Project Overview:
Natural Products Expo West is one of the biggest events for Tattooed Chef as a CPG brand in the plant based space. Starting at the beginning of 2022 our team was tasked with creating not only a booth, but an experience, for our first time at this trade show. Working in tandem with 3D Exhibits we designed, styled and created a two-story interactive experience for retail buyers, investors and consumers alike.
Scope:
We created all the graphic elements, experience design aspects, and merchandise in about 6 weeks. This includes;
-Any fabric panels ("walls") on the booth
-3 display cases for the lobby
-Gallery wall to show the history of the brand
-Pins, masks, temporary tattoos and keychains
-Helped source and chose furniture and accessories within the booth space
My Role:
-Created 3D renders of display cases and designed layouts for them
-Designed enamel pins and custom temporary tattoos with envelope packaging
-Provided feedback, ideation and design input for fabric panels
-Created "Give A Crop" animation to display on vintage TV
-Did research and sourcing on furniture for various spaces within the booth
Inspiration:
We knew when planning this booth and experience we wanted to do something different than what a lot of people did at trade shows. Our inspiration drew heavily from Mid Century Modern styles (my personal favorite when it comes to interiors!), and wanting to add in edgy, fun and interactive elements.
The New Product Showcase
Process:
One of the big elements I owned in this project was our New Product Showcase (as well as a couple other smaller showcases). These lived in the lobby of the convention center and we had to get really creative to stand out. We started with a few different aesthetic ideas that I mocked up in 3D, and then narrowed it down to this entry way inspired space that would tie well into our booth itself.
Our first idea was an outdoor kind of street vibe with lots of plants, some concrete elements, and a brick background that really left the product as the main focus. The second concept was super skateboard focused since we'd been on a bit of a skateboard kick. This would involve some custom skateboards that showed off our slogan, but we decided this concept would draw away from the product too much.
Final Design:
The final concept was the one we landed on, we wanted to create a space that felt like you were peeking into someone's entryway, with a gallery wall of branded photos and slogans (and a callout to our booth number), lots of packaging, and some home elements like a custom skateboard, some brand-themed shoes, and a record player with our logo. We wanted these elements to feel cool while still tying into our brand pillars, like food, music, and art.
MERCH
Process:
When it came to merch, we knew we wanted to have some unique items, no pens with our logos on them or anything we thought people would just throw away the next day. We came together as a team with a long list of ideas from simple to wild, and narrowed it down to enamel pins, keychains with a Spotify code that went to a custom playlist, a custom pack of temporary tattoos and masks. Some of the merchandise for this show was intended just to give out as freebies, and some we used to help identify our team on the floor. We didn't want to just put our logo on tee shirts or polos and have all our of staff looking the same, so I recommended we do a set of custom enamel pins that would go on each staff member's cross body bags, as well as creating a custom mask with our brand paisley so that our team was identifiable but not overly branded.
Left: Tattoo sheet ideation, Right: Mask ideation
Final Design:
Our final design choices were really driven by what we felt was the most representative of our brand, would be fun for people to wear, and didn't feel overly branded or like we'd just slapped our logo on things.
2023 UPDATES
In 2023 we made some updates to the booth and what we brought that I got to work on. This includes mocking up and helping ideate on how we used an extra 10' x 40' plot at the back of our booth that we didn't have last year, creating a sticker sheet, and utilizing our ice cream carts that I worked on for Lollapalooza in 2022.
