Innovative EXPO offers a wide range of graphic art services and creative product designs to dress up your event or booth space. 

Our production materials and operating procedures allow us to quickly deliver low-cost signs and graphic pieces without sacrificing appearance. Whether you are looking for a small tabletop graphic, a hanging sign for your backwall, or a custom designed booth with full-length graphic panels, we aim to produce an attractive finished presentation to fit your budget.

Click the tabs above to learn more about Graphics and Signs, or contact the Innovative EXPO team!

Innovative EXPO mounted signs are printed in full color on photo-quality glossy vinyl, which is attached to a panel for display. The type of panel varies depending on the application, and may be rigid or flexible: Fome-cor, Gator Foam, and Sintra (flexible) are popular choices.

Mounted signs are divided into 4 types:

• StandUp
• Framed
• Easel
• Hanging

StandUp Signs slip into an aluminum base, and are mounted on 1/2" Gator Foam for rigidity. After the event, the panel is stripped of artwork, then reused to reduce waste. Pictured is our popular Luna StandUp sign, which measures 34" wide X 94" tall.  An outline template is available in several file formats. StandUp signs can be double-sided, and are particularly effective as a directional sign, or use a pair to mark an entrance.

Framed Signs are housed in a metal frame, either a free-standing Sign Holder (left) or as part of a custom assembly. This type of graphic is often used to dress up free-standing counters, exhibitor booth spaces and/or entrance units to trade shows (right). A framed sign must be designed to precise dimensions; our vertical Sign Holders fit a 22"w x 28"h sign. If you are doing your own graphic design for one of our Entrances or another custom assembly, ask us for a detailed drawing before you begin.

Easel Signs may be any size from 8-1/2" x 11" to 47" x 47". We provide tabletop easel backs for small placards, or floor easels for larger signs (right). These signs are glossy vinyl mounted on fome-cor, unless otherwise requested. The following popular sizes are recommended for the "greenest" sign production, minimizing waste when cut from a 4' x 8' panel: Tabletop Placards with folding easel backs   Floor Easel Signs - portrait / landscape trim size printable area   trim size all are full bleed (printable to edge) Q'ty per 4' x 8' panel 8-1/2" x 11" 8" x 10.5"   18" x 22" 11" x 17" 11" x 17" (full bleed)   22" x 28"       31" x 47"       47" x 47" Optional: Lamination for durability or dry-erase marker use.

Hanging Signs are usually mounted on 1/2" Gator Foam, preventing the artwork from warping or curling. This type of sign can be rectangular, or cut to a custom shape. Allow for 1" trim on a 4' x 8' panel, or use the sizes above as a guide.

James Babb, our Graphics Manager, applies his 30-plus years of design experience to each sign and graphic we produce.

An avid computer user since 1987, James has an extensive background that spans CAD, graphic arts, website and display design.

James currently works in Adobe Creative Suite 4 applications, with emphasis in Adobe Illustrator. He is equally at home with virtual design and hands-on sign production. Request his services for logo design, backgrounds, dress graphics or sign layout.

Whether you submit your own artwork, or ask James to create something especially for you, his focus on quality and detail always comes through in the finished product.

Artwork Submission

Preparing your artwork for submission will be far less challenging if you do it sooner, rather than later – particularly if this is your first time working with us.

Sizing your Artwork:

Please prepare your artwork to scale, either actual size (preferred) or at 50% scale. Be sure to indicate if you are using a reduced scale. Detailed drawings or panel sizes for all of our standard display equipment are readily available, so please ask before you begin designing.

Raster Images and Photos:

A common problem is using logos and other graphics collected from websites — they may look fine on-screen, but turn into a grainy mess when printed.

Plan on an actual-size resolution of 150 dpi for best results. For example, if you are using a photo or image that is 1024 x 768 pixels, you will get a nice sharp print at up to about 7" across. If you have a typical website logo of 200 pixels or so, don't expect it to look good any larger than 2 inches.

Color Problems:

Many graphics are designed more with screen display in mind than whether they will print well. Computer monitors use RGB (mixes of red-green-blue light) to display colors, while our 4-color printing process uses CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black). These two color systems have different "gamuts", or ranges of possible colors. In other words, there are colors that look fine on your computer monitor but can not be duplicated in print.

Avoid these common color pitfalls that look great on-screen, but may not translate well when printed:

1. Subtle gradients, reflections and shadows. If a shading drops below about a 10% ink density, it may not print.
2. Dark colors that are near black. These tend to print as black, for much the same reason.
3. Low-contrast color combinations. The colors may print fine, but be difficult to make out from a typical viewing distance — especially text.
4. Pastel shadows or "glow" behind type. This rarely prints well, and the text may look out of focus. Stick with black/greyscale shadows for best effect.

If color matching is a concern, please send us a printed sample of your color palette by regular mail. (No, e-mailing a .pdf file won't help). Every reasonable effort will be made to coordinate the colors in your signs with your sample.

Filetypes:

We prepare all artwork for output using Adobe Illustrator CS4. If you are using Illustrator, you have three good options:

1. Send your .ai files, along with any fonts you are using
2. Save your files as .eps, with fonts embedded
3. Convert all text to outlines before submitting your files

If you are using a different program, try option 2. If that doesn't work for your program, we can accept almost any file format you might have - just be sure to allow time for conversions on our end.

Any time we need to alter your files, or when there may be questions about correct translation, a .pdf proof will be sent for your approval.

Sending your files:

The simplest and fastest way to submit sign artwork is via e-mail as an attachment, up to about 10 megabytes. If your files are larger, use our FTP transfer site; e-mail James for current FTP instructions and password.

There's always "Plan B":

If you lack the experience (or the time!) to prepare final artwork for your signs, you do have an option: Ask Innovative EXPO to do it for you. Full graphic design services are available, at reasonable rates.

Traditionally, trade show and event signage has created a enormous amount of waste. Not only are sign materials bulky, they are also typically used for only a few days, then discarded. Adding to the problem is the popularity of "print on board" methods, where the artwork is printed directly on the panel. This type of printing unfortunately eliminates any possibility of reuse.

Innovative EXPO's Green Initiative program was launched in 2008, with the goal of reducing our waste stream by at least 50%. The Graphics Department has taken the following steps towards that goal:

Reusable panels — By combining a thin sheet of removable artwork with durable rigid panels, this type of signage reduces waste volume to less than 20% of a typical throw-away sign. Damaged panels that can no longer be reused find a second life as panels for smaller signs.

Maximizing Panel Use — Small signs are typically mounted on fome-cor sheets, which are not reusable. To limit the waste created by trimming, all small signs are "tiled" to cover the fome-cor sheet as completely as possible. If you require more than a few small signs, consider using one of these popular green sizes:

trim size	Q'ty per 4' x 8' panel	trim size	Q'ty per 4' x 8' panel
18" x 22"		31" x 47"
22" x 28"		47" x 47"

Recycling — In addition to separating waste from recyclables at show site, Innovative EXPO continues to investigate recycled and recyclable sign materials as they become available.

Storage Service — Many trade show graphic elements are unchanged from one season to the next. As a courtesy to our show management customers that have contracted to repeat their event, any reusable graphics are carefully wrapped and stored for their next use.