Let’s talk office partitions!

Freestanding, portable, acoustic, dry wipe, printed – and that’s just to name a few. Open plan offices and floor spaces were a thing, but it seems we’re coming back around to sectioned offices and privacy compartments.

Each company or office will have their own idea of what works and what doesn’t, some love open plan and some love a good office partition. Both are available to you, adding partitions to an office, doesn’t mean you have to close everything off and shut yourself away. With a range of different solutions, a lot can be achieved, let us show you how…

Acoustic Screens

Perfect for a loud office and helps reduce the hustle and bustle of a busy environment. These screens have a foam interior to absorb the unwanted to noise to keep productivity high and distractions at a minimum. Not only helping with the noise but providing each department with a little more privacy, to get heads down and stuck in to their work load.

Pinnable Screens

Resembling the same exterior as a general partition, and still looking great in the office with your chosen fabric. The core has been created to accept pins, so you can go ahead and attach your information, photos and office notices. The finished product is a 2 in 1, a partition and notice board. Afterall, we all love a dual-purpose product!

Printed Partitions

This is where the fun begins. A printed screen is basically a blank canvas and can be designed with anything and everything you desire. Add a splash of bold colour and interesting artwork to flow through the office and bring the personalities alive. Any artwork added is completely custom, you can add any colour, logo or image to create a unique partition.

Vision Partitions

A partition mix up – A partition with a window! Sounds great, right? Offering you the noise barrier you may require as well as making the most of the natural day light and keeping the office bright. A great solution if your vision is a 50/50 office, providing a great compromise between open plan and closed spaces.

An added benefit is you have the choice of acoustic to vision ratio!

Dry Wipe Screens

Doodle as you work or make important notes – either is fine with us! Another dual-purpose product, this is suitable for closing off an area or if you require a portable solution for training, the dry wipe screen can work wonders. Wheel in and out when required – lock the castors in place when in situ and the notes made can be transferred around the office or left in place for the next session.

Hopefully you now have a good foundation to start your research. Think about style, budget and how you will use the screen – let the shopping commence!

As 2019 unravels, new exhibition designs and stands are being advertised and promoted to grab some attention and show you what’s new and in trend.

Pop ups and modular displays are the little black dress of the exhibition world – never goes out of fashion and will save you when nothing else works. But sometimes it’s okay to venture outside of your comfort zone and try something new – who knows, you might just love it!

If you haven’t already heard, here’s what you need to know :-

A fabric exhibition display with an internal metal structure which creates the shape and main body of the stand. Your chosen graphic will be printed on to a stretch fabric which fits over the structure like a glove and zips at the side to complete the look.

The overall finish shows a seamless canvas with a double-sided print on most options. Providing you with double the artwork and double the advertising room – which is always an upside.

This begs the question why should you choose a fabric display?

We say – Why not? With the exhibition stand market always growing with new solutions and options, it pays to try something new and hit your target audience with a new vision. Change keeps things new, fresh and exciting.

A major factor is the seamless finished product, meaning your final design will have no joins and will show your artwork as 1 continuous design. Seen as an advantage by many to ensure the exhibition display is flawless, neat and paints the perfect message.

With a range of fabric displays from stands, pop ups, arches, booths and banners, your stand will never end. Thinking ahead is the aim of the game and you always want to adapt, change and add items to your stand, another thing which is made easy by the fabric options available to you.

As the saying goes, New Year, New you. But this year it sounds to us more like New year, new display – and what we mean is a new year is the best time to refresh your displays and get you set for the year ahead.

Starting the year out on the right foot is important especially when it comes to your yearly shows and events. It’s time to upgrade, refresh or completely restyle your display boards with a brand new look.

Just like printed displays you’ll be spoilt for choice which makes the decision process harder than ever, we’ll break it down for you with facts and features – Now let’s get the ball rolling…

Folding Display Boards

A light, compact and simple system. Perfect for a low traffic area and requires minimal assembly, meaning you can be up and running in a matter of minutes.

The display folds away nice and neatly and can be carried away in a padded storage bag. Just because the folding display offers a simple design, this doesn’t mean the colour has to be – choose from an array of fabrics to brighten up your display. Additional to this choose a pinnable or loop nylon fabric- another option to make the choice that much harder.

Panel and Pole Systems

The name says it all – a display system consisting of panels and poles!

The beauty of this system is the flexibility, you can use as many panels as you need to create your vision. All you have to do is link them together and you’re good to go. The selection of small and large panels opens you up to a number of possibilities and makes the design great for each stand space or area you come across.

The boards are finished in a loop nylon fabric, allowing you to complete your display with posters, photos or new product information.

Build your own

Display board flexibility at its finest. The build your own option allows you to choose everything from your panel sizes, poles, headers and accessories. Finished in 1 of many loop nylon fabric colours or create your very own artwork for a complete custom printed panel or full display.

Building your own makes the display your own design and allows you to create a display perfect for you. Due to the unique design of the poles you have 4 hanging points for the boards so the shapes and configurations you can create are huge.

This should be enough to get you started – Let’s get creating!

December – what a wonderful time of year!

The air is cooler, the nights are darker, some might be hoping for snow – all the more reason to bring out the jumpers and wrap up warm. As much as the season is enjoyed, its also filled with the dreaded cold and flu symptoms.

We use a concoction of syrups and remedies to keep us well enough to make it through the day. The feeling of a stuffy nose and head is a feeling we’d like to battle in bed, but that’s not always an option.

A cold can be caught in various places, we’ve listed the most likely places and more importantly some prevention tips.

Places most likely to catch a cold

Airports

Hundreds of flights coming in from all over the world, with hundreds and thousands of people coming in and out of the airport, along with suitcases being passed and handled by many.

As we paint the picture of an over crowded terminal, it’s no surprise to hear a cold could be caught on your way to a business trip or returning from an annual family holiday.

Office

You love your job and your colleagues, until they get ill and begin to cough and splutter near you. Moving your desk isn’t an option, so for now you’ll have to pray you won’t get sick.

Doctors waiting room

When have you ever been to the doctors because you feel great? The answer is never!

Naturally every visit to the doctors is because you are unwell or poorly in some way. A waiting room is swarming with germs and bacteria, not to mention the chairs, surfaces and toilets.

Public Transport

A bus, train or tram, all of them are tight confined spaces. Now fill that space with passengers and some with the cold or flu.

There’s no escaping – either for you or the germs.

Holding on the hand rails too? Many hands will have done the same and you may be picking up an unwanted bug.

How to prevent a cold?

It’s difficult to keep completely cold free as we are exposed to germs as part of our everyday life and sometimes we just can’t control or stop it. But we need to keep on top of our health and ensure we do what we can to fight back against the bugs.

It’s unrealistic to refrain from holding a door handle, turning a public toilet tap on or using the office mircowave but we can all make an effort to follow some top tips to prevent catching a cold.

Cold Busting Tips

• Washing your hands
• Hand Sanitiser (for when washing your hands isn’t a possibility)
• Keeping Active
• Get a good night’s sleep
• Keep your hands away from your eyes and nose
• Take Vitamins

The cost of exhibiting for any business, not just a start-up, can be astronomical, so you will want to box clever and only participate in those exhibitions that truly work for you and your business.

Exhibiting as a start-up is most definitely worth it when you realise you are quite literally shooting fish in a barrel, they are a marketing dream come true. Presenting your start-up at an exhibition gets your business in front of a captive audience who are there solely to find businesses just like yours.

Where do you uncover the best exhibitions for your start-up? Look no further, as we have listed the top 5 UK exhibitions for start-ups below.

1. Food start-ups

 Speciality and Fine Food Show

This is the UK’s leading industry showcase of fine food and drink. This exhibition puts your food business directly in front of a high quality audience of top buyers looking to source the very best in food and drink. Not only do you get to present your business, but you will be in great company, standing shoulder to shoulder with people in a similar situation to you. You can discover the latest trends, see whose products have been awarded Great Taste stars and even enter the Seed Fund start-up pitch competition.

2. Technology start-ups

Wearable technology show

With visionary speakers to inspire you, the world’s media to cover you, buyers to charm and consumers to sell to, this is the one stop shop for your tech start-up. This exhibition is the largest business and prosumer show in the UK. Network, create partnerships, build your supply chain, discover the latest tech gadgets and wearables, whatever you do, don’t miss it.

3. Wellness start-ups

For those in the health and fitness arena there is a wealth of wellness exhibitions all around the UK for you to showcase your wellness start-up at. The SFN expo in Glasgow’s SEC is the inspirational health and fitness weekend of the year. This high energy exhibition is ideal for you to meet inspirational people in the wellness world, attend live events, meet your fellow brands, but ultimately put your start-up in front of thousands of consumers and trade buyers alike.

4. Business start-ups

The Business Start Up Show

The go-to show for anyone starting or growing their business. Listen to the UK’s leading business experts divulge their secrets, expose your business to an audience of over 25,000 other businesses and take the opportunity to sell your business and services to these highly targeted consumers. You can also take part in 170 interactive training sessions or pitch to panels of multi-millionaire investors.

5. Home Interior Start-ups

The Ideal Home Show

Whether your business is soft furnishing production or a complete interior design service, positioning your start-up business in front of a captive audience is key to growing sales. The Ideal Home Show is the UK’s most iconic and trusted home exhibition, celebrating its 110th year this year. Generate sales, launch new products, promote your brand or network with industry key players. This is not one to miss.

Everything we do as humans is viewed through the lens of psychology, and it’s not subtle either. You won’t have to go far to find examples of this in action: Reality TV behemoth Big Brother frequently invites behavioural psychologists to analyse the actions and interactions of the people living under the microscope, as it were.

While this use of psychology serves a very entertainment-driven focus, businesses and brands have been using psychological factors to direct a lot of their decisions for a long time. You don’t have to have a degree in social sciences to use some of these tactics to motivate your staff, we’ve many years experience in both design and production of office screening and we want to share 3 killer concepts that will definitely boost productivity.

Consider your colours

There’s more than a few idioms we use that involve colour. Seeing red, feeling blue, green with envy. Colour is commonly associated with specific feelings, and there’s been many studies that back up the notion that certain colours can evoke a certain response. Of course context matters, and we all perceive colour differently, but research seems to universally agree that red can represent power and strength, green depicts balance and calm, while yellow is commonly associated with optimism.

Use it: Want to spread a positive message? Make yellow a dominant colour in your office screens!

Shaping up

Everything is made up of a series of shapes, but when we hear the word it’s really common to just picture one or two based on geometry. Some of the most recognisable brands can have their logos analysed against the backdrop of shape psychology, and plenty of scientific research has validated this approach to design. For example, circles can be associated with wholeness and continuity, while triangles are often said to represent dynamism. Squares are the most commonly seen shapes and are commonly associated with feelings of strength and reliability.

Use it: Screening doesn’t have to be boring. If you want a more contemporary feel look at screens with more shape such as curved, wave or even a mixture of styles!

The Gestalt Principles

While this collection of theories goes back many years, it can still be defined as a relevant part of modernity. Gestalt principles examine how the human brain makes connections between visual elements. This can be either based on proximity, similarity, closure, continuation or figure/ground (the idea that in a visual there are some elements that the brain immediately sorts as ‘background’ and others that are pushed forward as the ‘figure’. These principles are used a lot in logo design and examples of it are plentiful.

Use it: Understanding that the brain could wrongfully group visual content together can be a useful tool in when designing your office layout.

Sources
http://www.colour-affects.co.uk/psychological-properties-of-colours

https://tubikstudio.com/knock-design-into-shape-psychology-of-shapes/

http://www.flintriver.co.uk/the-psychology-of-shapes-and-symbols-in-graphic-design/

http://coglode.com/gem/von-restorff-effect

http://3.7designs.co/blog/2012/08/10-psychological-principles-to-design-with/

https://www.bcrpainting.com.au/bcrpainterblogs/2017/9/1/why-should-you-pay-attention-to-colour-psychology