ShowSuit – a new display system

ShowSuit – a new display system

10 January 2016

By Miles Harris, Managing Director, Fresco PictureWall

Editor’s note (2026):
This article was originally written in January 2016 by Miles Harris, inventor of ShowSuit and Managing Director of Fresco PictureWall from 1994–2018. While some technical details have evolved over time, this post documents the original thinking and process behind the development of ShowSuit. Fresco PictureWall later became Fresco Graphic Displays following Miles’s retirement.

The idea for a new display system

Where the idea came from

The idea for ShowSuit came to me while walking around a huge exhibition in Shanghai, where I took the photograph shown above. The sign itself caught my eye — not because the English was perfect, but because the sentiment was. Behind the phrasing was a clear message about innovation and better living, and it stayed with me as I walked the halls. What struck me just as much was how the strongest stands used vibrant fabric graphics, while the smaller shell scheme stands around the edges of the halls needed them even more.

As well as that sign, I noticed a couple of other things at the show:

– The strongest exhibition stands in the middle of the halls were using vibrant fabric graphics.

– The smaller “shell scheme” stands around the outside of the halls needed great graphics even more, because visually they all blended into one.

Clearly, fabric graphics would make a big difference to small exhibitors. Fabric just looks so vibrant and professional, but there are several other advantages too. With fabric, you can use a single piece as long as each wall, so you don’t need joins. Fabric is also much lighter and more compact for transport and much harder to damage. That’s a big reason why “soft signage” has taken off so much of late. Many of those huge backlit signs you see are fabric print – and many non-backlit ones too.

Would it be possible, I wondered, to come up with a new display system? Something that looks really professional but can be put up by a shell scheme exhibitor? Bearing in mind that a shell scheme exhibitor is not a stand builder and never wanted to be a stand builder. This new display system would need to be easy to put up, easy to tension and easy to pack away.

Could we, in effect, turn a standard shell scheme trade show booth into a giant soft-signage frame?

Questions and answers

In my experience, inventing is not so much about answers as questions. Answers don’t go anywhere. They may be good or bad answers, but they just sit there – take it or leave it. Questions, on the other hand, are dynamic. They lead somewhere, and these turned out to be good questions.

You know you are getting somewhere with an invention when problems turn into improvements, and that is how it has been with ShowSuit. The other thing I always find encouraging is when a design gets simpler as it progresses. Yes, you may have to throw away many hours of work, but simpler is nearly always better in practice.

Simpler is by no means easier though. Simplicity takes focus, whereas complication just happens. Designing with elegance and stripping back to what works naturally is, in my humble opinion, what made Apple the most valuable company on planet Earth.

Design requirements

ShowSuit had to be manageable by one person, with simple instructions, no tools and a small stepladder. So a magnet and hook-and-loop fastening system (patent pending at the time) was developed to allow the fabric to self-fold and stay under control.

ShowSuit had to be tough, so it is made from nylon, stainless steel, aluminium and knitted polyester canvas. Above all, ShowSuit had to be beautiful, so it uses dye-sublimation print – quite simply the best method available, and one that is recyclable, fade-proof and wash-proof.

When the problem is also the solution

Shell schemes are pretty standard, and visually that is the problem. Because shell schemes look the same, the exhibition visitor walking past a row of shell scheme booths begins to glaze over.

But precisely because shell scheme frames are standard, we knew that we could develop a system to fit that frame – and to hide that frame. Which is exactly what ShowSuit does, beautifully and simply.

For me at least, the process of invention is evolution sped up a little. Prototypes ask good questions. Problems may slow you down, but they also suggest new alternatives if you keep an open mind. Mix questions with experience and you can cook up something that seems to take on a life of its own.

For example, as shell scheme graphics specialists with a range of unique products, we have been struck by how many of our customers want to use their display again and again. ShowSuit was designed with this in mind and copes easily with different stand layouts. The system was inspired by our experience both as exhibitors and as suppliers.

It’s only natural

Most people invent things and then forget about them. Inventors are just more obsessive – perhaps because they enjoy the process, or perhaps because they believe they can do it.

Thomas Edison, arguably the greatest inventor of them all, said it was 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. If you think you can, my advice is to go for it. Inventing a product and bringing it to market is a great adventure. There’s no myth to inventing – even patents are relatively simple and affordable to file. You have a year to tidy them up if the idea takes off.

Further reading

See other shell scheme liner systems and developments here:
See our current range of shell scheme graphics and display systems.

Invented by Miles Harris

Miles Harris invented the ShowSuit display system while Managing Director of Fresco PictureWall (1994–2018).

Drawing on decades of experience as both an exhibitor and a shell scheme graphics specialist, Miles developed ShowSuit to solve a simple but persistent problem: how to make standard shell scheme stands look exceptional without turning exhibitors into stand builders.

Following Miles’s retirement, Fresco PictureWall became Fresco Graphic Displays, continuing to develop and supply the ShowSuit system.