2-Side Open Stall Design: Ideas That Work

A two-side open plot is the best value on most Indian floor plans. You pay a corner premium over an inline and you get two aisles feeding you, a diagonal sightline through the stand and a natural focal point where the two open edges meet — provided the design uses it rather than blocking it with a counter.

Treat the corner as the entrance, not an edge

The single decision that separates a corner stand that works from one that doesn't is what sits at the corner. The instinct is to place the reception counter there, because it feels like the front. It is the worst possible use of the space: it blocks the diagonal view into the stand and puts a barrier exactly where two streams of traffic converge.

Open the corner instead. Chamfer it at forty-five degrees, or simply leave it clear, and put the thing you most want seen in that position — a product on a plinth, a working demo, a lit feature. Visitors approaching down either aisle see it from a distance, and the diagonal line through the plot makes a modest footprint feel considerably larger than its square metres. Move reception a metre inward along one of the open edges so people are already standing on your carpet before anyone engages them.

Use the two closed walls properly

A corner plot gives you two neighbouring walls, and they are more valuable than they look because they are the only vertical planes you have. Put the large graphic on the wall that faces the busier aisle — walk the floor plan and work out which one that is, because it is rarely the one you assumed — and let it carry a single legible message rather than a product catalogue.

The second wall is where the unglamorous work goes: lockable storage, the coat and bag cupboard, the literature stock, the power distribution board and the AV rack. Everything an exhibition stand needs and nobody should see. On anything from about 18 sq m upwards, the second wall is also where a seated meeting corner belongs — backed by the wall, angled away from the aisle, far enough in that a conversation is not happening in a thoroughfare.

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Layouts that work at 9, 18 and 36 square metres

At 9 sq m — a 3×3 m corner — keep it to one idea. A full-height graphic on the busier wall, a compact counter set back along the quieter open edge, one product feature at the corner, and lighting. Nothing else fits, and attempting more produces clutter. Storage goes under the counter.

At 18 sq m — typically 6×3 m — you can separate the functions. Graphic wall and product display on the long closed wall, corner feature, reception moved inward, and a standing-height table for short conversations. This is the size where a lockable storage unit stops being optional, because two staff and a day's literature need somewhere to live.

At 36 sq m and above — 6×6 m or 9×4 m — the stand can carry three zones: an open engagement area at the corner, a demo or display run along the main graphic wall, and an enclosed or semi-enclosed meeting space against the back corner. Add a hanging banner or a raised fascia where the venue permits it, because at this size you are competing for attention across the hall and not just along the aisle.

Work out which aisle is actually busier

A corner stand has a primary and a secondary aisle, and almost nobody checks which is which before deciding where the main graphic goes. Traffic on an Indian show floor is heavily skewed by fixed points: the entry gates, the registration counters, the food court, the toilets and the seminar or conference hall. The aisle connecting two of those carries several times the footfall of an aisle that merely serves stands.

The organiser's floor plan gives you all of this if you read it as a circulation diagram rather than a plot list. Mark the entrances, mark the catering, mark the seminar rooms, then trace the routes between them. At Bombay Exhibition Centre the movement between adjoining halls concentrates traffic at specific cross-aisles; at Bharat Mandapam and Yashobhoomi the routes from the main concourse do the same. Put your primary graphic and your corner feature on the side facing that flow, and put storage and services on the quieter side. It costs nothing to get right and it is nearly impossible to fix on site.

Storage, staffing and the day-two test

Every stand looks good at nine in the morning on day one. The useful question is what it looks like at four in the afternoon on day two, and on a corner plot the answer depends almost entirely on how much closed storage was designed in. Two staff need somewhere for bags and jackets. A day of literature needs a box. Samples, giveaways, empty cartons, chargers, water bottles and the courier packaging everything arrived in all need to disappear.

On a 9 sq m corner that means a counter with a lockable cupboard beneath it and the discipline to use it. From 18 sq m up it means a proper storage unit built into the second wall, at least 900 mm wide and full height, with a lockable door. As a rule of thumb, budget around one square metre of closed storage for every twelve square metres of stand, and more if you are handing out anything bulky. It is the least glamorous line on the drawing and the one that most reliably separates a stand that still looks professional on the last afternoon from one that does not.

Lighting and height on a corner plot

Two open sides mean less wall to mount lighting on, which catches exhibitors out. Track lighting on the two closed walls will leave the corner — the most important point in the design — in shadow. Plan a suspended or gantry-mounted light over the corner feature specifically, or build a lit element into the feature itself.

Height is worth buying on a corner because it is visible from two directions. A raised fascia over the closed walls, a tower at the corner, or a hanging banner where the venue allows rigging all lift the stand above its neighbours. Check the hall manual for the height cap first — most Indian venues cap single-storey builds around four metres, and rigging permission varies by venue and hall.

Behind the build

Real shots from our Mumbai workshop and Indian show floors. Click any image to enlarge.