Our parent organization was making its first foray into the public eye as a single entity. Our directive and challenge was to come out of the gate with things that weren't commonplace. They expected a "wow factor". When we presented our ideas, executives loved it, the tradeshow company specialists said it couldn’t be done, especially with our budget and thought we should consider combining their different generic off-the-shelf kits.
Since our goals, were to differentiate and innovate that was the wrong path and easy way out.
The group responsible for pulling this off were top performers from four different companies who'd never worked together (or even known each other) prior to this initiative.
I was entrusted to lead all creative; booth design, collateral design, website, video, promotional items, PURLS, staff apparel, as well as show management, logistics, and the future on-site build.
The booth space’s shown here are 100% custom designs and builds including many things we’d never done and many we’ve never seen before (also echoed by attendees at the show). It was nice to hear things like “This is the coolest booth at the show”, “This booth is cooler than my apartment” and “I wish our company had a booth like this”.
The first booth has a 20‘ x 40‘ curved, inverted aerial, I called “The Flying Cheeto“ easily seen seven rows away, achieving air superiority by far. It also, by design, made our booth seem much larger than it was, creating closure in the sense it wasn’t just a 20 x 40‘ footprint, but also 20' high with a roof and 16’ tower “connecting” the viewers eye to our floor-space.
There were multiple wall levels and entry points, each strategic in their own way, custom aluminum extrusions, SEG fabric, frosted translucent panels, custom oversized dual-sided backlit lenticular signage, a custom 16 foot curved tower, warm ambient light fixtures, branded pillows and lamp shades, leather furniture, glass vases, marbles and textures to emulate the campaign’s color palette.
Midway through the project we were also tasked with learning about QR codes and creating Augmented Reality presentations (both new things in '08, at least to us) to be shown in the booth. We also created die-cut lenticular "motion business cards" to match the theme each year.
The first year, there were over 10,000 attendees from more than 50 countries and over 670 booths in the exhibition hall. We were selected as a finalist (Top 3 exhibits) for both design and innovation.
The second booth shown is a purposeful departure in approach and design with a goal of being open, bright, simple and clean.
I love to study rule books like exhibition show guides and maximize opportunities where possible. The main structure is 16 feet tall (the local limit), with a custom-built (and programmed) seven TV array connecting our video messaging, custom built 3D illuminated YouPlus signage, and the back wall was like a curated museum collection of work samples in custom built, inset oak cabinets with cable and glass shelving and milled aluminum 3D letters for the three core messages at the show.
Even our front pedestal (plus shape) and stainless steel and oak tech furniture with touch-screens were custom-built from sketches. There was also a 10‘ x 10‘ x 3‘ campaign Plus Sign slowly rotating above our booth.
Inside the 16’ tall, 39’ wide, 8’ deep structure was a functional
workshop including dye-sub foil printers and 280 degree ovens producing personalized, on-demand phone cases for visitors while they conversed with our team on the other side of the wall – It could've been their wedding picture, their dog, their children etc., whatever they wanted as long as it was “safe for work”.
Events and VIP parties:
There have been many that include location scouting, site acquisition, logistics, catering/menu planning, all creative and design for promotion and site signage, photography, videography, prop building, acquisition of talent, from famous American heroes to internationally known bands for private VIP parties and concerts.
Some of the most successful locations were the USS Midway in San Diego (the entire aircraft carrier), the famous Second City comedy club in Chicago (where I also got to test my comedy writing chops for the first time) and definitely the concert stages from Boston to Los Angeles and New Orleans.
A couple of these are shown in this category, and a couple are illustrated in the video section of this website.
There was also an elite annual awards recognition program, among nearly all of the 80 Taylor companies that happened in places like Hawaii, Mexico, St. John, St. Maarten and Key West. Each year we were to create a new theme, sometimes conceptual, sometimes location based.
I was responsible for the same/similar duties as described above for these events. Each year received better accolades than the year prior from executives and award recipients.
