Lock Box

design awards

Photos: Bjoern Ueberholz, Martina Arndt

e'd like a sophisticated in-line booth that measures more than 30 feet long, sets up in 25 minutes, and includes built-in lighting. We plan to use it on the show floor, but we might also use it for corporate events, customer briefings, etc. Plus, it needs to fold up and fit inside a standard European rail, truck, or shipping container."

ELEMENTS
Element: Structural Innovation Exhibitor: Emka Beschlagteile GmbH & Co. KG Design/Fabrication: Ueberholz GmbH, Wuppertal, Germany, 49-202-280-96-0, www.ueberholz.de Show: Euroblech, 2010

While this sounds like a set of exhibit objectives fabricated merely for dramatic effect, these were the actual guidelines handed down to exhibit house Ueberholz GmbH by Emka Beschlagteile GmbH & Co. KG, a manufacturer of locking systems and components. Somehow meeting all of Emka's requests, the Wuppertal, Germany-based exhibit house came up with this spot-on construction the judges called "highly functional" yet "aesthetically pleasing."

Earning a Silver Award in the Elements category for its structural innovation, this 33-by-8-foot exhibit was, in effect, a shipping-container-
like box that opened up to become a full-fledged exhibit. The "lid" flipped up to form the top part of the 14-foot-tall back wall, and the front wall flipped down to become the raised flooring at the front of the booth.

Once the front wood-and-aluminum panel was folded down, a steel beam was visible across the front of the space. Featuring 11 adjustable can-light fixtures, the beam was raised via hidden support rods on both ends to a height even with the top of the side walls. While the exhibit's interior featured a reception desk on the far right and a waist-high presentation/hospitality table in the center, two product-display walls on the left side of the space slid out to rest atop the elevated floor. At the completion of the show, two I&D workers dismantled the booth in roughly 25 minutes, and a forklift picked it up, hauled it to the loading docks, and placed it on a truck bound for its next show.

Emka's pop-open booth not only met the company's show-floor demands; it met the high-level demands of our judges, who touted its reusability and ease of setup. e

Open for Business
The perfect marketing vehicle for trade shows, corporate events, product launches, user conferences, etc., this 33-by-8-foot exhibit for Emka Beschlagteile GmbH & Co. KG took the term "pop-up exhibit" to a whole new level. Arriving in boxcar-like form, the top folded open to become part of the back wall, and the front wall folded down to become part of the flooring - all in a matter of roughly 25 minutes.

Linda Armstrong, senior writer; larmstrong@exhibitormagazine.com
Photos: Bjoern Ueberholz, Martina Arndt

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