Stand types
Island stands: solving four open sides
Lokman Türkoğlu · Founder & Head of Design · 2 min read · Last updated:
Short answer
How do you solve four open sides on an island stand?
On an island stand the closed volumes are gathered into the centre and the perimeter is left open. Storage, the electrical panel and the catering point form a core, and the outer faces of that core become display and graphic surface. Visitors should be able to walk through the stand, and no side should be closed off by a solid wall. The company name goes on a hanging element or the top of the core so it reads from all four directions. Keep the corners clear; on an island they are where people stop most.
The idea of the core
On an in-line stand the storeroom goes at the back and nobody sees it. An island has no back; lean the storeroom against one side and you have closed that side. The answer is to gather storage, the electrical panel and the catering niche into a single mass at the centre of the plan.
That mass is also the spine of the design. Its outer faces give four large graphic surfaces looking four ways; its top carries the hanging element; its inside hides the technical volume. Sized correctly, it holds both function and identity in one piece.
The core should not exceed a modest share of the floor area; grow it and circulation narrows, which loses the permeability that makes an island valuable. Our stand design page sets out the order in which the plan is built.
Sight lines
The real test of an island is giving the same legibility to visitors arriving from every direction. If the product reads from one side while the back of a counter and its cabling read from another, the layout is not working.
A practical method: check the plan as four views, one from each corner. Each view should show three things — the company name, at least one product, and the spot where a member of staff stands to greet people. The same test exposes what should not be visible: the store door, the electrical panel, a stack of cases.
Put height through the same test. Every vertical element above roughly a metre and a half blocks the far side of the stand. That is why islands tend to use either very low or very high elements; a wall at eye level does the most damage.
Keeping the corners clear
Visitors enter an island at the corners. Hall aisles cross at right angles, so people slow down at the corner and look into the stand as they turn. A case, a post or a planter in that corner closes the natural entrance.
Left clear, the corners give four separate entrances and circulation forms itself. But an empty corner has to be defined as a place where staff stand; undefined space walks the visitor to the middle of the stand, nobody greets them, and they turn back.
The floor supports that definition. A change of floor texture at the corners, a turn in the carpet colour or a rise in lighting level overhead creates the sense of an entrance without building a wall.
Where does storage go on an island stand?
Inside the central core. Its door is turned to face the quietest direction of visitor flow, and the outer faces are used for display.
From what size does an island stand make sense?
From the size where storage, a meeting area and display all fit comfortably in one plan. Below the point where a core can be built, a corner stand gives a better result.