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designcom@expoexhibitionstands.comUpdated: 8th May, 2024
Lighting is an integral part of an exhibition stand design. Effective use of lighting makes your exhibition stand more visible and sets the ambiance of your stand space. You have likely seen examples of these whenever you’ve visited stores and cafes.
David Dernie defines lighting as “A vital part in the visitor’s experience as it affects the way in which an exhibition structure is perceived, the effectiveness with which it communicates, the rendering of form and color, and the legibility of graphics.”
Creating the Right Atmosphere for your Brand
As an exhibitor, you need to be aware of the best lighting practices such as which are will work best with lights, their level of illumination, and light distribution. You could have a word with your exhibition stand builders as they have a better idea of where to place lights and create the right impression as per your brief. For example: if you choose a non-even distribution of lighting, then it might help you create a relaxed space. While if you have uniform lighting, it will help in making your space look more capacious.
Lights not only increase visibility, but it also helps in setting a mood. Therefore, while planning for an exhibition, you need to reflect on the atmosphere you want for your stand. Whether you need to create a warm and isolated atmosphere or have a modern and public feel to it, based on it, you would decide the kind of lighting you want for your exhibition stand. For a warm and private look, you could have dim and warm lighting, whereas, for modern and lively appeal, you could go for bright and cool lights. Working on the right lighting solution will help in giving a professional and impressive appearance to your exhibition stand design.
Benefits of using Exhibition Stand Lighting Purposefully
Lit signs and banners are the most basic examples of lighting being used to highlight certain pieces of advertising. Ladder lights hanging from a café’s ceiling, illuminating the room in warm orange, is an excellent example of how lighting is used to set a particular ambiance.
Effective lighting is about creating a focus. It is about making sure that certain aspects of your exhibition stand design pop out and draw people’s attention. At its most basic, it’s attracting people to the light.
If you think about it, when working over your creative ideas for exhibition stands, every visual aspect is carefully considered, because the intention is to attract attendees and convey the brand message to them instantly. But exhibitors often underestimate lighting and don’t consider it an essential design element, until they reach the venue.
At the fairground, they realize that the lighting for their stand space is not enough, and now their graphics are not being seen. Even if you plan to hire stands for your show appearances, having extra lighting is always better than less lighting. You can always remove extra lighting, but it isn’t very easy to add more during the exhibition.
Well-placed light sources improve the look of your graphics. They enhance the presence of your exhibition stand at the trade show. Lighting can be quite helpful to guarantee that visitors will automatically see the products or marketing messages you wish to stand out. Several studies in user design have shown that people are naturally attracted to bright spaces, especially walls that are well-lit.
So your brand presence will benefit immensely if your exhibition stand incorporates lighting as a part of its theme and stand design.
Different types of Exhibition Lights that are Commonly used
Now that you understand how crucial lighting is for the design of exhibition stands let us give you a basic overview of the types of exhibition lights that are most commonly used. Each type of lighting equipment is built for a specific purpose. For example, consider exhibition stands meant for product displays; their designs would have spotlights or display lights. Since the focal point is the product. Exhibitors often hire exhibition stands that come equipped with lighting, but this is only useful to illuminate your exhibition stand as a whole.
There is hardly much room for any creativity. Since your custom exhibition stands is uniformly lit, there is nothing to differentiate your product or brand message from the other visual elements of your exhibition stand. Hence, by understanding the different types of exhibition display lighting equipment, you can figure out which type of lights will suit your exhibition design. Being able to choose the correct lighting equipment will also be lighter on your overall budget. The most common types are spotlights, display lights, and banner lights.
Spotlights
Spotlights that are used for exhibition stands are neither huge nor bulky like the ones you might have seen at live events. They are relatively compact and can be discreetly attached to your exhibition stand. They are quite powerful yet are designed to be subtle and will illuminate specific parts of your exhibition stand. Whether it is a product or an alluring banner you want to focus on, spotlights are great to use. It is also the easiest way to light up your stand. They are compact and help to avoid blocking the important information on your stand.
Display Lights
Display lights or hand lights are used to specifically illuminate the exhibition stand graphics. They are quite low on power consumption and cost since hand lights use LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs, which offer an impressive span of illumination even if they don’t have the same intensity as the spotlight. They also come in different colors, making them quite useful for setting up a particular ambiance.
Banner Lights
Banner lights are usually placed behind an exhibition stand graphics or banner to give it an attractive inner glow. Banner lights use LED bulbs since they are small and compact, making them easy to conceal. These are great if you are looking to use your exhibition stand for brand promotion. They can amplify the effectiveness of your high-branding banner, ensuring your exhibition stand hire gets noticed from a distance. But even eye-level branding efforts like the use of reception counters and wall graphics can benefit from banner lighting since it helps you stand out from your nearby competition.
Backlights
The concept of backlighting is not new to us. We have often used it for signage coverage, billboards, or outdoor promotions, but it has gained importance at exhibitions too. Backlights are not only better but fit the budget of any exhibitor. It has been observed that they add up to 40% more attention to your brand message and offer visibility, even for a longer distance. Backlighting has a supreme impact at exhibitions as it perfectly blends with the ambient lights of the exhibition hall. It also reduces unnecessary shadows as they are positioned to eliminate harsh shadows and to make them bright and visually appealing. It also enhances the texture of your exhibition graphics.
Rope Lighting
Often the understated form of lighting but yet one of the essential ones is the rope light. In rope lighting, you will find small LED bulbs covered in plastic tubes, which protect them from unplanned damage. They are usually found in different lengths and colors. It can hide behind the products without worrying about fire hazards. The sheen brightness of rope lights is very effective in creating a stunning backdrop.
LED Strip Lights
Just like Rope Lighting, LED strip lights come in different lengths. It has a flexible circuit board consisting of LEDs (light-emitting diodes) with an adhesive backing. These strips have a low profile shape that enables you to set them anywhere, thus making them an adjustable lighting tool. It offers great luminosity and customisability. It can be controlled through wireless dimming systems, DMX controllers, and wall switches.
Know more about exhibition stand lighting.
Light does have a major influence on the mood and appeal of interactive exhibition stands and cannot be ignored. Investing in it is worthwhile because it helps attendees to visualize your brand. But remember if your display is too bright, then it might detract visitors from the key aspects of your brand message. Lighting remains indispensable for improving the visual appeal of the bespoke exhibition stands. So always make it a point to scrutinize your stand lighting under the same lens as the size, layout, and color of your exhibition stand. The right lighting solution will certainly have a powerful impact on the success of your exhibition stand.
Are you ready to light up your exhibition stand?
