MELANIE WOOD FOUNDER OF WOOD DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT
Design has a reputation for being a bit of a boys' club, especially at the top. Few women, it appears, are managing to break the glass ceiling and take a place around the boardroom table. So if you can't join them there's only one course of action - beat them. This approach has certainly worked for Melanie Wood, founder of Wood Design And Management.
"Instinctively I knew I would have to set up on my own in order to get the contracts I wanted," she says. "Therefore I took a step into the wilderness - it was the biggest challenge of my career."
That was in 1990 and Wood has never looked back. Ironically, a core market for Wood is Abu Dhabi - a patriarchal culture not necessarily accustomed to dealing directly with business women. She says: "The Middle East is aspirational and hiring a European designer has a certain cachet about it. Being female enhances this. China is another market we are now hoping to make inroads into - there's a real hunger for innovative design there."
To succeed in business takes confidence, determination and endless enthusiasm. But the financial and aesthetic rewards can be enormously satisfying.
But it's not for the faint-hearted. Lead times are getting shorter and expectations are getting tougher. "Clients want a unique signature, a stamp on their stand unlike anything else." Wood believes in shocking her audience. "Grab them by the scruff of the neck and tell them your message," she says. "People don't see minor detail; you've got to jolt them to attention." It's this kind of talk that has helped her carve a money-spinning niche in an industry that has a yawning gender gap.
SHAUN FEATHERSTONE SENIOR DESIGNER AT CLIP DISPLAY
Kitchens and exhibition stands don't seem obvious bedfellows. In fact, says Clip Display senior designer Shaun Featherstone, there's more overlap than meets the eye. And being a former commercial kitchen designer, he should know: "It all comes down to ergonomics. It's about creating an environment which people can engage with - it's got to be slick and easy to use."
Having read creative design and education at Loughborough University, he urges any wannabe designer to get a degree under their belt. "It gives the basic grounding to tackle any design problem, especially now, when client expectations are so much tougher and budgets so much tighter."
Innovative stand design means staying one step ahead of fluctuating trends and fashions, he warns. Bold lighting and 20-inch TVs were the height of sophistication in the early 1990s. Today clients can demand 84-inch plasma screens, mood lighting and huge interactive graphics - all at a fraction of the costs quoted 15 years ago. The overall size of stands has reduced too, adding a further dimension to the modern design brief.
This frantic pace of change, particularly in terms of technological progress, reinforces the importance of staying true to the client's objectives. Wow-factor is important but it's got to be appropriate to the target audience. "What does the client hope to achieve? Brand reinforcement, meet and greet, increased sales? Don't forget practical basics - keep it simple and straightforward."
Featherstone joined Clip Display in 1994 with a brief to help launch its first in-house design department. Previously this work was done by external agencies. Now his section employs three full-time designers and a design manager.
The best designers possess a combination of interior, product and graphic expertise, he says. It's their role to visualise and interpret how an exhibition stand slots into a client's overarching marketing strategy. "This means understanding brand guidelines, the services and products being showcased and the fact the stand is only one part of the marketing mix - not necessarily the main feature."
ADAM KING DESIGN DIRECTOR AT SKYLINE WHITESPACE
Skyline Whitespace is one of the new breed of design companies specialising in sustainable exhibition solutions. Design director Adam King says his designs are pitched squarely at clients whose very raison d'etre demands a truly green marketing strategy. "The trend in this industry is to reduce waste and help cut carbon emissions."
King designs 'reconfigurable' modular stands. "They're a bit like Lego," he says. "They can be built over and over again." The stands are made using carbon-neutral steel and aluminium instead of traditional MDF or timber. Even graphic materials are created from biodegradable cotton. And his designs can be flat-packed into compact spaces, making them easy to transport in small, low-energy transit vans.
The firm's current clients include the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the RSPB and Conrad Hotels, which is staging a global exhibition programme covering Australia, China and the UK.
"The old-school mentality was to make the biggest impression on an audience, whatever the price. That day has passed. Now it's about subtlety, both in terms of visual and environmental impact," he says.
The shift towards softer, more considered marketing is opening up opportunities for women designers, argues King. "More and more buyers and marketing managers are female and don't necessarily want the kind of brutal, overtly masculine designs historically created by men. They're looking for subtlety. And without sounding sexist, women have a subtle approach which is a huge advantage in this industry."
King, who has a background in the marketing and advertising sector, began his career in 1991 as a junior in the financial services sector - a role that secured him a gold award at the first Event Awards. He helped launch Skyline Whitespace in 2002.
He believes the key to successful design is possessing a three-dimensional mindset. Designers have got to be able to transform a two-dimensional brand into a three-dimensional environment that's safe, unique and architecturally stimulating. "A client is always looking to beat last year's designs. For me, the role of the designer is to make every project unique. That's a creatively exhausting challenge."
JASON SMITH LEAD 3-D DESIGNER AT PCI FITCH
Exhibition design in the 21st century is a very different beast from what it was in the mid-1990s - a time of razzmatazz, profligate budgets and shocking waste. Extravagance has given way to prudence and corporate responsibility. And the challenge for contemporary designers like Jason Smith, lead 3-D designer at PCI Fitch, is to balance visual impact with cost control and intelligent use of materials.
With so much talk of global warming, clients are increasingly keen to shout about their green credentials, says Smith. He cites a recent design brief set by oil giant BP which involved designing a stand using 80% recyclable materials for EAGE - the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers' conference and exhibition at Excel London.
"Part of the satisfaction is coming up with designs that deliver innovation on a tight budget," he says. "The challenge is to research the right combination of materials that emphasises corporate responsibility and grabs the imagination of the audience."
Meeting clients' needs in this age of tighter corporate accountability calls for a specific set of design skills that can only be gained through a wide experience and understanding of the exhibition industry. Today's designers, says Smith, need the ability to distil a plethora of corporate objectives into two or three salient messages, to fathom brand personality and to understand what makes a target audience tick.
"It's about creating a bold, innovative experience that is still an elegant environment," explains Smith. "That means intelligent, considered use of space that demonstrates simplicity and attention to detail."
After studying industrial design at De Montfort University in Leicester, Smith cut his teeth as an apprentice working for a small design company called MC2. "It was a case of being thrown in at the deep end but this gave me a thorough understanding of the creative and technical aspects of stand design, which is fundamental," he says.
"I recommend anyone to combine a design degree with as much on-the-job experience as they can get."
Since those days Smith has witnessed a trend for experienced-based live events across the exhibition sector. "This involves creating a real-life environment or telling a story through a mix of live and static displays," he explains.
"Visitors are more inclined to interact and discover what a stand has to offer when presented with a stimulating experience," he concludes.