Netherlands trip 2008 - part 1

I was again lucky to visit the Netherlands this January, as I had done last year. I was supervising the set up of the Greek National Tourism Board in the Vakantiebeurs Fair in Utrecht. We did a similar design to last year's successful one, a bit lighter and airier this time around. Check it out:


We changed the colour of the main construction to maple instead of wenghe, limiting the dark wood to floor covering only. Combined with white frames and the intense colours of the new campaign for tourism in Greece, it made the stand look fresher, cooler and more inviting to the visitors.


The main concept again was water: from the bubble prints on the plexiglass boxes framing the seating area of the cafeteria, to the backlit "water" print inside the rectangular white sofa in the middle to the blue transparent fish hanging from the ceiling (I threaded them all myself and Sakis artistically hanged them in random swarm movement from the ceiling), "swimming: between silk thread columns, the whole stand tried to evoke the blue Greek seas.


The new GNTO campaign fit perfectly with the chosen colour scheme. The campaign photos (with the worst photoshop editing I have seen in years - rushed job?) show a new, contemporary Greece, very attractive to visit and with a variety of things to see and do (and not only ancient ruins to admire). I hope it helps the Greek tourism industry in a positive way (i.e. attract more "good" tourism to Greece)


Once again, kudos to my crew, who did an excellent job in difficult environmental circumstances and tight time restraints, to our Dutch collaborators (TAO, our electricians and riggers (thanks Patrick and Peter!) , Atelier van Zijderveld, our graphics set up crew, the Vakantiebeurs team (thanks Marloes!), the Jaarbeurs Utrecht people, the GNTO Amsterdam office (thanks Sotiris!) and everyone else that contributed to our success.

Greek National Tourism Organization stand

This year's International Book Fair at Thessaloniki had Travel as a theme. The Greek National Tourism Organization of course was asked to participate. Having had a good background history with them this year, we were selected to design their stand - and I did keep the look of the stand in line with our previous work for them in Europe.



They had an island stand, all sides were open. The "back" side was looking over the hall cafeteria, not a pretty sight. So I decided to place the storage room there and use the rest of the space for the other functions. The concept of the raining postcards was used again with great effect:this time I decided to add paper boats on the floor, supposedly made from book pages, to signify the travels that one can make simply by reading a book.



Again the curtains of floss strings were used on the long sides of the stand, making a light divide between the lounge area and the hall aisles. By using them at opposite sides and on different points, I managed to create the illusion from afar that the stand had the curtains all around it.



The need of a reception at the front was a bit overwhelming for the size and position of the stand, but we framed it with the olive trees in their big planters combined with literature holders, so it looked a bit better. Have in mind that the budget was really low for this and the time from getting the green light to the show opening was 5 days. That had to incorporate all material orders, printing the graphics and the actual set up.



I will be posting photos from this stand too as soon as they come in.

Great way to start a new year

I was in the Netherlands for 10 days, supervising the set up of the Greek stand at the Vakantiebeurs exhibition in Utrecht. The show was a success and so was the stand - many people, professionals and visitors alike, commented that it was the most beautiful of the whole show. You could see many people getting photographed within the stand's premises, especially under the main attraction, the hanging "postcards"! You can see below many photos of the stand, including a detail of the "rainfall" of postcards, which I made one by one, taking me slightly more than a whole evening, and then one great guy from our crew hang them from the false ceiling, again painstakingly one by one, working almost at a 5 meter height. Their movement from the air drafts, combined with that of the floss curtains, made for an exciting vision in the middle of the stand!
Kudos to all of my crew and the collaborating crews (electricians and graphics crew) for setting this up in time despite many problems, all the people from the show that helped us enormously and the GNTO people from the Amsterdam offices for their support.
In a next post, I will comment on the rest of the Netherlands trip, architecture etc. Happy new year to all of you.