How to check a fabrication shop before you sign

Visit the shop and see work on the floor, not a showroom. Ask what's made in-house and what's bought out: even Factum Arte, a 50-person Madrid workshop, uses specialist workshops for some processes. Meet the people who'll draw and build your job, look at finish samples, and check there's room to dry-fit. Then get paper: an insurance certificate your venue accepts ($5 million, with the venue named, at The Buildings Show 2026), venues they've installed in, and two references you can call.

Factum Arte's 13-metre recreation of the seated Colossus of Constantine in the gardens of Villa Caffarelli, Rome, with a crowd below — Factum Arte's Colossus of Constantine in the gardens of Rome's Capitoline Museums, February 2024. Photo: Otto Lowe / Factum Foundation.

In brief. Visit the shop and see work on the floor, not a showroom. Ask what's made in-house and what's bought out: even Factum Arte, a 50-person Madrid workshop, uses specialist workshops for some processes. Meet the people who'll draw and build your job, look at finish samples, and check there's room to dry-fit. Then get paper: an insurance certificate your venue accepts ($5 million, with the venue named, at The Buildings Show 2026), venues they've installed in, and two references you can call.

When Factum Arte remade the Colossus of Constantine, the 13-metre seated emperor that has stood in the gardens of Rome's Capitoline Museums since February 2024, the client came to the shop. Factum Foundation's project record shows Capitoline superintendent Claudio Parisi Presicce walking the workshop with the exhibition's curator, finishing options proposed against the sculpture itself, and a full test assembly before the thirty sections went to Milan, where a team of six put them together in about a week.

That's a shop with nothing to hide: you can see the work, the people and the samples. Most brand builds will never be that grand, but the same checks apply to a booth or a pop-up. Brience is a Toronto-based custom fabrication and experiential design studio, and these are the questions we'd want any client to ask us, or anyone else, before signing.

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Who builds, and who brokers

Nobody makes everything. Factum Arte has more than 50 people and about 10,000 square metres of studio space in Madrid: engineers, moulders and casters, welders, machine operators, 3D scanners. Its about page still says some processes are done on site and others with specialist workshops. That's normal. The problem is a shop that won't tell you which is which.

Visitors looking up at the giant head of the Colossus of Constantine among works in progress in Factum Arte's workshop — The client's team visiting Factum's workshop during the build. Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith for Factum Foundation.

A sponsored BizBash piece from the fabricator Britten puts the broker's promise plainly: "If we can't make it, we'll find it." Finding is a real service, but you should know when you're paying for it. Ask:

Which parts of my build will you make in your own shop?
Which will you buy out (metal, print, lighting, AV), and who manages those suppliers?
Who draws the shop drawings, and can I see a set from a past job?

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What to look for on a shop visit

Work on the floor, not just a showroom. Jobs in progress tell you more than a portfolio.
The people on your job. Meet whoever will draw it and whoever will build it.
Samples against the real thing. Factum's team tested finishes on the sculpture itself. Ask to see yours under light like the venue's.
Room to dry-fit. If your build can't be assembled in the shop, it will be assembled for the first time at the venue.

The paperwork to ask for before you sign

An insurance certificate your venue will accept. For The Buildings Show 2026 at the MTCC, an outside contractor installing a booth needed $5 million in liability coverage per occurrence, with Informa Canada and the MTCC named as additional insured, filed with a contractor form signed by both exhibitor and contractor. Ask how fast the shop can issue a certificate with your venue's exact wording.
Where they've installed. The same form barred outside contractors from overhead rigging, electrical, plumbing and lift work. A shop that has worked in Toronto venues knows what the venue's exclusive suppliers handle and what you need to order yourself.
References you can call. A Toronto buyer checklist from Web Tonic, itself a marketing vendor, suggests two references you can phone and treating an award without a named brand as unverified. It also says to confirm in writing who carries insurance and who pays overtime if load-in runs late.
A quote you can compare. Materials named by product and thickness, and crating, install, strike and venue services shown as their own lines or listed as exclusions. A vague quote usually means the decisions haven't been made yet.

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Our own shop is in Concord, just north of Toronto. If you'd like to walk through it before you brief us, get in touch. Our guide to hiring a fabricator in Toronto covers quotes, timelines and venue rules.

A finish sample panel held against the sculpture while one visitor photographs it on a phone in Factum Arte's workshop — Proposing finishing options against the sculpture itself, in Factum's workshop. Photo: Oak Taylor-Smith for Factum Foundation.

The North Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Front Street, Toronto — The Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where outside contractors must name the venue on their insurance. Photo: Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources: Factum Foundation, "Re-creating the Colossus of Constantine"; Factum Arte, "About us"; Informa, The Buildings Show 2026 Exhibitor Appointed Contractor form (2026); Web Tonic, "Toronto Experiential Marketing Agencies in 2026: People, Production or Both" (October 2026); BizBash, "The Right Partnership Should Be a Win-Win. Here's How." (sponsored content, May 2023).