Hedge Fun

design awards

	BRONZE AWARD
	Category: In-Line Exhibitor: Yokohama Tire Corp. Design/Fabrication: NatureXhibits, Laguna Beach, CA, 949-419-6530, www.naturexhibits.com; Czarnowski, Santa Ana, CA, 714-437-5330, www.czarnowski.com Show: LA Auto Show, 2009 Budget: $134,152 Size: 84-by-17 feet (1,636 including a separate display alcove) Cost/Square Foot: $82

xhibit designers are notorious for pitching a few off-the-wall ideas to their clients, in hopes of pushing the envelope with a provocative design. But when it came time for Yokohoma Tire Corp. to build a new exhibit, the company was more interested in a very specific on-the-wall idea. Yokohama told exhibit house Czarnowski that it wanted to bring in NatureXhibits to create a back wall that left our judges thinking, "Please pass the ranch."

But this stunning, green, 110-by-8-foot "living" wall isn't what's for dinner. Yokohama wanted to create a plant-wall structure that demonstrated the tire company's eco-friendly convictions and served as an eye-catching element to attract attendees. And nothing says sustainability like 9 million seeds sprouting from an 880-square-foot vertical plant bed.

The process started five weeks prior to the show, with NatureXhibits planting a mix of vegetation to get the color and height variances desired for the end product. While most of the wall was grown from lettuce seeds, red mustard plants were used to create a tire-track pattern that ran the length of the wall. That darker, shorter vegetation added visual intrigue, so much so that one judge called it "the epitome of interesting."

The vegetation wall may have initially beckoned attendees into the space, but the rest of the exhibit's design, conceived by Czarnowski, encouraged them to explore. Hard lines accented by a color palette of black, white, and Yokohama's corporate red were the perfect complement to the living wall, and provided a framed showcase for the tires on display. In fact, if attendees really wanted to, they could actually taste the appetizing display, as each of the little plants could be taken home and replanted. In this case, it turns out good design really is a matter of taste. E

Lena Valenty, managing editor; lvalenty@exhibitormagazine.com


			Veggie Tale Nine million seeds - a mix of Lollo Rosa lettuce, red mustard plants, and winter density lettuce - were used to create the 110-by-8-foot living wall for Yokohama Tire Corp.'s exhibit at the 2009 LA Auto Show. The plush, green wall served as the perfect backdrop to highlight the company's eco-friendly line of tires, which received prominent placement against the wall and in a separate display alcove. A tire-track pattern - created by cultivating shorter, darker vegetation - ran the length of the lettuce wall and served as a visual tie between the company's tires and its environmental commitment.