There’s usually an “oh shit” moment in every project.

We had submitted the booth design for approval, which is usually a formality to ensure you are not using logos incorrectly or have copy placed outside the crop marks. Instead of getting a proof back like we usually do, we got a note that said our design couldn’t contain more than 50% red. We assumed we had missed something. We went back through every document, every guideline, every attachment. Nothing. No mention of color restrictions anywhere.

Which normally wouldn’t be a problem, except our entire brand was red. Big. Bold. Red.

We had just gone through a full brand refresh, and red wasn’t just part of the palette; it was the palette. Every asset, every visual system, everything we had built leaned into it. And naturally, this booth did too.

To make it more complicated, the design itself wasn’t very flexible. The space we had to work with had a TV smack dab in the middle of the wall with a cabinet that had to stay blank underneath it.

We began brainstorming how to pull back the red in a way that would get us under the 50% threshold without having to go through an entire redesign. We pulled every creative that might fit the wall, but nothing seemed to have the same visual appeal (because, as you know, when you land on a concept, it’s hard to go backwards). But then we got to the front cabinet.

It sat right at the front of the booth, the “greeting counter”. It was a highly visible element, and it was very red. There weren’t many options left with the main design, so we made it white. It wasn’t exciting. It wasn’t particularly creative. But it got the design approved.

When the booth went up and the event started, it became one of the busiest spaces on the floor. People were constantly coming up and chatting with us—blocking the front cabinet. The thing we settled for was almost impossible to see.

Sometimes you just have to get the job done, even if the solution isn’t the most exciting one.