Custom vs Modular Displays

What brand, retail, and experiential teams should consider before deciding where to spend their fabrication budget.

Custom display systems are engineered from scratch for one specific environment. Vendor-reported industry data puts fully custom builds at 6 to 12 weeks lead time, running up to 16 weeks for complex projects, and several times the upfront cost of a comparable modular system (FramePlus; Y Exhibits). Modular systems are pre-engineered, reusable components that a client owns outright and redeploys across shows or stores. Once built, they assemble on site in roughly 1 to 3 weeks, cost a fraction of custom per use over time, and trade some one-of-a-kind design freedom for that speed and repeatability.

To be clear about a distinction the industry sometimes blurs: modular is not the same as rental. A rental exhibit is leased per show and returned. A modular system, the kind shōmi! Retail Displays builds, is purchased once and reconfigured or redeployed by the client across many locations or events. This article compares custom fabrication to owned modular systems, not to rental economics.

Most retail and experiential programs, including several of our own, end up using a blend of both. This article breaks down the real cost drivers and real timelines, using vendor-reported industry benchmarks (labelled as such) alongside our own project data, so you can work out which approach, or which mix, fits your next rollout.

What’s the difference between a custom and a modular display system?

A custom display is designed and fabricated for one specific use: one brand, one space, one moment. Every panel, finish, and mechanism is built to spec. That is why shōmi! Custom exists as its own division, focused on pop-ups, experiential activations, and trade show exhibits that need creative flexibility and premium finishes.

A modular display system is built from a standardized, reusable kit of parts, frames, lightboxes, and panel systems that can be reconfigured, redeployed, or scaled across many locations. shōmi!’s own modular product lines, including the iMPAKT lightbox, FABRiK frames, and HORiZON Frameless, are engineered this way: the same core components, deployed in different configurations, store to store.

In practice, the line blurs more often than the marketing suggests. On our Arcadia Earth immersive installation at The Well in Toronto (17,000 square feet), we used modular SEG lightboxes and printed fabric panels that could be broken down to fit through a small front door and reassembled inside, alongside custom-fabricated 3D wood elements built specifically for that space. The brief was to turn a bare retail unit into an immersive underwater environment, with lifelike visuals on the floors, walls, and ceiling. Dimmable LEDs mimicked underwater light, brighter at the top of the fabrics and dimmer at the bottom, and the lighting on the printed fabrics was tuned so it did not overpower the projection mapping. The 3D wood elements were fabricated and staged at shōmi!, then broken down and reassembled on site.

The structural system was modular. The sculptural elements were custom. That combination is common, and it’s worth knowing before you assume an entire project has to go one way or the other.

The lesson: don’t make the entire environment custom simply because part of the creative needs to be custom. Put the fabrication dollars where the customer will actually experience the difference.

How much does each cost?

These are rough estimates in line with our own experience building and quoting custom exhibits. The US dollar figures follow published pricing from RH Visual, a US exhibit house in Round Rock, Texas (page last updated May 12, 2026). The CAD column above is a straight currency conversion at the Bank of Canada rate of 1 USD = 1.4226 CAD on October 6, 2026 (the most recent published rate), rounded to the nearest $100 (graphics to the nearest dollar), included so the US figures are usable for budgeting in Canada. Treat it as a reference floor, not a Canadian market quote: actual Canadian costs also depend on local labour, freight, and material sourcing, which move independently of the exchange rate.

Published sources don’t have an equally standardized dollar benchmark for modular systems, mainly because the upfront number depends on how many times the system gets reused, not just its size. One vendor-reported data point fills that gap, on real operating cost: Skyline, a US exhibit manufacturer, documents Okuma America eliminating more than US$60,000 (roughly CAD $85,400 at the same rate) a year in storage costs after moving to a custom modular strategy.

Our own numbers from a recent 8-location retail display rollout show what that looks like in practice. Client and retailer are withheld here for confidentiality; the cost structure and figures below are real, and are in Canadian dollars, shōmi!’s standard invoicing currency. The display was designed to be modular and deconstructable end to end:

Value engineering and in-house fabrication, repurposing industrial lockers instead of building custom cabinetry, patterning soft goods in-house, and controlling production top to bottom, cut the projected cost by roughly 18% against the original concept. That 18% is a reduction against projected cost on one specific rollout, not an industry average, but it illustrates the real gap between building custom for each location and engineering a system once to deploy several times.

How long does each take to build?

These are rough estimates in line with our own experience. The custom build ranges follow published lead-time guidance from FramePlus and Y Exhibits. Those figures describe two different moments worth separating. The modular timeline above (1 to 3 weeks) is for assembling a system that already exists, redeploying it to a new location or show. Designing and fabricating a modular system for the first time is closer to a custom build in scope, since the components still have to be engineered and produced before they can be reused. One of our own modular retail rollouts is an example of that first-build case: concept to installation across 8 retail locations, including fabrication of every store’s fixtures, in under 8 weeks. Once a modular system exists, redeploying it to a ninth store would be closer to the range above.

Modular systems also compress timelines on the back end, after the first build. Our JennAir project for PRSPKTV is a clean example. We built a 1,500-square-foot luxury trade show environment (floor, walls, and ceiling) in 4 days on the show floor, using a modular subfloor, SEG-framed fabric walls, and a custom fire-approved mesh ceiling. Because the components were engineered to be reused rather than scrapped after the show, the same floor and wall system was later adapted into a permanent retail installation with incremental rework, not a second full build.

What’s the real trade-off in impact and durability?

Custom fabrication buys design freedom: nonstandard shapes, one-off finishes, and effects a standardized system can’t replicate. The Charlotte Tilbury and Clean installations we built with Park Creative Studio for Sephora both relied on custom-fabricated centrepieces, vacuum-formed acrylic globe lights and three-dimensional cloud structures, that only make sense as one-off builds tied to a specific creative concept.

Modular systems buy repeatability and, often, sustainability. That same 8-location rollout example from above was designed from the outset to be disassembled at the end of the campaign, with wood, metal, and fabric components sorted for reuse or recycling instead of landfill. That is a structural property of modular design, not an add-on: components engineered to come apart cleanly are also easier to retire responsibly.

Which should you choose?

There is no universal answer, but the benchmarks above point to a reasonably reliable rule of thumb. On repeatable cost and speed, modular wins in almost every scenario where a display or exhibit gets used more than once. Custom makes sense less as a frequency calculation and more as a creative one: choose it when the environment is genuinely one-of-a-kind, tied to a specific space or moment that will not be repeated, and the design outcome matters more than repeatable economics.

The honest middle ground, and where most of our own project history actually lives, is a hybrid: modular structural systems (lightboxes, SEG frames, subfloors) that carry the repeatable cost and timeline advantages, paired with a smaller set of custom-fabricated elements where the creative concept genuinely requires them.

FAQ

How long does a custom display take to build?

Fully custom trade show and retail displays typically take 6 to 12 weeks from concept to installation, with complex builds running as long as 16 weeks.

How much does a custom trade show booth cost?

Based on vendor-reported US pricing from RH Visual, a basic 10′ x 10′ custom booth typically runs US$8,000 to US$20,000 (roughly CAD $11,400 to $28,500 at the October 6, 2026 exchange rate), scaling to US$30,000 to US$80,000 for a 20′ x 20′ footprint and US$60,000 to US$150,000 for a large 20′ x 30′ to 20′ x 40′ build. Custom-fabricated large-format graphics alone run US$10 to US$25 per square foot. These are US figures converted at the Bank of Canada rate of October 6, 2026 for reference; actual Canadian quotes also depend on local labour and material sourcing.

How much does a modular retail display program cost per location?

Costs vary by scope, but on one of our own 8-store retail rollouts, the fully built and installed cost came to CAD $27,800 per store, covering fabrication, graphics, engineering, shipping, and installation labour. Client and retailer are withheld for confidentiality.

Can modular displays be reused across multiple stores or events?

Yes. Modular systems are engineered around standardized, reusable components, so the same structural system can be redeployed across locations or repurposed for a new use. On our JennAir project, a trade show floor and wall system was later adapted into a permanent retail installation.

Can a single project combine both custom and modular elements?

Yes, and in practice this is common. Our Arcadia Earth installation at The Well in Toronto used modular SEG lightboxes and fabric panels for the structural system, alongside custom-fabricated 3D wood elements for the sculptural pieces that needed a one-of-a-kind shape.

What materials are typically used in modular versus custom displays?

Modular systems are built around standardized components: aluminum-extrusion or SEG frames, printed fabric or fabric-tension panels, and modular subflooring, the same core parts across shōmi!’s iMPAKT, FABRiK, and HORiZON product lines. Custom builds use whatever the design calls for, which has included vacuum-formed acrylic, welded steel, and custom millwork on our own projects.

When does a custom build make more financial sense than modular?

Rarely, on cost alone. Custom is chosen for creative reasons, a nonstandard, one-off environment, rather than because it is cheaper.

Is a modular or custom display more sustainable?

Modular systems have a structural advantage: components engineered to be reused or cleanly disassembled are easier to responsibly retire than a one-off custom build. On one of our own rollouts, the modular design was built from the outset to be taken apart at end of campaign, with wood, metal, and fabric sorted for reuse or recycling rather than sent to landfill.

Does shōmi! build both custom and modular display systems?

Yes. shōmi! Custom handles premium, one-off fabrication for experiential and retail environments, and shōmi! Retail Displays builds modular, scalable systems, including the iMPAKT lightbox, FABRiK frames, and HORiZON Frameless product lines, for repeatable retail rollouts. Many of our projects combine both.