Housing four brands, each with its own marketing objectives, within a single footprint is the stuff of designers' nightmares. But when Belkin International Inc. threw down this gauntlet for its Linksys, Belkin, Wemo, and Phyn lines, Pinnacle Exhibits Inc. picked it up and ran with it. In fact, the intrepid creative team cranked out an 80-by-90-foot design that jurors called "a clever collection of diverse elements that's still wholly cohesive." Debuting at the 2019 International Consumer Electronics Show, the stand's front corner featured a series of internally lit half rings suspended at varying heights, crafting a giant model of the Linksys brand's Velop Node, a mesh networking technology that helps eliminate dead spots. The nearby Wemo zone featured a larger-than-life lamp-and-outlet pairing highlighting the Smart Plug, a device that converts appliances into smart products. Just beyond this area, designers devised a water-themed encounter to highlight the Phyn brand Smart Meter. Central to the space, a dramatic, 15-foot-tall enclosed waterfall represented the movement of water through pipes.

Within the Belkin zone, displays drew attention to the brand's charging devices and screen protectors. Along with an illuminated product-demo table, the region incorporated a deconstructed view of Belkin's chargers and a distribution station offering attendees free screen protectors. Finally, the back corner of the footprint housed a series of private and semiprivate meeting spaces.

"Throughout the exhibit, we employed a consistent graphics language and subtle repetition of shapes that delineated the zones but also generated cohesiveness," said Chris Fredericksen, chief creative officer at Pinnacle. Clearly, a disparate grouping of individual instruments can play beautiful individual tunes. But when orchestrated effectively, the cacophony becomes a symphony. E