Tradeshow Booth Cures - Living Color
Feng Shui is the Ancient Chinese practice of configuring home or work environments to promote health, happiness, and prosperity. By utilizing elements such as light and color, Feng Shui Masters used their skill to promote the flow of "chi", or vital energy , to protect and enhance the prosperity of the Imperial Dynasties. Widely practiced today, Feng Shui theory focuses on methods to manage the flow of energy and with skillful application, can effectively lead people into your booth.

Johnny Cash had his all-black attire, Christo had the saffron-draped "gates" in Central Park. Were they embracing Feng Shui color principles? Perhaps not consciously, but both men instinctively knew the incredible impact that color has on our mood and our perceptions. Retailers and marketing professionals embrace color as one of their most effective tools. Psychologists have suggested that color impression can account for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of a product or service. Clearly, color is an important "weapon" in the Feng Shui arsenal. Master this key element of Feng Shui theory, and you'll have people flooding into your booth.

Color can both soothe and stimulate and the two reactions are not mutually exclusive. It's possible to excite your customer mentally while keeping him still enough physically to listen to you! A high energy presentation can be an effective tool, but it's not to your benefit if your customer is too jazzed

User Experience Strategy
In recent years, my consulting process has become T-shaped, in part due to the gentle jabs of Peter Boersma, but...
(Not) Everything is Miscellaneous
To the librarians. So begins Everything is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger's mesmerizing new book about organization, authority, and knowledge. I received...
Information Architecture 3.0
At a recent gathering of CIOs, I was introduced, not as an information architect, interaction designer, or librarian, but as...
Authority
I have a problem with authority. It's not that I'm independent, insubordinate, and contrarian. I am, but that's not my...
Information Architecture Research
What do we really know about information architecture? Do we know what works? Can we defend our designs? Are we...
User Experience Design
I've been practicing information architecture since 1994, and from Gopher to Google have seen dramatic changes in the landscape of...
International Information Architecture
Connecting people from diverse disciplines, countries and cultures is a strategic imperative, not only for AIfIA but for the information...
Trust by Design
I'm relaxing back into the pleasures of Ann Arbor life after several weeks in the air and on the road....
The Definition of Information Architecture
aifia, asilomar, big world, metafilter, megaphone
Enemies of Usability
usability, business, glue, wireframes, sneakiness
Ambient Findability
smart dust, nanotechnology, orbs, sensors
The Age of Findability
airports, boxes, usability, findable objects, wayfinding
Social Network Analysis
mavens, connectors, structural holes, socially translucent systems
Innovation Architecture
complex adaptive systems, collaborative filtering, citation analysis
In Defense of Search
parametric searching, best bets, results in context

to pay attention to your sales pitch. Balance plays a big part in any Feng Shui application, and this is especially true when it comes to color.

Strong yang (masculine energy) colors such as red, orange, yellow or gold can be used to stimulate energy. Bright, rich color both pleases our eyes and excites our brains while yin (feminine energy) colors like green and blue promote a feeling of well-being. A combination of yin and yang hues is the most desirable but limit your predominant colors to three or less. Signage is an effective way of combining the two - try using light, yin-colored letters on a dark, yang-colored background. The contrast will make the lettering appear larger and viewers will find it easier to read.

If you are attempting to breathe new life into an existing trade show booth, nothing yields more bang for the buck than a fresh coat of paint. Even if you opt to stick with the same color scheme, a fresh coat without marks or nicks is more reflective and conducive to energy flow. If you do decide to go with a new color scheme, make sure it enhances the mood you want to set. Use red and yellow to evoke excitement and optimism and black to convey authority. Green and blue, colors found in nature are soothing and serene.

Careful consideration of color theory will go a long way towards conveying your message, even if (God forbid!) no one is in your booth. Combine this with the lighting strategies discussed in our other article and you'll be well on your way to a successful show. But there are still a few tricks up the ancient masters' sleeves - and the next article in our series will demystify them.

Patty Stripes is an editor for The Trade Show Booth, an online resource where she has posted various articles about improving your trade show booth performance and getting creative with trade show displays.