Thursday, 3 April 2008
Exhibition Design has evolved as specialised service generally from Interior Design and Graphic Design sector and depending on the services offered under the Exhibition banner may be a combination of these two disciplines or more. A true Exhibition Design Company is independent from any Exhibition Building Contractor; the Client employs the designer as a consultant and not to have any financial links to any contractors. The Exhibition Designer will probably have working links to a number of contractors that they use on a regular bases, and you should be able to ask your Designer to obtain costing for the build element of the project from a rang of contractors, basically to "tender" the project.There are many Exhibition Design Companies that have been generated by an Exhibition Contractor as an "In-House" service, and their sole purpose is to feed the Exhibition Contractors with work. You may find that their design fee's are low or even free - the reason for this is that they are subsidised by a Exhibition Contractor and they will be looking to recover the cost in the build price. There is no such thing as "free design" and you will not be able to "tender" the build element of the project.
Most Exhibition Designers will offer Graphic Design support and others may have a stronger background in Branding and Identity, but generally all will be able to cover a wide scope of work to provide the Client with a complete Exhibition Design solution. In addition, most designers offer Project Management or Supervision of their own work and should be experienced with the contractual procedures required to undertake the project through to completion.
Although a Exhibition Designers may not have had direct experience with your type of business before, they should have experience of the fundamentals of Exhibition Design to obtain a design brief from you to understand you business objectives. This can be of great benefit to the Client as it gives an outside view of the business that covers so much more than just the image. In selecting a Exhibition Designer the project brief will also establish what kind of service you require from them, and it will be down to the Designers to demonstrate how well matched they are or not to the project when submitting their fee proposal. The fee proposal should not just tell you how much it is going to cost to employ them, but also their understanding of the project brief and the scope of work they recommend the project demands and how this is covered in their services.
You will know doubt be looking very closely at the Designers portfolio of work to find the connection with your own project brief, however, you are advised to look outside your own business field and experience in what the Designer has undertaken for others. If for instance you wish to have a exhibition stand designed to promote your telecommunications business, don't just look for Designers that have done lots of telephone exhibitions stands, you could be missing out. There could be a Designer that is just right for the project with lots of experience and talent in other areas, but has not carried out a telephone exhibition stand before - yet! When it comes down to it, a good Exhibition Designer can design to anything, it matters very little if it is for Financial Service Sector or Telecommunications the principles of good Exhibition Design sweep across the whole business sector.
Once you have chosen and engaged your Exhibition Designer use them as part of your Business Team!
