More often than not, a single great idea is of far greater value than a slew of commonplace concepts. That's one reason why judges lauded this project for The Rocket Science Group LLC (dba Mailchimp) as "a tightly focused stand that hit the client's directive dead on."

The brainchild of Mailchimp and Hamilton Exhibits LLC, the 20-by-30-foot booth for Collision 2019 was born of a similarly solitary dictate: communicate that Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform for small-business owners. According to Hamilton's client team director Josh Halpern, this also meant that "the story had to be experienced, not told; the technology needed to be cutting edge, not mechanical; and the architecture had to be expressive, not complex."

The space starred an approximately 14-by-24-foot wall-like structure with a projection-mapping experience on one side. Comprising a wood core covered with silicone-edge graphics that offered static images and messages, the wall came to life via illuminated illustrations projected onto it (courtesy of two 4K projectors embedded in an overhang). All told, the wall presented five groups of static and animated text and images, each of which represented a feature of Mailchimp's platform. Staff encouraged attendees to explore the wall and touch the illuminated areas. Doing so woke the illustrations from their resting states and animated them in various ways that delighted attendees and provided additional information. After the interaction, staff invited attendees to the opposite side of the wall, where four demo stations enabled visitors to experience the platform for themselves.

Pairing whimsical animations with simple messages, Mailchimp's stand captivated both judges and attendees. Plus, the focused concept illustrated some spot-on advice from philosopher Jacques Maritain: "A single idea, if it is right, saves us the labor of an infinity of experiences." E