Why we mock up every stand before it ships

Every stand we build is fully assembled in our Mumbai facility before a single crate is sealed. It costs us floor space and a day of labour on every project, and it is the most valuable day in the schedule.

What the mock-up catches

• Panels that measure correctly on paper and foul each other in reality
• Graphics misaligned across a join — invisible on screen, obvious at full size
• Lighting that throws differently once the structure is actually around it
• Fixings that cannot be reached once the adjacent panel is up
• Missing parts, before they are missing at a venue instead

The arithmetic

Fixing a mis-cut panel here means re-cutting it in the next room. Fixing it at the venue the night before opening means finding a workshop in an unfamiliar city, during build-up, when every other exhibitor has the same idea. One costs an afternoon; the other costs the show.

You are welcome to come and look

We photograph the mock-up for every project and send it through. For larger builds, clients often visit and walk the stand before it ships — which is a far better time to ask for a change than after it lands.