It’s been an excellent run for Catalyst Exhibits in recent weeks, having scooped the design award for Best Trade Show Exhibit over 2,500sq feet at the 2011 B2 Awards, hosted and judged by the Business Marketing Association.

This week, Catalyst is proud to announce that it has won Gold for the Best Trade Show Environment (Over 50′x50′) in the 6^th Annual Event Design Awards 2011, hosted by Event Design magazine.

The futuristic Carestream Health stand [see photo above] was created for the RSNA 2010 show in Chicago, the world’s premier scientific and educational forum in radiology.

The stand had to support and drive the company’s dramatic shift into digital imaging, while supporting…

…existing customers. The stand’s ‘Wow’ factor was important in grabbing the attention of the show’s health care practitioners. The vivid orange colouring combined with the flowing fields of light portraying the flow of information and numerous engagement points allowed Carestream staff to lead visitors through one-on-one demos of many of the new products.

The stand was all about free-flowing so there were no barriers, hard lines or wires. Information was conveyed through LED projections and a 140-ft LED strip guided attendees to explore the variety of stations.

Check out some more shots of this amazing stand below.

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Leading design specialists, Catalyst Exhibits, has scooped a prestigious design award at the 2011 B2 Awards, hosted and judged by the Business Marketing Association. Catalyst’s stunning exhibit stand for Zimmer at the AAOS 2010 Show in San Diego won the Best Trade Show Exhibit over 2,500sq feet.

The B2 Awards are an international business-to-business marketing and communications contest that recognizes excellence among top agencies and corporate marketers.

“Zimmer had an important story to tell to an audience of orthopedic surgeons not known for being easily impressed,” Catalyst explains. “They turned to Catalyst Exhibits to develop the strategy. The sense of theater began before participants entered the viewing space. Massive, sweeping interconnecting paths converged above and below, bathed in white and blue light. Circular stations led participants from one interactive, touch screen technology station to the next.”

“The showpiece element was a two-storey theatre where Zimmer experts would present innovations including Zimmer’s Trabecular Metal Technology that uniquely simulates bone, and, a new highly cross-linked polyethylene, a significant advancement in wear reduction. The main blue path drew attendees through to the theater, a sound a light show in a multi-level, high-definition (HD) area backed by a two-storey high screen, viewable from hundreds of feet away.”

Catalyst would like to thank its top team of designers – led by Mark Lynch – who worked on this project, and all of our projects, for all of their hard work.

Visit Catalyst here.

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Canada has been dishing out the design and architecture awards recently and the winning residential prize in the first AZ Awards went to the exceptional, Linear House, by Paktau Architects.

As its name suggests, the house – located on a farm on Salt Spring Island – runs in a straight line for 276 feet along a row of fir trees. The main building is divided using a breezeway from the main living area to the guest quarters.

As you can see from its design, making the most of the stunning views was a priority during the build with the extremely long windows acting as giant canvasses onto the scenery.

The longest piece of glazing is 78 feet wide [see photo above] and is fully retractable, allowing the house to be transformed into an open air pavilion during the good weather.

The view from the other side of the house can be seen below.

Rather than stand out in the environment, the long design of the house, combined with the charcoal-colored render outside makes the house virtually invisible through the fir trees [see below].

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And there have been some startling pavilions indeed, from the UK.’s Seed Cathedral to Saudi Arabia’s Desert Oasis.

But which pavilions were considered the best?

Exhibition magazine judges and public voters have spent a few months trying to pick the best in a few different categories and here are the winners….

Best Pavilion

Germany scooped the top gong with its “Balancity: A City in Balance” pavilion. The designers of Germany’s pavilion believe that that successful cities of the future will be abstract works of art balancing nature and technology, where opposing forces must work in unison.

Honorable Mention

Denmark’s pavilion, called “Welfairytales”, consisted of a giant velodrome, complete with more than 100 bicycles for Expo visitors to use. Judges called it “the most refined and elegant” of the entries, and appreciated its “clear, humble concept that cuts through the jumble.”

Best Exterior Design

Denmark again, with its Slinky-like shape constructed from white-painted steel, reclaimed from dilapidated ships.

Best Presentation

Window of the City Pavilion, which combined the gymnastics of traditional Chinese opera with the multimedia technology of the 21st century. Judges said its “a heroic achievement of big thinking and execution.”

Poeple’s Choice

India Pavilion. This was an interesting mix of ancient and cutting edge. The design might based on a 24 century old Buddhist temple but the dome’s ferrocement roof is covered by a grid of ropes and wires that allow herb trays and solar cells to be mounted on it. Using tens of thousands of thick bamboo poles in its construction, the 115-foot-diameter structure is now considered the world’s largest bamboo dome.

Find out who the other winners were here.

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We’ve seen some stunning pavilions at the Shanghai Expo 2010 event: the Saudi’s desert oasis, the U.K.’s bizarre yet thrilling Seed Cathedral (see video footage of it after the jump) and, sadly, the most bland and boring pavilion of them all, the U.S. one which has been labelled by some ‘The Shopping Mall’.

Cruel, but true.

Still, one man’s mall is another’s Taj Mahal and you can now voice your opinion via the Expo 2010 Awards, being run by Exhibitor magazine.

Most awards will be judged by a panel of experts but there is the People’s Choice Award which will be decided by online vote. Other categories – open to those pavilion owners and companies with A/V and other technologies on show in the pavilions – are Best Pavilion, Best Exterior Design, Best Exhibit, Best Use of Technology, Best Activity/Interactive, Best Presentation and Elements and Details.

“This competition is an extremely exciting opportunity for firms specializing in design, interactive technology, fabrication, architecture, live presentations, exhibits, pavilions, and more to gain recognition for the work they’ve done on the Expo 2010 stage,” says Travis Stanton, editor of Exhibitor magazine. “Furthermore, it’s an opportunity for us to spotlight some of the most amazing examples of how design, technology, presentation, and storytelling come together to effectively communicate compelling messages. Those examples will hopefully inform and inspire today’s exhibit and event professionals – along with the next generation of face-to-face marketers. Because whether you’re creating an immense international pavilion or a small 10-by-10-foot exhibit, it’s often about making an impression, and the work on display in Shanghai does that in truly monumental and memorable ways.”

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