Origin
Making a Life Changing Choice
Franc Tivadar, EDE’s founder, was faced with a decision back in 1979. He had worked hard enough to purchase the Porsche Targa he dreamed about for many years. In the back of his mind, he also thought about starting a business to build custom cabinetry.
After thinking about it for several months, EDE was founded in August 1979.
Fun fact: On the 30th anniversary of EDE, Franc finally received his Porsche from his family, which he promptly returned stating he was “too old”. To those that know Franc this Porsche was never real, his desire to build a company around his passion was.
How It Started
EDE was founded by a carpenter who worked at one of the top exhibit companies. The early history of EDE relied on his eye for detail and quality craftsmanship. His experience and strong relationships helped land EDE’s first commercial client, the Field Museum. Creating several cases for a Japanese art and book collection. Over 42 years later, those cases are still on display at the museum!
Since then, EDE’s craftsmanship has been showcased in every museum throughout Chicago. That attention to detail is what helped EDE evolve from a small 1-man shop to a bustling corporation with over 140,000 square feet of space.
Greg’s Apprenticeship
Where We Are Today
Today, the company is lead by Franc’s son and EDE’s creative director, Greg Tivadar. Growing up at EDE, Greg apprenticed from a young age learning the ins and outs of trade show booth construction.
While growing up in Chicago, he fell in love with architectural design. Naturally pushing him to bring our clients the creative trade show experiences that separate EDE from the competition.
His love of art + technology has only helped EDE develop cutting edge solutions leading to many of the dynamic, award winning designs we have today.
Into The Future, We Go!
The things we design we can build.
Greg’s move into delivering creative trade show ideas started as a client need driven from our interior design clients. Some of the world’s leading designers and architects helped Greg on his path to becoming the creative director he is today. His understanding of trade show booth construction has made some of the most effective trade show booths in the industry. Following in Franc’s footsteps of understanding how to take creative trade show ideas and turn them into trade show experiences.
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