Designing trade shows has never been so colourful. One painting that always catches the attention of visitors to the HoBB was prepared by us as a trade stand design for a producer of paints and finishes.

Our design brief was to incorporate as much of their range as possible but in large enough panels to allow visitors to ‘dwell’ upon individual colours as they walked through an environment of walls and textures.

The last trade show I went to see was at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. In the main halls, vast trade stands were under construction ready to be fronted by neatened well produced staff or specially trained ‘fronters’. The atmosphere was charged with ‘push’ and it made me pensive, thinking of the deals that needed to be done on these plastic and wood stages to keep jobs going and economies growing.

I went into the overseas pavilion where units were small and blood heats were normal. Here, the owners and managers of companies were talking to each other. Here, the day before opening, the simpler stands were in place as a morning market might be, ready for people to be greeted. Here, I was offered countless invitations and given warm smiles. Their enthusiasm for trade was almost bloodcurdling; I had to smile back, even though I well understood their power to drain the life of many established communities in partnership with many in the larger halls.

~~~~~~~~~~ <+))))))))>< ~~~ waves from Grant