Easel signs are a mainstay at just about any event, from intimate company gatherings to massive tradeshows. And what’s not to love? They’re versatile, easily customizable, and offer cost-effective ways to maximize your on-site communication. Easel signs can do it all, from streamlining your wayfinding and showcasing event content like menus or schedules to identifying session and breakout rooms, or recognizing the sponsors that make specific activations possible. When used creatively, these graphic staples go beyond just functional event fixtures and transform into opportunities to engage, inform, and entertain your attendees. Below, we’ve compiled 10 creative ways to elevate your event by leveraging visuals you’re likely already using. These unique applications can help make your easel signs more interactive, visually captivating, and better aligned with your branding goals.
- Puzzle Decals for Gamification
Gamification has become an increasingly popular way to keep attendees engaged at events. With interactive fun becoming an expectation at events, your easel signs are a great way to liven up your event space or breakout session by inviting attendees to get involved! Decals are an easy and effective way to turn your easel signs into gamified elements and work on multiple levels. Encourage team building by incorporating puzzle-style decals that attendees work together to reveal secret messages, prizes, or event details as guests piece together the puzzle throughout the event. These decals can also be used to create a pull-and-reveal style prize card (think jumbo-sized lottery tickets), offering a unique way to entice attendees to engage with your event’s content and then revisit key areas later to see what’s been uncovered!
- Dry-Erase Laminate for Brainstorming
One of the reasons easel signs are a must-have at meetings is that they streamline on-site communication between you and your attendees. And while these types of signs excel at connecting you with your participants, they can also connect attendees with one another! With experiential learning ranking as a top priority for attendees and planners alike, small changes to how your signs are made can transform them into powerful collaboration tools. Add dry-erase laminate to the surface of your graphics and let attendees share their thoughts, ideas, or answers to prompts during brainstorming sessions, roundtables, or workshops. It’s a simple, hands-on way to encourage engagement, promote collaborative problem-solving, and even gather valuable insights while keeping the sign reusable across multiple events.
- Rotating Program Advertisements
Sometimes multiple messages mean multiple signs, but why settle for several static signs when you can rotate through multiple programs or events all on one convenient board? Consider using an oversized board in conjunction with multiple SMARTlens™. These magnetic lenses allow you to swap out messages on the fly and turn an ordinary easel sign into a convenient (and reusable) notice board you can use to broadcast multiple messages at once! Layout your graphics to display the daily agenda in one lens, the afternoon’s menu in another, and showcase sponsors or upcoming sessions as your event progresses in a third! This idea maximizes the space on your signage to save your precious budget dollars by reducing the total number of signs you need, streamlining on-site communication by consolidating need-to-know in a single location, and the magnetic lenses mean you can swap messages out on the fly across a multi-day event to ensure your message board is always up to date.
- Customizable Sponsor Signs
With the costs of hosting events on the rise, leaning on your partners to offset costs can make all the difference when it comes to stretching your budget dollars further. And while your sponsors can help you deliver a stellar experience for your attendees, ensuring they get the recognition they deserve is crucial for delivering valuable ROI to your partners. Make your sponsor signage truly stand out by incorporating decals that represent different sponsor levels. With this approach, you can customize each sponsor’s logo or message on the easel sign, creating a professional and polished look that highlights each sponsor’s contribution, incorporate evolving QR codes, and highlight event-specific products or deals. This method also allows for easy updates or modifications, especially if you opt for a general branded sign that you can use across multiple events for different sponsors, making it ideal for multi-day events or evolving sponsorship tiers while saving you a few budget dollars at the same time!
- Trivia Boards
We talked a little about how decals on your easel signs can help you gamify your event experience, but it’s not just decals that can help inject a little interactive fun into your sign’s functionality. Use our magnetic SMARTlens add-on to create an impromptu, innovative setup that allows you to hold multiple inserts, concealing and revealing information as the trivia game progresses. Think of it as a dynamic, interactive Q&A session that gets attendees involved while reinforcing event themes or sponsor messaging. The best part? Because your SMARTlens allows you to swap messages on the fly, you can use these signs for other tasks on site once the trivia wraps up for an evergreen branding solution. Imagine using a single sign to welcome attendees at registration, entice and educate attendees on event or brand-specific trivia, then showcasing your networking hour’s drink menu later that same day. When versatility and functionality meet immersion, it’s a win-win for attendees and planners alike (especially when it saves you some money on reprints)!
- A-Frame Barriers for Branded Walls
When you think of easel signs, you probably think of, well, an easel, right? But these types of signs are actually a bit more flexible when it comes to presentation and can slot in perfectly into hardware like folding A-frames. Whether outside on a sidewalk or inside along a pickleball court, combining several of these A-frames helps your graphics become part of a larger, branded infrastructure. Position multiple easel signs inside these A-frame holders to create a seamless barrier wall that’s branded to boot. Whether you're showcasing sponsor logos, product features, or creating a massive mural graphic, this setup serves as both a functional and aesthetic addition to your event and is a great way to visually break up spaces while still promoting your branding.
- Elevate Your Easels
Similar to making A-frame barrier walls, rethinking how you present your signs can change the type of impact they have on attendees. Rethinking presentation doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel, and sometimes simply dressing up your easel is all it takes to take it from utility to statement piece. Add floral accents, soft lighting like spotlights, floodlights, or LED frames, or draped fabric to make your easel feel like a more cohesive part of your event branding, as well as a more eye-catching visual. If you do want to move away from traditional easels, outfitting your easel signs with grommets facilitates fun hanging graphics. These are a great way to create pseudo-backdrops when mounted on walls via adhesive cubes, or you can even repurpose free-standing hardware that is traditionally meant to hang banners, which you can use to accommodate your signs to allow for a little more flexibility on placement. By rethinking your easel, you can create a visually captivating centerpiece that becomes part of the overall event ambiance that elevates the experience for attendees while simultaneously reinforcing your event's branding and theme.
- Photo Op Backdrops
Social media has become a key part of our daily lives, and it's a powerful tool for enhancing both attendee experience and your brand’s marketing. Incorporate your easel signs into the event’s photo op scene by designing them with eye-catching graphics, logos, or seasonal elements that naturally encourage attendees to snap photos. You can even route these signs into thematic frames or cut-out shapes that draw attendees in and make for share-worthy moments that extend your brand’s reach into the digital realm. By strategically placing these signs throughout the venue, you not only create memorable interactive experiences for attendees but also guide traffic to key venue spots or sponsorship areas like wellness zones, recharging stations, and networking lounges, all while boosting brand visibility with a little organic promotion.
- Custom Directional Signage
Wayfinding graphics are a paramount piece to any successful event. Ensuring attendees are where they need to be ensures no one misses out on the content you’ve worked hard to curate and helps attendees maximize their time on-site. And while traditional easel signs are a great way to guide guests around your venue, they’re also prime real estate for functional engagement. Consider using fun (and hard to miss) routed shapes like oversized arrows, stacking your signs into stanchion frames to create a makeshift signpost, or special color-coded designs that help attendees quickly identify an area, even at a glance. You can even dress up your existing signage with custom-cut, event-themed directional arrow decals for a budget-friendly way to make your wayfinding efforts a little more immersive.
- 3D Displays
Rethinking how you use your easel signs can also add a little dimension to your event graphics, literally! For an eye-catching and outside-the-box display, consider using Velcro or tape to attach 3-4 easel signs together, creating oversized trifolds or pillar-style displays. These 3D setups add depth and dimension to your event while serving as dynamic focal points on tables, entranceways, or throughout your venue. Whether you’re showcasing event schedules, sponsor information, or themed messaging, these expanded signs allow for more creative space to engage your audience. You can also use these types of designs to create privacy barriers for spaces like polling areas. Consider printing graphics on both the front and back of your signs for these types of applications so that your branding is front and center, whichever direction they’re being viewed from. Plus, they’re easy to assemble, and their modular nature makes them a versatile and impactful way to mix and match messaging across meetings or a multi-day event.
New Spin on Old Favorites
With their versatility, customizability, mobility, and budget-friendly nature, it’s no wonder that easel signs have been a no-brainer for event planners looking to elevate their on-site experience. From gamifying your signage to transforming it into interactive hubs, these creative applications can engage attendees, reinforce your brand, and help streamline communication, all while keeping your event visually cohesive. So, whether you're aiming to capture attention with a photo-worthy backdrop, create functional wayfinding solutions, or simply add a little flair to your branding, easel signs are a single visual solution that does it all. If you’re ready to take your event to the next level, contact us! Our flagship SMARTsigns™ revolutionized the easel sign and can help you revolutionize the branding at your next event.