ashion designers have long known that the most alluring ensembles often leave a little something to the imagination, hinting at the goods rather than just laying them all out in the open. McDonald's Corp. employed this strategy to perfection at its 2012 Worldwide Convention, erecting a peek-a-boo wall along the aisle that judges called "visually stunning."

The white wall was a 96-foot-long, 12-foot-tall work of typographical art extending along the side of McDonald's exhibit, which was introducing the company's new restaurant design and in-store promotions. While the reveal of those items was in itself exciting, designer Mitchell Mauk of Mauk Design felt that a wall constructed to offer mere glimpses into the exhibit would be an effective attention-grabbing tease.

Coming in at $40,000 – 10 percent of the budget for the entire exhibit – the 6-inch-deep structure was crafted of vinyl cut into the shapes of letters and stretched onto aluminum tubing. At first glance, the letters appeared to be a random scramble, but closer inspection revealed the words "place" and "promotion" embedded throughout. "We knew that people might not immediately understand the words in the wall, but the whole effect definitely piqued their curiosity," Mauk said. Aisle-walkers could see through the cutout spaces in between letters to the exhibit on the other side, where McDonald's big reveal awaited. To amp up the wall's drama, Mauk slanted it at a 10-degree angle and installed LED light bars inside that pulsed blue light down the structure like a rolling wave every 10 seconds.

Exhibit Design Awards judges praised the entire concept and its execution. "This sent a message to the world," one judge said, "that a functional element doesn't have to be boring. It can be an amazing statement in and of itself." E