Tile Displays

Tile Displays for the Retail Environment

Tile displays have never been more important for today's retailers. You’ve got 6oo different types of flooring available to sell to the general public. But they don’t know it. You’ve got foot traffic in your store and you need them to see your products. Tile displays are needed that position your samples dynamically and yet in the smallest space possible. You need displays that are strong and elegant but that do not draw attention to themselves. You need to be able to easily remove and replace your tile samples for viewing. Read on for an explanation of what’s available to solve your most difficult display challenge.

Retail flooring sample displays are most commonly made using sheet-metal, wood, wire, and plastic. They are often designed so that they can be shipped “knock-down” in a small package and then easily assembled on-site. They often incorporate some kind of signage to promote special features of the products being displayed or to show the pricing. Flooring samples are typically square or rectangular and therefore are often displayed oriented either parallel to the floor or turned to a 45 degree angle for a more dynamic presentation.

Note: The Spine Ladder (shown to the left) is an example of this type of display system. Manufactured by ThomasRECOM, it provides an affordable alternative to many higher-priced units being sold.

Display manufacturing companies often have stock-item off the shelf displays as well as having the capability to custom design your displays. Often you can find a degreed industrial designer is on-staff and available to assist you in designing a display that is specially designed to fit your product and environment. If your display is to be mostly made of metal the finish of choice is usually powdercoating which is a very hard, scratch resistant baked on coating that is available in any color imaginable. If your display is to be mostly wood or MDF many laminate patterns and colors are also available.

Another avenue available to display flooring samples is to use “sample swatch boards”. These are thin substrates that have small swatches of your sample product glued to them often with attractive graphics and print located around the swatch to describe and promote. Your tile display manufacturing company will have the raw boards available in many different stock sizes or if you need more than 100 you can request a custom size or even a custom shape. Sample swatch boards are most commonly available made from ¼” thick MDF with a thin melamine skin on one or both sides often in black or white. Sintra is a lightweight plastic board material that is also used as a swatch board material. Sample boards will usually have a hand slot to make them easy to carry around. These sample swatch boards will also require some kind of display apparatus and usually any display that is designed to display tiles will also work to display sample swatch boards.

Article written by Mike Thomas, Owner and Senior Display Designer for ThomasRECOM.

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