designing exhibit boothCreating exhibit booth signage is one of the most critical parts of preparing for a trade show. You want to draw people in with your exciting graphics and colorful, informative displays. But sometimes, everything goes the wrong way. People actively avoid your booth, even though you put out free candy. Why is that? Here are 5 signs your exhibit booth signage is driving people away:

1. You used way too many words! Think of your exhibit booth display as beginning of a song. If it starts way too loudly without building up to it, you’re probably going to turn it off. Your signage is exactly the same way.

 

Big walls of text can be intimidating to passers-by. They want to know, at a glance, what your booth is about. They really don’t need to know your whole company history.

2. Your colors are battling it out for grand supremacy! Don’t be the booth that screams, “Red and yellow! Red and yellow!” from across the exhibitors hall. You want your trade show exhibits and graphics to be sophisticated, not clownish. When designing your booth, make sure that the colors play well together and look edgy without being over the top.

3. Your text is too small! You want people to be able to spot your booth and read your text from across the aisle, right? Make sure your text is large enough to read from several feet away or you’re going to risk being the booth everyone walks past without a second glance. People won’t come over to your booth to see what all that tiny text is about.

4. You put your text in a weird spot! Where are people going to be able to see your text? Hint: It’s not behind your head or under your feet. Place your text well above eye level to give people a shot at reading it. If your booth is ten feet tall, try placing the majority of your text in the three feet along the top of the exhibit booth signage.

5. Your images look awful! Make sure you’re using appropriately-sized images for your signage and that they’re a high enough resolution to look great printed on a large sign. Blurry signs can drag down the quality of your whole booth. It doesn’t matter if you have a great booth with wonderful giveaways. Bad images will drive people away faster than if the booth next door started giving away hot dogs.

Make sure your exhibit booth signage looks fantastic no matter where someone is standing. You want your booth to be appealing from far away and information-rich close up. It’s a hard balance to strike, but with the right graphic designers and printers, it’s more than possible. Keep your booth busy all day by following these tips the next time you buy a trade show booth display.