High Point’s annual furniture market is a big opportunity for any business to up their sign game. Furniture market attracts visitors from all over, and vendor spaces are equally plentiful.
With so many things to see, competition for attention is high.
There are two main groups of businesses that can benefit from strong visuals during the market:
- Furniture and home decor vendors within the trade show itself.
- Businesses in the immediate vicinity that can benefit from all the trough-traffic.
Here are some tips for planning your event signage.
Size and Placement: Make Your Sign A Focal Point at Furniture Market
Outdoor signage or banners should be LARGE. Large enough to attract visitors from a distance.
Inside the venue, opt for signs that fit your booth space but are still big enough to stand out in a sea of competing displays.
A general rule is that letters on your sign should be at least 1 inch tall for every 10 feet of viewing distance. So if you want attendees to read your sign from 50 feet away, the letters should be at least 5 inches tall.
Think about how attendees will approach your booth or showroom. If you’d like some help thinking through these aspects, you can call our team and talk to us about your setup.
Place signs where foot traffic is heaviest, and at eye level for maximum impact.
Position exterior signs at entrances or intersections where attendees are likely to pass. You may or may not have much say in where the signage can go, but within reason this should be your goal. There’s a lot for visitors to see, so having something steering them your way early in their visit always helps.
Indoors, use vertical banners to rise above tables or other obstacles and place them near walkways to attract people into your space. (For more info, refer to our post about event signage.) Keep the signage simple. Its job is to flag attention and get people to come by, not tell them everything there is to know about your display. When the signage becomes too verbose, it’s either overwhelming or means concessions with font size that you don’t want.
Overhead signs: If your booth is in a crowded area, hanging signs from the ceiling can help attendees spot you from a distance, especially in large exhibit halls. These are especially useful for food vendors and to advertise new offerings.
Avoid cluttered spaces: Don’t place signs in areas where they’ll be blocked by other booths, displays, or furniture. Make sure they are visible and stand out against the surroundings. That’s not always easy in a crowded trade show space, so it’s helpful to plan out the space available and observe the trade show map to make educated guesses about where traffic will be coming from so you can best appeal to them.
Color and Font Choices: Balance Creativity with Readability
Bright colors may catch the eye, but readability should always be the top priority. Choose colors that contrast well — such as dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background — to ensure your message is easy to read from a distance.
A white or light gray background with bold black or navy blue lettering can be very effective in most lighting conditions, for instance.
Stick to 2-3 main colors that align with your brand identity, ensuring consistency across all your signs. This not only helps with brand recognition but also keeps the design professional and polished.
Use Lighting For a Dynamic Presence at Furniture Market
This is a real opportunity to showcase creativity. You could opt for illuminated signage, where the sign itself is illuminated, or even place specific lights nearby that shine on parts of the sign with deliberate angles.
Depending on the design of your signage, the angles and shadows cast could be very striking.
This can be a way to overcome crowded spaces and uncertain ceiling lighting at the venue. Illuminated signs also allow you to use colors to your advantage, and if your offerings feature design-heavy benefits (i.e. your furniture has an eclectic or avant garde look) this can be a good approach to demonstrate that right away.
QR Codes and Digital Engagement: Take It Beyond the Booth
QR codes are a great way to allow the passerby to quickly access your website, product catalog, or social media profiles without needing to carry brochures. Since they’ll be passing so many booths, they can feel overwhelmed with brochures and other collateral, but having a tab open in your phone browser might be a refreshing change for them later on.
Make sure the QR code is clearly visible, large enough to scan easily, and linked to a mobile-friendly page.
Optionally, you could add an incentive, such as a discount code or entry into a giveaway, for those who scan the QR code.
You can even create a hashtag for the event and encourage visitors to tag your business when they post photos from the furniture market.
As you can see, there are a lot of opportunities to nail it this year at the furniture market! Give our creative team a call today to go rolling on your design!
