for you. Again, check some of their work to see what quality they produce. Any shop with some experience producing flexible graphics should be able to show you samples and quote you prices.

Mural Production.
Producing a mural is slightly more complicated then producing detachable panels. However, it is commonplace and there are many experienced suppliers that do excellent work. I would investigate photo labs first. They generally have more experience in lamination and finishing and this is the most critical part of producing a proper fitting mural. Also, if you are producing a mural, I would seriously consider having a "digital photo mural" produced rather than an inkjet mural. Let me explain.

Digital photo printers, of which there are two main manufacturers, (Lambda and LightJet) are seriously expensive laser photo printers. They are big, but most importantly they are dimensionally accurate. Their print media (photo paper or film) is fed from a roll onto a large diameter imaging drum and produces an accurately sized print which is required if your mural is to line up from panel to panel. Inkjet printers on the other hand can vary widely in their dimensional accuracy due to the way the media is controlled and fed into the printer, one print pass length at a time. The inaccuracy is not usually with the width, but rather the length of the prints. It is not unusual to see inkjet manufacturer length specs of +/- as much as 1/8" over the typical 90" length of a mural panel. If you have for example a 1/4" horizontal rule in your mural that spans the width of the booth, or copy that goes over panel breaks, you need to be careful. If one panel is +1/8" in length and the next is -1/8", you've got an alignment problem, big time.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not slamming inkjet printers. I actually prefer quality inkjet prints over digital photo for most exhibit applications. They have a larger color gamut with generally brighter colors, (especially reds) and print much sharper text. I use a 1200 dpi Canon inkjet printer for all my production here locally. Digital photo printers were engineered for well, photos. They have a slightly softer and more continuous tone capability than inkjet. Exactly as they were designed. I suggest that you look at print samples from both types of machines in making a decision as to what your personal preference might be. One final word of caution about digital photo printers.

I spent a couple years selling for a local photo lab in town. We had inkjet printers and Lambda digital photo printers in house. Invariably, we always had trouble getting bright reds and some blues with the Lambda printer. It's just the nature of the technology and the emulsions that are used on the photo paper and films. Some colors we just could not match, no matter what. So, if you have critical colors, and you plan on having a digital photo mural printed, make sure they can hit the colors you need. By the way, in no way does that mean that an inkjet printer will give you accurate colors at the push of a button. You will certainly want to see a proof from the actual production printer (not a desktop equivalent) before you ever approve any layout or colors for final production.

These are the questions I would ask of any potential mural supplier:

1. Can you match the colors I need?

2. Can you guarantee the alignment of my finished mural?

3. Will you provide an approval print prior to production?

If the answer to any of those three questions is no. Or, if they even seem to hesitate, I would look for a different supplier. It would be impossible to think that I could answer every question that you may have about graphics, but I hope that some of the information here will put you on the right track. If you have some questions, I'm always available to try and help you sort things out. Just give me a call at: 1-800-335-7080. In the meantime, for those that may be interested, a short story and sort of biography follows.

Experience Counts.
Years ago, in 1975 approximately, I was working for my father who was a custom exhibit builder. I was what we would call today a project manager. We had carpenters, painters, and signwriters working in the shop for us. It was a union operation so my shop experience from a few years prior consisted of sweeping the floors and general clean-up chores. At the time, there were no computers, our sign shop handcut rubylith logo's, set type on a "Staromat", and our photos were outsourced to a local photo lab. All of our graphics were screen printed with the exception of the photos. Then, the signshop foreman was like a king. No exhibit could ship without graphics, and in general, most people had no idea what mysterious things went on in the darkroom, let alone how to mix print colors, make a screen, or print anything. We were total hostages to the craft and talent of the sign shop.

One night after the shop had left for the day, me, my dad, and our senior designer, Frank Noftz were out in the shop looking at the component panels of a Chrysler job that would be setup in the morning for a 9 am client inspection. Somehow, a 30" Chrysler pentastar logo had not been printed on one of the panels. Our signwriter was gone not only for the day, but had left on vacation that afternoon. The three of us stood around scratching our heads trying to figure out what we were going to do now. Client coming in the morning and the main ID logo missing from the booth. A major problem to be sure. Not only was it not printed, but it was to be printed top center on a 4' x 8' mirror acrylic panel.

After much discussion, and more than a little mental wringing of our collective hands, we decided to see if we could fix the problem. We did find the screen that had been made for the print so that was a big plus as none of us would have had a clue how to make a silk screen. We found some base colors of ink, and Frank being a painter/artist mixed a Chrysler blue. Now came the big question: who's going to pull the print? None of us had ever printed anything before, but I used to hang out in the sign shop more than anyone else as I was somewhat fascinated with the whole process. So, I was elected to make the print. We had all watched the process before so we positioned the screen elevated slightly from the surface of the panel, poured a line of ink, and with an appropriate width squeegee, I flooded the screen and made the print. I don't think any of us breathed until we removed the screen and saw that the print, while not perfect by any means, was acceptable. Crisis over. Such was my trial by fire into the world of graphics production.