A custom exhibition stand in Johannesburg is planned from the venue backwards. Sandton Convention Centre, Gallagher, and NASREC each have load-in rules, power drops, and a freight path. A planning guide is those constraints plus a stand you can rebuild, not a render with no joint lines. The service is custom exhibition stands. A mall activation is a different object: mall kiosk design ideas.
Venue rules before the render
Get the exhibitor manual before you fall in love with a double-height tower. Height limits, rigging bans, and the time you may enter the hall decide the design. Power is a drop you order, not a socket you hope is in the neighbouring stand. Sightlines are the aisle, not the camera in the render.
A custom booth typically runs 4–8 weeks from signed drawings, depending on graphics, AV, and the venue booking. If the show is inside that window, say so on day one. We would rather simplify the stand than promise a tower we cannot finish.
Modular, custom, or a mix
A reusable module with connectors is the right default if you exhibit more than once. Custom skins, counters, and a feature wall make it yours. A fully bespoke one-show sculpture is honest only when the brief is a single launch and the budget includes the skip afterwards.
Counters need a lockable bay, a place for a laptop, and a height that works for a conversation. Stools, water, and a sample wall are planned in the drawing so they are not taped on the night before opening. Workshop-built modules at Booysens assemble faster on the floor than carpentry that starts when the hall opens.
Graphics, AV, and power
Graphics are files with a bleed and a due date, not a logo in an email on load-in morning. Screens need a mount, a cable route, and power that does not cross the aisle in a loose lead. Light the product and the counter. A dark stand with a bright neighbour disappears.
Name the shows you will reuse the kit on. Storage between Gallagher and the next Sandton booking is part of planning, or the stand lives in a passage until someone throws it out.
Freight, crew, and the night before
Cases have to fit the venue dock and your bakkie or the hired truck. Label every panel. A stand that only the person who built it can assemble is a risk when that person is in traffic on the N1. We dry-fit in the workshop so the hall is assembly, not invention.
What to send
Send the venue, the stand size, the show date, and whether the kit must live past this event. Share the exhibitor manual if you have it. We will plan to those rules before we draw a tower the hall will not allow.
