Recently, our friends at Priority Health were looking for someone to engineer and produce a cost-effective, custom, highly graphical tradeshow booth that could be portable and set up by their sales team at events throughout the region. As a longtime customer of ICON Sign, they know our capabilities when it comes to making directional signage, window graphics and wide format printing of all sorts – but we haven’t really gotten a chance to show how creative we can get with cardboard – until now.
Our sister company, Flatgoods, is an online retailer that makes all sorts of fanciness from cardboard. If you’re not familiar with Flatgoods, you should know that they offer customizable, printable furniture and tradeshow displays, all made completely from cardboard. These products are all 100% recyclable, easy to assemble, and lightweight, which not only helps the environment but also saves the customer money on shipping costs. These features made a Flatgoods display the perfect choice for our customer’s project needs.
PH came up with an idea that a branded living room, complete with a TV, tables and chairs would create a booth space that would be as inviting as possible to tradeshow-goers. Combining off-the-shelf couches, tables and chairs from Flatgoods, we designed and built a backdrop from 4’x8′ Falconboard to ‘frame’ the living room, tie everything together and provide a platform for some creative graphics. Our prepress department took the time to engineer the space, drawing everything out using Adobe Illustrator and Google Sketchup before sending the files off to production. We used our flatbed digital printer with UV-curable ink to print on the cardboard, and used our Zund CNC Router to trim and cut bends in the material. Within days we had created an interactive hang-out space that embodied Priority Health’s artwork and brand.
Through this project, we enabled Priority Health to immerse potential customers in their unique brand identity. The ability to sit in chairs and touch objects, all printed in Priority Health green, allows participants to physically interact with the brand. The atmosphere invites a casual experience where people can relax, have fun, and be educated about the products and services Priority Health has to offer. Even after all the brainstorming and prototyping, this custom creativity ends up coming in at substantially less cost than what a more traditional graphical tradeshow display might entail. The graphic displays are completely reusable and can be reproduced easily to communicate a new message or idea in the future.
