Exhibit design is an important aspect to consider when planning for a trade show and, for many companies, coming up with unique trade show exhibit designs is their main avenue for getting the word out about their products and services. As a matter of fact, it?s been reported that about 31.6% of the average company?s marketing budget is set aside for trade show booth designs and over $24 billion is spent by U.S. Exhibitors annually on their custom exhibits.

It?s been said that there?s about 2.2 trade show visitors to every 100 square feet of event space per year at these trade shows. Since the normal visitor spends about 9.5 hours viewing the exhibits, it?s easy to see why companies spend so much on a new custom exhibit design each year. In fact, the 2014 Marketing Outlook study done by the B2B Magazine describes trade shows to be second only to digital in media spending growth.

If you?re considering trying your hand at your own trade show exhibit design, here are three things you should keep in mind:

• Font Size
  When it comes to font, you need something that?s easy to read for the average passers-by. To start, think about how far away someone has to be in order to read your sign. Many exhibit design experts recommend adding about an inch to the font for every foot that?s included in that distance, so for every 10 feet away someone would stand, you would add about 10 inches to the font. Next, custom exhibits should be easy to read. A san-serif font is typically recommended, although it completely depends on your company?s style guide.
• Graphics
  Experts in exhibit design services say that graphics are another of the most important components to custom exhibit design. Three different types of graphics may be used in the layout of the exhibit, including long-range, medium-range and short-range graphics, and are based upon how far away someone has to be standing in order to read the display. Long-range graphics are positioned as high up on the booth as possible while medium-range should be placed at just above eye level. Short range is for those who are standing at the booth and can usually be found at the floor.
• Empty Space
  Believe it or not, empty space on a sign is just as important as the graphics that are used to attract attention. Exhibit design experts recommend retaining about 40% empty space when laying out the booths graphics, which means that a little less than half of your design will be made up of blank space. Why is this a good thing? Because you don?t want to overwhelm your visitors with the design and if your message is good enough to hold its own, you won?t need many words or graphics to get it across.

Do you have any exhibit design ideas to contribute? Comment below!