SEG exhibition stands, made to orderCustom Step and Repeat Backdrops
A step and repeat is a logo repeat on a flat backdrop, built so that a photograph taken in front of it carries your branding no matter how it is cropped. Every one we make is custom: your logos, your spacing, your dimensions. Here is how to specify one.
Custom sizes
Four sizes cover most events, and all of them are made to order rather than cut from stock.
- 8ft x 8ft — one to three people. Conference rooms, small press positions, sponsor walls.
- 8ft x 10ft (also written 10x8) — three to five people. The most ordered custom step and repeat banner size, because it photographs a small group without pushing anyone to the edge of the frame.
- 10ft x 10ft — a wider camera position, or a group that moves.
- 16ft and 20ft wide — a red carpet line, or a backdrop that has to survive a crowd moving across it.
Height is almost always 8ft. Below that, the top of the frame appears in shots behind anyone tall. Above it, you are paying for fabric the camera never sees. If your space needs something else, we build the frame to your measurement and print the graphic to the finished size.
Personalised step and repeat backdrops
Personalized step and repeat backdrops, a branded step and repeat, a step and repeat background, an accordion step and repeat, a step and repeat fabric pop up straight display, a 10x8 quick setup system step and repeat banner — the names vary by supplier and by event, and they all come back to the same decision about how your logos sit on the surface.
Sizing the repeat
Three decisions make the difference between a backdrop that works in photographs and one that does not.
Logo size. Aim for a mark 6 to 10 inches across. Smaller and it blurs at press-photo resolution; larger and you fit too few repeats, so a tight crop may contain only part of one logo.
Stagger the rows. A straight grid means one person can block an entire column. Offsetting alternate rows by half a repeat guarantees at least one complete mark beside every head in the frame.
Keep the bottom quiet. The lowest 2ft to 3ft is obscured by whoever is being photographed. Putting a sponsor tier or a second logo there wastes it.
Multiple logos — a headline sponsor plus a row of partners — work, but the hierarchy has to be deliberate. Send the logo files and the tiers and we will lay it out and show you the result before anything prints.
Fabric, not vinyl
A custom step and repeat backdrop should be printed on tension fabric, and the reason is photographic rather than aesthetic.
Vinyl is a film. It is rolled for transport and it remembers being rolled, so creases show and never drop out. It is laminated, so a camera flash reflects straight back off it and blows out the logos.
Our graphics are dye-sublimated onto flame-retardant 240g tension fabric — ink in the fibre, not on the surface — with a silicone bead stitched around the perimeter that seats into a channel milled in the aluminium frame. The print pulls drum-tight with no seam, the finish is matte so it absorbs flash, and the fabric is machine washable and folds without creasing. Stretch fabric backdrops behave the same way.
Pop-up and quick-setup options
Where the backdrop has to go up fast and often, a foldable SEG frame opens as one hinged piece and locks, then takes the graphic. Nothing is loose in the case and nothing goes missing between venues. A 10x8 goes up in well under fifteen minutes with two people.
Where it is set once and left, a standard modular frame gives you the same finished face at a lower price.
Setting one up on site
Assemble the frame flat, stand it on its weighted feet, then seat the graphic from the top corners down the sides and finish along the bottom. Two people, 15 to 30 minutes on an 8x8 or 10x8.
Three things that go wrong: the floor is not level, so use the adjustable feet rather than hoping; the backdrop is pushed flat against a wall, leaving nowhere for people to stand, so pull it 3ft to 4ft forward; and the lighting is directly overhead, which throws each person's shadow onto the logos behind them. Light from the front at about 45 degrees, from both sides where you can.
Reprinting for the next event
The frame and the graphic are separate. A new sponsor, a new season, a new logo lock-up — you buy a new fabric skin and seat it into the frame you already own, in minutes. That is what makes a custom step and repeat economical across a run of dates rather than a single night.
We also print replacement silicone edge graphics to measurement for frames already in service, including frames supplied by somebody else. Send the outside dimensions and the channel profile.
Ordering
Send your logo files and the finished size. A 3D mock-up comes back within 24 hours showing the layout and the repeat before anything is printed. Production runs to a 48-hour lead time, shipping to mainland USA is included in the price, and the hardware carries a two-year warranty.
Browse step and repeat backdrops and tension fabric walls, frames on their own, or replacement graphics. There is more on dimensions and logo spacing in the step and repeat sizing guide.