product design > trade show booth development

Trade Show Booth (ICO Polymers)

On July 9, 2002, ICO Polymer's CEO Tim Gollin stated that he wanted a new trade show booth. Basic concept: a scalable trade booth, usable in many different configurations which would showcase ICO materials and the strength of ICO Design, ready for Rotoplas 2002.

I completed the Research and Concept Generation phases within two days of product initiation, substantially reducing the customary time requirement in order to meet the short October 4 deadline. Sara Shirer, ICO's director of international marketing, and Colin Watts, ICO's manager of North American R&D, were designated to provide the customer voice and to determine product constraints. The restrictions of the exhibition space were researched and development partners were identified for the project: the toolmaker, Scotia Patterns, Ltd., and the molder, MBC RotoMould, both of whom agreed to help meet the aggressive timeline.

After completing concept generation, I moved immediately into CAD development using Pro Engineer. Concept refinement ran concurrently with CAD development in order to get the design out to the tool maker as soon as possible. A simple modular design based on a single rotomolded part was determined to be the best solution because it offered the ability to change the layout of the booth depending on the needs of a given show while also allowing ICO to display its custom resins. The ICO Polymers booth would be made from ICO Polymers product.

On August 6, 2002, an initial meeting in Toronto with the development partners, Scotia Patterns Ltd. and MBC RotoMould was held to review the initial design and cover Tooling and Molding issues. Small modifications were made to the design to facilitate both fast and reliable tool making and molding.

On August 7, 2002, the CAD model and drawings were released to Scotia Patterns for production. Scotia's ability to cut the mold from the CAD file speeded tool fabrication and accuracy and was a key factor in the decision to select them as a supplier.

On September 17, 2002, the first part samples arrived at the ICO Polymers Houston corporate office where they were reviewed and tested.

On October 4, 2002, the booth was assembled for the RotoPlas 2002 Trade Show in Toronto - from concept to poject installation in 86 days.