Art Show Booth Concept Design

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I recently had the joy of assisting Leah Nadeau, a contemporary artist based in Portland, Oregon, in making a huge leap forward in her career by helping her to design and set up her booth display at the renowned Palm Springs Modernism Show. 

(Yes, I AM still retired! The fact that I am not publicly marketing my services any longer doesn't keep me from stepping up occasionally to assist creatives and small business owners by using the skills that I have honed over more than half a century.)  When this talented artist posted on Instagram that she was in need of help at this show in my area, I volunteered. She graciously accepted - enthusiastically! And together, we created a concept and a plan, then put that plan into action as we met at the Palm Springs Convention Center on setup day before the show opened.

Let me share the design-to-installation process with you, along with some 'adventures' that were had along the way...

Design always begins with a goal.
While any activity involving the purchase of goods has an obvious goal (sales), in this case the main goal was to present the artist's artwork in the best way possible - in a way that reflected not just the style of her art, but what inspires her, what she communicates via her art, and how she wants the viewer to experience her art.  

In addition, this artist did this show to expand the exposure of her art, reaching new clients for the art on display in the booth and to reach more clients who desire custom commissioned work. This meant that her art displayed in her booth had to communicate in various ways to various groups of people... and this show attracts more than 15 thousand people every February, and her efforts would be seen by all of them!

For those who came to purchase art during the show, there needed to be a variety of sizes, color palettes, and types of art available - from canvas & framing options to pricing levels, there had to be choices that would appeal to a span of potential buyers.

For those who came to the show to discover new artists with the goal of having custom commissioned work done later, her display needed to show some variety to grab their interest - and she prepared a GORGEOUS catalog with imagery and information about her commission process. It was one of the best pieces of marketing material that I have EVER seen. One of her friends helped her create it - and that's why we say 'It takes a tribe' to succeed. 

Another aspect of her presence at the show was to gather new contacts for her mailing list and to lead people to her website - where she sells more than just original paintings. She offers glassware, textiles, home & gift goods, and seasonal decor elements featuring her art online, but those weren't allowed to be sold at this show. She brought a few of those items and we used them as 'props' on the table in her booth.

You can see how multi-faceted the design for the booth needed to be to meet these criteria. With those parameters and goals in place, the design process began...

Leah sent me images with measurements of all of the art that she planned to bring to the show, in groups with color similarity. Here are two of those images, showing the green and red color groups:

I created a spreadsheet of the artwork listed by dimension/size. This gave me a preliminary idea of how to fit it all into the space.


I went to bed that night with imagery of her art running riot in my brain.... and woke up in the middle of the night with a full blown concept running through my mind! At 1 AM, I was in my studio sketching out the idea with pen and paper, to preserve the 'vision' in my mind. I also added in a basic description of the design theory behind my choices:


The next morning, I created a second spreadsheet, one that put every piece of her artwork into a grouping by color. There were five groups: the largest concentration of her work has a blue base, the next red, then orange, then green, and finally black & white. 


That spreadsheet allowed me to see if my concept would work in reality, not just my sleep-deprived head. And it did! 

Leah's art is contemporary, abstract, and could also be described as a bit 'industrial'... but something she told me about her inspiration was what led this concept. If you've ever flown in a plane over land, especially over farmland, you know that it looks much like a pieced fabric quilt - with many shapes, shades, hues, colors, and lines defining varied shapes in the landscape. Well, THAT is what inspired Leah's style initially, and when I view her art, I can see it very clearly. 

Using that as a reference point, I thought of a landscape viewed out of a plane window as the plane moves forward... not a single view, but a changing, moving view that reveals new colors, shapes, and subjects to the person viewing it. If I could create that kind of 'movement' in the mind of the viewers of her art in her booth, they could have the kind of experience that the artist has as she is painting the art. 

Another detail of the concept plan was that I wanted to reflect the shapes and patterns in the art itself in the way the canvases were hung on the walls of the booth. I wanted viewers to be attracted and intrigued by seeing one large 'work' of art as they walked down the show aisle, and be drawn in to see the details - in effect, they would realize that the display style was in exactly the same style as the artwork. They would be 'entering the art' as they entered the booth... an example of 'experiential marketing'. 

To achieve that, I envisioned a 'river' of artwork hung on the walls - a river that started with one color and meandered and expanded into the next color, then the next, to encompass and connect her entire collection's palette. Just as a landscape would if you were flying over it. Here's the very rough sketch I created to capture this idea:

The paintings aren't drawn to scale, the colors aren't perfect, and the placement wasn't meant to be exactly like this - it just represents the concept. I sent that sketch off to Leah, along with this description:

"Theory: This arrangement displays individual works of varied sizes in a 'river' of color and shapes that reflect Leah's artistic style, leading the viewer's eye through her artwork range in a journey of discovery." (There's that 'travel/flight' reference again.)

The artist's response was 'Yes!' (I can't tell you how deeply designers breathe a sigh of relief to the word 'Yes'!!) With Leah's approval, I began creating a digital graphic plan for the booth layout and display. She sent me the information from the show producer about her booth size, location, and the lighting included so that a scale plan could be created:


With all of this information, I created a 'background' graphic of the booth to show all of the surfaces, space layout, and lighting placement. Then I duplicated it a few times so I had the ability to try out different plans all at once - a time-saving design practice. 

For step 2, I took cutouts of every photo of her artwork and placed them in one image of each color group. I could easily grab individual photos from those png group images and place them on the background image. I began with one color group on one wall, then moved to the adjacent color and space, continuing until all of the 'art' was placed in the booth graphic: 


I sent that final graphic image to Leah with the note that I was only working with color at this point - not size, not exact placements on the walls - because I needed to see the art in person to make sure the adjacencies worked together. We would make final determinations on site as we were setting up the booth together. She agreed.

Leah focused on finishing some new art, wrapped it up along with everything on the list in layers of paper and bubble wrap, and loaded up a custom-built wood crate to ship it all down to Palm Springs from Portland, Oregon. I can't begin to imagine her fear at watching every piece of art she owned be hauled off by a big truck. It made it to the Palm Springs Convention Center safe and sound!

Meanwhile I loaded up my big tool kit and some packages that she sent so that I could bring the items to the show with me - a few frames for the new pieces, some printed materials, two display fixtures, and a few items that inadvertently came to ME when they were supposed to go to HER in Portland!

And then I got a flat tire on the morning of the day I was supposed to head out to Palm Springs. I don't think I can adequately explain the anxiety and desperation of thinking I had to solve that problem FAST so as to not disappoint Leah and let her down... thankfully, AAA service got the spare tire on and I was able to find a tire center to remove the nail and repair the damage in the regular tire so it would be safe for me to drive out to Palm Springs (about 90 minutes from my home). I left home later than planned, but I made it safely.... and I didn't tell Leah anything about my misadventure until we met up the next morning, because I didn't want to freak her out!

Misadventures aside, it was so fun to finally meet in person (I've followed her on IG for a few years) and then get to work setting up the booth. We walked into the convention center and found her booth easily - and there was her wood crate, ready to be opened and emptied. We both cheered when we saw it! 


I worked for a few hours unwrapping every piece of art, while Leah framed several pieces. Once that was done, show staff removed the crate for us while we hung her brand new sign up on the center back wall. We also discovered that the 8' table provided was just tooooo big for the 10X12 space. Leah requested an exchange for a 6' table, and we decided to place it vertically in the center of the booth, so it wouldn't impede potential buyers from moving around the booth to see the art.

Then the placement phase went into action... we put the artwork into the color groups, leaning against the walls all around the booth. Leah's SMART and got a booth located on the end of the aisle - which meant she had not just the three interior walls of her booth to display art on, but also the end wall facing the adjacent aisle. That fourth wall upped her visual impact exponentially!


Another positive factor of her booth placement was that across from her booth, a BAR was set up for the premiere party and the entire show - meaning there would always be a group of people moving around out in front of her booth, able to see her art and come closer to view it. That kind of exposure is a bonus that you really can't even plan on. 

As we sat the artwork around the booth, we were able to look closely at the color palette of each piece and make sure that it worked with everything around it... and we made a few adjustments along the way so that the 'river' would continue to 'flow' visually. Then we began hanging the art...

We began with the center back wall inside the booth, and the largest pieces of art:
 

We had intended to place those two smaller pieces on the back wall, then decided to keep it the way it was. They ended up on the right side wall.

Next, we hung the larger pieces on the exterior wall on the aisle - and discovered that we needed to add a light fixture out there to make the darker blue colors and details show up at their best. I went to the show desk, ordered the light, and within half an hour an electrician came to add the light AND adjust the interior lights for best effect.

Note: Lighting is EVERYTHING in a booth setting, and it's not hard to get it right. 

We continued to hang the art by size, working from large to small and filling in space as we went. A few changes were made during the process, because Leah had the final say that the display captured her style just as much as her art does. 

We did make the decision not to use one of the display fixtures she had ordered, and added the black & white artwork below the blue-into-green part of the display.

After the walls were done, we took a quick break, then covered the table and began arranging the unframed artwork and marketing materials on it.

Note: One of Leah's signature colors in her art and marketing is a warm olive green - and she chose that color for the table cover. It's a perfect way to visually tie her booth visuals to the appearance of her website.

While Leah finished finessing the tabletop arrangement by adding in some of her products as 'props', I was moving at the speed of light to gather up tools and personal items to get them out of the way as the show staff vacuumed around us! 

Then I grabbed these images of her finished booth:


You can see the 'river of color' concept in the art placement, though it isn't as fluid and connected as my rough sketch. That said, I heard Leah talking with a few other artists before we left, and they commented on how the arrangement reflected the placement of shapes in her art - and let me tell you, the LOOK she and I exchanged was one of 'YES! We DID it!'

I wish we had snapped a selfie together before we left, but then again.... we had worked a long, hard day and didn't exactly look 'photo ready' at that point! All in all, we spent 8 hours installing the booth display.

At 4:15 PM, we loaded all of my tools out to my car, and I dropped Leah off at her hotel nearby - where she had just half an hour to get all dressed up and back to the booth for the very glam premiere party. She made it back in time, looking absolutely gorgeous, professional, and confident:

There's that warm olive green color again, and it looks fabulous on her!

I drove back home (on a Friday night, it took two and a half hours), and Leah's Mom arrived from San Diego later in the evening to spend the whole weekend with her and help her in the booth.

Note: That's an important part of 'show life' - no matter what kind of shows you participate in, always have a second person in your booth to help you and give you quick breaks when you need them. Plus having a supportive friend, partner, or family member there to enjoy the experience with you is just the best thing ever.

Did we achieve our goals? Absolutely! 
Leah texted me each night of the show to give me the lowdown on reactions, feedback, sales, and commission inquiries, and she sold a lot of her art to delighted new collectors!

I have to tell you, I am as proud of her as I am of my own 'kids' when they take a big step in life and want to tell me all about it. Leah is younger than all of my kids are now, but she's a seriously talented business person with a keen vision of what she wants to achieve... and it has been my great honor to help her bring that to life at this show. I know that big things are ahead for her - she has already registered for the show NEXT spring! 

Check out Leah's art on her website . instagram . facebook


I hope you will let this adventurous tale be a lesson for you:
Take the risk. Make the big move. Take the big step.
Put yourself 'out there' in the places that can move your vision forward, make your dream real, and launch your business into a new level. It's always worth it to have faith in yourself. And ask for help... there are always people who want to help you succeed!

Artist's photos used with permission.
All rights reserved, copyright Leah Nadeau 2026. 

Creatively, 
Deb