Insights · 2026-05-27
The real budget for a 30×30 island — design to dismantle
A line-item walk through every cost bucket in a 30×30 island, from sketches to crating to drayage. No published numbers, but a clear shape of where the money goes.
By Rodney Lamar · 2026-05-27 · 9 min read
People always want a number, and I get it. But anybody who quotes you a 30×30 island price off a webpage is either guessing or setting you up for a surprise later. What I can do is walk you through every bucket the money goes into, so when you build your budget you know what's coming and nothing blindsides you.
The buckets, in the order they hit you
- Design. Floor plan, elevations, a couple rounds of revisions, and a shop walkthrough before graphics commit. Skimp here and you pay for it later in change orders.
- Fabrication / the structure. The big one. Custom costs more up front but it's exactly yours; modular costs less and re-skins for years.
- Graphics. Large-format printing, fabric tensioning, backlit panels. It's also the cheapest thing to refresh later.
- Furniture, lighting, and AV. Counters, stools, lighting, monitors and cabling. Easy to underestimate.
- Crating. The one people forget. We build crating engineered for the calendar, not a one-show throwaway.
- Freight. Getting it there and back. International (say, IDS Cologne) adds a forwarder, carnets, and customs.
- Drayage. The charge the show hits you with to move your crates from the dock to your space. It surprises more first-time island exhibitors than anything else.
- Install & dismantle. Often union labor in the big cities. Our project lead is on site from load-in through doors-open.
- Storage between shows. A small recurring line so the booth shows up clean to the next show.
Where budgets actually go wrong
It's almost never the structure. It's the stuff people forget to budget: drayage, freight, crating, and the furniture/AV creep. And one honest note — the cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest project. A thin crate, a brokered crew that's never seen the drawings, a structure that can't re-skin: those save you money on day one and cost you over the year.
So what does it actually cost?
It depends — genuinely — on custom vs. modular, how much graphics and AV, where you're shipping, and how many times you'll run it. That's why our RFQ has a budget-range field instead of a fake price. Tell us the range you're working with and I'll tell you straight what we can deliver inside it, and where I'd spend the dollars to get you the most booth.
Ready to put real numbers to your island? Start an RFQ or call me at (301) 645-8050.
