A trade show display to support heavy products with American Stonecraft

We’ve all seen the beautiful displays that work well for lightweight products. However, there are a number of artisan products that are too heavy for these types of displays. What do you do when you are working with products that are not light as a feather? How do you thoughtfully design a display to best highlight your products?

What you don’t really want is something ugly and industrial. You need a display that is aesthetically pleasing. Something that will welcome people in to explore what you have to offer. In our continuing series on creative displays, this time we are featuring a display for a trade show.

American Stonecraft creates Stone with a Story. Gerald Croteau is the artisan behind this unique concept. He makes a variety of practical stonecrafts. He harvests fieldstones each year and transforms them into something new. Here is a great example:

Here is another example showcasing some of the custom work that he does:

Gerald faces the challenge of how to have a display that literally won’t collapse under the weight of his products. He is displaying his products at trade shows, so there is also an expectation that comes along with those types of displays. In order to have a display that wouldn’t collapse, he utilized steel shelves, and then custom built the display to work around the steel shelves.

I designed this because I wanted smooth steel shelves for a lot of product and plenty of bright light. I also liked the formality of the rectangular display delineating me from other stalls and sectioning off different types of work that I do.

I wanted a way to make my display really stand out. So I pin photos to the front facing walls. This added a visual design to make buyers stop and notice you. Some sort of cohesive vision is really helpful, and trying to fill up your space with elements that speak to that is really important

I can add also add or subtract the cabinet units for shows using a 10x10, or larger booth size. This year I added the shou sugi ban torched finish to the wood for aesthetic and political reasons.

I used rough cut wood and steel for the cabinets. I also bought an LED light display from OPTO International, with 45 degree brackets and magnets that clip on to the shelves above.

Next, I looked at lighting. Stone is unique in that it really needs the proper lighting. The lights have a high CRI (color rending index), really important for displaying natural stone in its best perspective.

Here you can see what the display looked like as it was being built. The shou sugi ban torched finish to the wood gives it a unique look and feel.

I know not everyone can have a fully custom built display. When you're creating your trade show booth it's important to think outside the box. This will require exploration and time.