AMEC 2012 Booth

In early 2012 R-Group was planning to attend that years AMEC Convention to drum up some new business. But with a tight budget and the desire to make a big impact we need to get a little DIY.

If you have even worked for a small-to-medium business you will know there is no room for a "that's not part of my job" attitude, everyone needs to do whatever they can to help ensure a successful job/project/task/event. 

By days I am a mild mannered computer programmer, by night I love to design and make things. R-Group asked me to put my design skills to use and construct them a show display. 

The brief:

• Big, bold, bright, attractive.
• Transportable by courier or small truck.
• Light-weight: one man manoeuvre or two man lift.
• Low cost.

Designed in Google Sketch Up.

After many sketches and discussions between myself and the boss we settled on a towering "Curved wall" design to feature large format graphics, lighting and loop video on HD TV's.

We chose this raised, curved look to create the illusion of a very large, very solid and effortlessly floating mass, we wanted it to appear looming, huge and massive. We wanted patrons to stop and say: "How did they...?"

Built, ready for paint.

Using Google Sketch-Up I designed a ribbed structure. Each wall is 2.4 wide 2.4 tall (built in two halves) an intentional choice as MDF timber came in 1.2m x2.4m sheets, this made efficient use of our cash and saved time in cutting.

To save more time and improve quality I had the curved "end" pieces CAD machined at mdfmagic.com.au. This ensured that the 3mm MDF face sat smooth and gap-less against the machined ends and, when painted white, really sold the illusion of a solid wall.

Adobe Illustrator CS3 was used to create the graphics that would later be printed in large vinyl stickers and applied to the head boards and wall.

We used 12 volt lighting behind the TV's and the head-boards to produce a nice looking halo effect. Flexible LED strip lights were fantastic for this purpose; bright and low cost.

I am terribly proud of how the display worked out, it drew great attention and was a real conversation starter. The curved walls work as designed with the few curious patrons actually walking up to touch and examine the wall!