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Speedo and Avalon:

A Swimming Success
By Cevia Rosol

Talk about a match made in heaven! Take a company whose products possess distinct qualities. Find a second product with similar qualities but its own unique function. Add a matchmaker with the imagination and foresight to bring them together. The result will be one beautiful baby!

The company is Speedo—strong, sleek and sexy. The matchmaker is Avalon Exhibits. And the second product is The Dynamics, a rectilinear system of tension fabric frames and skins from Transformit. United, this marriage’s beautiful progeny was a trade show exhibit that made Speedo (Warnaco Swimwear Group) the hot property at the SAF Show in Miami and at MAGIC in Las Vegas.

The Speedo design team—Creative Director Ali Martin Carrillo Filsoof and Designer Tina Virani—faced a major hurdle. Their old exhibit was dated—cluttered, dark and heavy—not appropriate for Speedo’s current brand image. Kathy Van Ness, Warnaco Swimwear Group’s Executive Vice President, challenged them to update while being innovative. The result is a clean, streamlined environment representative of the new Speedo.

The core of the Speedo brand is its aquatic history and tie to world class aquatic athletes, including its sponsorship of two of the hottest Olympic gold medalists—Amanda Beard and Michael Phelps. At the same time, Speedo is expanding its line with fashion forward lifestyle designs. It needed a space that would communicate this image to its retail customers and prospects, while providing a means to show its line off to retail buyers.

Speedo decided the best way to meet the challenge was with an entirely new approach—to start from scratch. So Filsoof and Virani teamed up with Avalon Exhibits and Transformit.

Karen Carney, Senior Designer at Avalon began the transformation with the help of appropriately named Transformit, a designer and manufacturer of tension fabric architecture. The design team had seen the Dynamics, one of Transformit’s ready made component systems, at an exhibition. The system was versatile and flexible—modular in every sense of the word. And its lightweight, brushed aluminum frames hold up to three layers of fabric.

The team was very excited about the potential created by the Dynamics. Over an intense two-day period, they brainstormed, sketched and created concepts for the new Speedo booth, says Tom Petrella, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Avalon Exhibits. They leveraged the Dynamics’ modularity in every sense of the word, creating an environment that could be adapted to meet all of Speedo’s needs from a 50’ x 60’ island to a 10’ x 40’ inline.

The result of this collaboration was an exhibit that, at the Miami show, attracted between 300-400 visitors a day—and kept them coming back. People are drawn into the booth by a grandiose entrance that creates a strong presence while broadcasting the Speedo brand image. Two large sections of the Dynamics, each 13’ high by 18’ long, framed single layers of translucent fabric imprinted with digital photographs of Olympic athletes Beard and Phelps. Either side of the entrance featured one of the athletes surreally training underwater by pulling an iron ball and chain. Up-lighting combined with the sheerness of the fabric creating the illusion that the graphics were truly under water.

Positioned facing the entrance, the muscular bodies magnetically drew people into the exhibit interior. “People stood in awe of the athletes. They conveyed the new Speedo image—strong, sleek and sexy,” says Filsoof. One of the benefits of using the Dynamics is that even the largest units have been engineered without crossbars. “In those dynamic visuals appearing to be underwater, breaking up that big open space with a crossbar wouldn’t have come off so well,” says Carney. This was the first project with Speedo for the Avalon designer. It’s evident that she, Filsoof and Virani worked well together as a team, and all three agree that they’d like to work together again.

Upon entering the booth, the adventure continues. Behind the front desk—itself uncluttered, white and gently curved—is an elegant, minimalist welcoming space resembling an art gallery. A sleek white bench invites the visitor to sit and watch colorful clips of the Olympics on multiple plasma screens. Gracefully curving stem lights above the pictures add to the gallery-like atmosphere.

Despite the large number of retailer appointments and the variety of products to show, the Avalon team was able to keep the interior of the exhibit and the individual selling stations as clean and clutter free as the rest of the exhibit. This was achieved by designing a system of framed panels that could be faced with fabric, graphics or an apparel display unit—depending on the location.

Many of the panels displayed photographs of Beard and Phelps modeling the Speedo line. To display apparel, accessories and shoe shelves, Avalon designed a custom Sintra panel with a grid of circular cutouts. “To complement our updated display we wanted a departure from the standard metal grid or slatwall—something that would function well, but would be more in keeping with the rest of the design,” says Filsoof. Avalon experimented with size of the circular cutouts before concluding that three-inch holes were the ideal size to enable the sales team to quickly go through the entire line with a customer without sacrificing cosmetics. The result is attractive, futuristic, and reinforces the Speedo brand image. In terms of function, the units passed the ultimate test—having several employees, including the Executive Vice-President of Sales, try them out in their offices.

“Beauty follows function,” could be the defining phrase for the project. Its cohesiveness and appropriateness are largely due to the combination of design elements selected by Avalon. The color palette—white and brushed silver—gives a light, uncluttered feeling, showing off colors, patterns and textures, and serving as a blank canvas that ensures that Speedo’s products stand out. Motion and athleticism—important elements throughout—energize the environment and introduce exciting new products in the Speedo line. Finally, patterns and textures—the underwater scenes, the repeated circles that bubble up, the fluidity of the entire experience—remind the visitor that Speedo is inexorably tied to the water.

The new booth has been a great success with everyone—from the Chairman of Warnaco to the salespeople, from the buyers to the passersby. In fact, it was so successful that the company is translating the design into a new look for its New York showroom.

“I’ve found that trade show booths can be too rational, anchored simply by product and sales,” says Sheree Waterson, President of Speedo. “With the new Speedo trade show booth, we’ve gone one step further to the emotional core of the brand. We are taking our customers on a journey as we evolve the world’s leading swimwear brand into the world’s iconic active fashion brand. Our new Speedo trade show space is strong, sleek, and sexy – just like the brand.”

At both the Miami and Las Vegas shows, people congregated at the booth. Cameras were flashing. The exhibit possessed a “cool factor” which made it a gathering place, a social hub. “Many people returned to visit the exhibit again to chat and visit before ending their day and heading to dinner,” says Virani proudly. “That’s when you know you’ve really made an impact.”