Stern Pinball at SDCC 2022 Case Study
Project Scope
Event / Show Name:
Custom Booth at San Diego Comic-Con 2022
Services Provided:
Objective:
Design and deliver a custom 20×20 island booth for Stern Pinball at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 that maximized engagement and brand visibility within a compact footprint. The space needed to seamlessly integrate playable pinball machines, a high-traffic meet-and-greet experience with Ozzy Osbourne, retail-style product displays, and bold branded graphics while maintaining clear flow and accessibility on all sides of the island layout.
The Challenge
Delivering a high-impact presence for Stern Pinball at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. The booth needed to function simultaneously as an interactive gaming space, a controlled meet-and-greet environment featuring Ozzy Osbourne, and a retail-style display area all without compromising flow or visibility from any side.
Pinball machines require dedicated play space, creating the risk of congestion and bottlenecks especially during scheduled appearances. Integrating a meet-and-greet within the same footprint introduced additional complexity around queue management, sightlines, and maintaining a premium fan experience without disrupting general booth traffic.
At the same time, the booth needed to clearly communicate Stern’s brand through graphic elements and product displays, ensuring it stood out in the visually saturated environment of Comic-Con. Achieving all of this within strict spatial limitations and in a setting where foot traffic is constant and unpredictable required a highly intentional layout that could support multiple functions without conflict.
Our Strategy & Approach
To deliver a multi-functional experience within a compact footprint, the design for Stern Pinball at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 centered around a dominant, multi-purpose core structure built using the BeMatrix system. This central tower served as the visual anchor of the booth, maximizing long-range visibility on a crowded show floor while also housing integrated storage and a sided retail window to support merchandise sales without interrupting primary traffic flow. The interior facing side of the structure was dedicated to the meet-and-greet experience with Ozzy Osbourne, enhanced by an overhead multi-screen display to amplify branding and create a focal moment within the booth. Queueing was intentionally directed to the booth perimeter to prevent congestion in active zones. Surrounding the structure, pinball machines were positioned along branded graphic walls, creating a clear, playable zone that encouraged engagement while reinforcing Stern’s visual identity. This layout ensured that retail, gameplay, and celebrity interaction could operate simultaneously without conflict.
- Centralized multi-use structure: Combined branding, storage, and retail into a single vertical element to conserve floor space
- Perimeter queue management: Directed meet-and-greet lines outward to maintain internal booth flow and accessibility
- Zoned experience layout: Clearly separated gameplay, retail, and celebrity interaction to avoid overlap and congestion
- Dual-sided retail window: Enabled higher transaction volume without creating a single choke point
- Elevated visual branding: Integrated overhead screens and tall graphic elements to increase visibility across the show floor
- Perimeter gameplay placement: Positioned pinball machines along walls to define a natural engagement zone while preserving open circulation
Let’s Bring Your Event To Life!