For business owners, attending industry expos and trade shows can open your enterprise up to a much broader audience than you may have expected. These events are an opportunity to spotlight your business and team, find some customer leads, and perhaps even network with other businesses and build up some new partnerships or supplier relationships.
Hands down, the best way to make a strong and lasting first impression at trade shows is to deck your stall out with custom branded decor and materials. And that’s where our laser cutting technicians come into the picture.
Today, our laser cutting team here at Vector & Raster Laser Services will be diving deeper into the art of laser cut branding, outlining some of the key advantages of investing in laser cut designs for your stall, and spotlighting some design concepts that will be most worthwhile for your brand and business when attending industry expos and exhibitions.
Benefits of Laser Cut Branding vs. Print Branding for Trade Show Stands
There are already ample benefits to laser production over printing, especially for branded materials like merchandise and office decor. But in the context of trade shows, where your branded materials often need to be transported and handled specific times of the year rather than being hung up or displayed year-round, laser cut branding offers additional benefits, including:
Longevity of Design
Unlike printed posters and banners, laser cut brand assets don’t rip, tear, or discolour when exposed to harsh sunlight (depending on the materials you use for your custom branding project).
This is ideal for branded materials that you can expect to be installed and uninstalled on a regular basis. Consistent handling shouldn’t impact the quality and presentability of your branded materials. With professional laser cut designs, it won’t.
Improved Cost Efficiency
Laser cut products made with hard-wearing materials like acrylic, traffolyte, or other corrosion- or scratch-resistant plastics and metals, can basically look brand new for years if not decades. This means you can produce evergreen branded displays using laser cutting technologies, and enjoy those designs for a much more extensive period of time than traditional printed assets.
When you calculate the cost per setup over this longer lifespan, the cost efficiency of laser cut branding compared to printed branding becomes pretty evident.
Greater Creative Control
With custom laser cutting projects, you’re in the driver’s seat at all times, with our experts only stepping in when they have suggestions for how you can get even more value (i.e. effects, structural integrity, etc.) out of your design concept. If for any reason we feel your design might not work whether due to materials used paired with intricacy of design layouts or other factors, our graphic designers will provide their expert recommendations for tweaks.
Outside of these recommendations, you will maintain full creative control over all aspects of your custom laser cut branding project, from selecting your materials to having final say on the final designs before and after production. If you want to use your own custom artwork for your laser project, we’ll support you every step of the way, and draw from our own experience to ensure your finished product not only looks great but is also designed to last.
Dynamic and Eye-catching
Three-dimensional laser cut designs stand out comparative to two-dimensional printed posters. Designs like laser engraved wooden signs naturally draw the eye, providing a visual break from the saturated colours of printed posters. Wooden laser engraved signs also provide a timeless appeal that can’t be replicated through printed branding.
And if you prefer a pop of colour in your branded assets, there are plenty of laser cutting materials that can provide this as well without sacrificing on dimensionality. A great example here is traffolyte plastic, which is layered using multiple plastic sheets to produce a multi-coloured effect when processed using laser engraving machinery.
Acrylic sheets also provide a pop of colour that’s built to last, with acrylic plastics available in upwards of hundreds of different combinations of colours and finishes, ranging from mirrored to transparent, and even glitter, fluorescent, and frost. You can also back your custom laser cut acrylic signage and branded designs on LED light strips to create quick, easy, and highly presentable backlit acrylic signage. Talk about show-stopping.
Laser Cut Brand Materials to Decorate Your Stall or Stand
With all the benefits of laser cut branding for your trade show stand all laid out, now all that’s left to do is determine what types of laser cut designs you want to decorate your stall or stand with.
The key to any good trade show stand is to give event attendees an immediate reason to come over and engage. This call to attention could be anything that aligns with your brand, like a game, or giveaways like free samples or promotional items. Using this reasoning, here are some of the brand materials you’ll want to consider when designing your company’s trade show stand.
Laser Cut Signage
A clear directional laser cut sign should be the first thing on your list. Event attendees should see your laser cut sign as a landmark, signalling where they can find you, even from a distance.
Thankfully, with a laser cut sign rather than a traditional printed sign, you also don’t need to worry about overhead lighting producing a glare and obscuring your branded design. But if you are worried about obstructions or glare, speak to us about how you can choose the right laser signage style for your brand.
Custom Furnishing (Shelving, Tables, etc.)
With laser cutting, you can design so much more than your posters, signage, and flyers – you can even build your own custom stall and furnishings. Our team at Vector & Raster Laser Services have designed a range of furniture items, including custom solid wood tabletops with branded designs, and even custom wood flooring. So if you have a vision in mind for your stall shelving or other furnishings, then let us know.
Laser Cut Decor
On top of being able to engrave your branding directly onto wooden tabletops, our team can also produce custom laser cut wood art and other decorative items to adorn your trade show stand. You can even order laser cut decor for specific holidays or occasions, allowing you to customise your trade show stand throughout the calendar year.
And if you’d rather be able to make your own decorations as needed, we can produce some custom plastic stencils for you instead, giving you the option to easily cut out your own paper decor items as needed in the lead up to trade show stands, or paint logos and other brand imagery directly onto your stand.
Business Cards
What’s the best way to make event attendees jump at the opportunity to grab your business card? By making it stunning, of course.
Laser cut business cards provide a unique take on traditional printed cards with their stock standard rectangular, wallet-sized shape. Instead of doing what everyone else is doing, you can instead decide to incorporate cutout designs into your card inspired by your business and the products or services it offers.
Cheesemonger? Make your business card look like a slice of Swiss cheese! Plumber? Turn your business card into a design inspired by pipes and holes. Jeweller? Think glistening gems with sparkle cutouts. The options are endless, and it all starts with one solid idea.
Promotional Items and Flyers
In a similar vein to custom laser cut business cards, laser cutting technologies also provide opportunities to change up the look of your company’s flyers and other promotional materials. You can do a lot with laser cut paper, so if you have an idea for how you can make your promotional flyers more engaging, then again, simply let us know.
Branded merchandise
Finally, the awesome design power of laser engraving for corporate branding also allows you to deck out your trade show stand with custom branded merchandise like keyrings, USBs, pens, badges, bookmarks, and any number of other nifty gifts that you’d like to hand out to prospective clients, customers, and partners. Again, the sky’s the limit here, so if you have a concept for a branded merchandise project that our laser cutting technicians will be able to help you out with, drop us a line.
Secure Quality Laser Cut Materials for Trade Show Stands with Vector & Raster Laser Services
At Vector & Raster Laser Services, we take great pride in supporting our fellow small business owners in taking full control over their brand building, including the production of materials specifically for trade events. We’ve produced a crazy amount of custom projects for trade shows, from laser engraved coconut bowls to custom stencils for brands and events, including stencils for the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s Mother’s Day Classic fundraising drive.
If you have a design in mind for your company’s next trade show or industry expo, then don’t hesitate to contact our team to get the ball rolling on your branded project. Get a free, no-obligation quote sent to your preferred inbox, or simply call us at (03) 5783 4257 for more information on our laser cutting services.
Share On:
