Island Booth Design at CES 2026: KOSMERA's 162 sqm Automotive Showcase

When performance automotive brand KOSMERA booked 162 sqm at CES 2026 (January 6–9, Las Vegas Convention Center), the brief was simple to say and hard to deliver: build a stage worthy of two supercars in the loudest hall in the world. NORDER's answer was a four-side-open island booth crowned by a full-width lightbox header — and it became one of the most photographed stands on the floor.

Project Overview

The Brief: A Launch Stage, Not a Booth

Automotive exhibits live or die on sightlines. A car hidden behind a wall might as well not be there. KOSMERA's requirements for CES 2026 read like a director's treatment:

• See the cars from 50 meters away. The vehicles are the brand; nothing could block them.

• Room for press and partners. CES media days demand space for camera crews, interviews and scheduled partner walkthroughs.

• A premium, dark, cinematic aesthetic. The stand had to feel like a reveal stage, not a retail kiosk.

The Design Solution

1. A Full-Width Lightbox Header

Instead of a conventional hanging sign, we engineered a full-width illuminated header spanning the booth's frontage — a floating plane of light carrying the KOSMERA name. Visible from the opposite end of the hall, it frames the vehicles below like a theater proscenium and gives every photo a consistent branded backdrop.

2. Twin Vehicle Displays With Real Logistics

Two vehicles anchor the left and right of the floor plan on low circular platforms, each paired with a lit specimen board. Displaying cars at a trade show is as much logistics as design: we planned the push-path from the loading dock, floor-protection, turn radii and drip containment before a single structure was drawn.

3. A Central LED Media Tower

A central tower with a large LED screen runs the brand film on a loop, giving visitors a reason to stop mid-booth rather than glance and walk on. The tower also conceals service and storage space — a classic island-booth trick that keeps the perimeter visually clean.

4. Open Circulation on All Four Sides

Because the stand is an island booth, visitors can enter from any aisle. That matters at CES, where halls run at capacity: four open sides mean the booth absorbs traffic spikes instead of creating queues, and staff can engage from any direction.

Behind the Build: Engineering an Island at the LVCC

Island booths at the Las Vegas Convention Center come with hard constraints — rigging weight limits, ceiling height rules and strict vehicle move-in windows. Building the header and platforms in our local fabrication workshop let us pre-assemble and load-test every element, so on-site installation became assembly, not fabrication.

Island booths are won in the workshop, not on the show floor. Everything that can be pre-built should be pre-built.

The stand ran flawlessly across the four show days, hosted scheduled media sessions, and was struck within the teardown window with key structures crated for reuse.

What This Case Teaches About Island Booth Design

• Height without walls. A full-width lightbox header delivers skyline visibility while keeping all four sides open.

• Plan the car before the booth. Vehicle move-in paths, floor loading and drip protection must be engineered first.

• Media towers earn their footprint. They carry content, hide storage and break up long sightlines.

• Pre-build everything. Local fabrication turns show-site risk into a rehearsal.

Not every space needs the same layout. Compare the four booth types we design and build in the USA: 1-side-open, 2-side-open, 3-side-open and 4-side-open island — each page explains where the layout wins and what it costs.

Planning a vehicle display or a 150+ sqm island at CES 2027 or SEMA? NORDER provides end-to-end booth design and construction from Las Vegas, including vehicle logistics coordination.