Stand layout at packaging fairs

4/8

reusable types; a shelving system lasts several seasons

Stand types

The grid behind the wall

The job of a packaging stand is to show many small products without creating a mess. That runs through a single discipline: constant shelf spacing, constant depth, constant backdrop. Boxes, bottles, caps and labels vary in height, but when the grid stays fixed the eye reads the surface as one field. A single display case that breaks the grid is enough to unsettle the whole wall.

Rather than spreading shelf heights evenly, concentrate them at eye level. Shelves below knee height are not looked at; anything above two metres is not chosen. The productive band runs from 90 to 170 centimetres: the main range goes there, secondary variants above and below. Grouping the range by colour or by end market lets a visitor find what they came for in three seconds.

Making the back of that wall into storage is the most efficient move available. An eighty centimetre strip behind the shelving swallows cartons, spare samples and catalogues, and hides the wiring as well. Drawing that strip at the stand design stage keeps boxes from ending up under the table on show day.

Light that shows the print

What a packaging company sells is often the print itself: varnish, foil, embossing, the contrast between matt and gloss. None of it shows under the overhead lighting of the hall, which is diffuse, high up, flattens surface texture and stops foil from catching. The visitor notices only when they pick the piece up and tilt it to the light, but that difference should be visible on the stand.

The answer is two layers of light. A grazing beam from close to the wall brings out embossing and texture; a concealed strip under each shelf lifts the product out of its own shadow. High colour rendering fittings are not optional here, because visitors assume the colour they see on the stand is the colour they will get in production, and they order the sample on that assumption.

Commit to one colour temperature. Mix 3000 and 4000 kelvin on the same wall and the same white board appears in two different colours, which a visitor reads as a difference in the product. At a packaging fair that reads as a technical failure. Aiming each fitting individually on the last day of the build is the cheapest and most effective line in the lighting budget.

Samples in the hand, and stock

A packaging sample is not looked at, it is held. The visitor opens the box, turns the cap, judges the board thickness between finger and thumb, even smells it. That is why a sample wall is not shut behind glass; lockable display is reserved for new designs that must stay confidential. A box behind glass is, to the visitor, no different from a catalogue photograph.

A sample picked up does not go back. The wall emptying over four days is normal; what matters is that replacement stock sits under the shelving within the staff’s reach. Restocking the wall each morning belongs in the opening routine and should have one person’s name against it. From a distance, an empty shelf reads as untidiness rather than as interest.

Separate the samples that are given away from the samples on display. Giveaways go in a basket near the aisle, the display stays on the wall; mix the two and the wall falls apart by mid-afternoon. Keep a shipping form ready for visitors who want heavy samples, because nobody carries five kilos around in a bag. Under our exhibition stand services we build the two areas separately.

How many samples should be on show?

As many as the grid holds. Cutting the range works better than tightening the spacing to fit; a crowded wall brings no single product forward.

Can the sample wall be reused at the next fair?

Yes. Built from modular profile, the shelving adapts to different floor areas; the only thing that changes is the graphic behind it.