Tower of Babble

design awards

	SILVER AWARD
	Category: Island - $150 per Square Foot or More Exhibitor: SpinVox Ltd. Design: FreeState Ltd., London, U.K., 44-20-3005-7990, www.freestate.co.uk Fabrication: Hood Exhibits Inc., Richmond, CA, 510-965-9999, www.hoodexhibits.com Show: Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless, 2009 Budget: $85,000 Size: 20-by-20 feet Cost/Square Foot: $213

istory is full of unforgettable voices echoing down the ages - from Winston Churchill's gravelly timbre to Gilbert Gottfried's grating tone. But how do you give a company a voice as memorable as those? That was the challenge facing SpinVox Ltd., whose service converts voice to text messages for land lines, cell phones, blogs, and more. To create a booth that would speak for itself at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless show in 2009, the Marlow, U.K.-based company turned to London-headquartered FreeState Ltd. and Hood Exhibits Inc. of Richmond, CA.

The company filled its 20-by-20-foot space not with typical cubicle-bland furniture, but with the basic components of speech itself - in the shape of 75 oversized laminated wood "alphabet blocks." It was a pitch-perfect idea that, one judge said, "turns a typical booth experience inside out."

Attracted by the alpine-like mountain of ABCs that rose almost 15 feet high, attendees flocked to the pile of blocks, which featured stencil-like, white letters on colorful backgrounds of pink, orange, purple, and more.

Distinguishing itself even further from other exhibitors, the company peopled its booth with mobsters: 315 12.6-inch-tall PVC action figures with alphabet blocks for heads. Based on a group of characters called the "speech mob" that SpinVox created for its launch in 2007, the dolls were dressed in finely detailed polyester suits and ties and arranged on transparent acrylic stands in Rockette-like lines and various positions.

By thinking outside the box, SpinVox created a booth that, instead of a conventional space to talk in, became a conversation piece to rave about. E

Charles Pappas, senior writer; cpappas@exhibitormagazine.com

Block Party

Bursting with color and whimsy, SpinVox Ltd.'s booth looked more like a product display at Toys R Us than an exhibit at a trade show. Designed to be a conversation starter in and of itself, the booth used jumbo alphabet blocks, a Crayola color scheme, superhero-like action figures, and even a graphic novel that made the company stand out like a high-volume aria next to the low-energy whispers of nearby competitors.