Our Brand Manger/ Designer talks about putting together Point of sales solutions using X-Board

First a bit about X-board

The first time I laid my eyes on some blank X-board sheets, it didn't seem to really jump out at me as anything exciting but that all changed once I actually started to look at what some other people had been doing with it.

Since X-board is made out of pretty much toughened cardboard, it's really lightweight, printable, easily cut into shapes and can be suspended with greater ease than wooden displays.

The Design

Since my background is in the Video Games Industry, I thought I'd start in this field. From my experience, themed display stands are really expensive and a real pain in the butt to assemble on the retail floor. They are also limited in scope because of the materials needed to create the themed stand either are really flimsy or made from plastics that are not the best for the environment (also expensive!).

With X-board you can quickly build up 3D forms that are:

• Lightweight (good for shipping to stores)
• Easy to assemble
• Hold product (even heavy product – depending on the designs)
• Just lasts
• Recyclable (a definite plus)

The actual design is based off a finished consumer good that I picked at random from Google Images to illustrate taking a concept from a 2D poster/Image. Creating a new image from scratch is also an option. By layering and manipulating the X-board, forms and shapes appear quite quickly.

Copyright of it's respective owner

Practically any shape can be cut from the CNC router from a computer aided design program (CAD) – it's actually mesmerizing watching your designs become reality quite quickly!

The main point I'm trying to get across is: don't think in terms of 'sheets' and straight lines but forms and substance. X-board is not only a designer's dream but it's quite practical! Other than creating a 'cool' design, I had to ensure that the display could be used for what a product display is used for: selling product.

What I noticed from playing around with X-board is that it is surprisingly durable – You can drive your car on it and it still holds its shape (not that you want people to drive over your displays). What this means is that it is ideal for stocking with product – even wine or even heavy water containers without fail. Creating the support structure for X-board stands is relatively easy and drastically improves the strength of the overall forms.

Stay tuned for more X-board related articles!

Ashley Hodgetts,

Brand Manager & Designer