A Modern Approach to Experiential Marketing & Design

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Let's be honest, the current level of design sophistication at most exhibition and trade shows is 10 to 20 years behind the architecture and industrial design scene.

But it doesn't have to be this way! New processes and tools - both software and hardware - allow us to quickly iterate on a design direction and enables us to produce the final "thing" faster, cheaper and better than previously possible.

This post highlights just one of the ways I am using new tools to deliver premium experiences for my clients and their audiences.

Hyundai launched a new auto show program for the 2015-16 season. The main structure was influenced by the European design, but an area that our client had full control over was the design of the new properties - info counters, engine displays, etc.

We worked in parallel to develop a family of properties with a consistent look and feel across the show floor, as well as at different levels of show programs.

HOW I DID IT

Once a design direction was locked in that we could apply across the different properties I got to work setting up a "flexible" model we could use to explore different shapes and sizes - from the overall form to nuances of angle and radii changes.

Using Grasshopper (a parametric tool set integrated with Rhino 3D) in the development phase of the property's design allowed me to iterate with accuracy and in real time. If I wanted to change the angle of an undercut or the depth of a counter top, I could see the results within seconds and without needing to remodel something from scratch.

Using this new process enabled us to compress weeks of development into days. And most importantly, we received client approval on a family of properties that our in-house production team could engineer, build and deliver on time and within budget.

Below are some examples of the stages of development followed by photos of the finished properties that launched at the 2015 LA Auto Show.

FIXTURES AND DEFINITIONS