Design Tips

This Section provides design insight for effective marketing campaigns.

As a good friend of our says, Good Billboard Design IS Good Business.  While it is not rocket science, good design does require a basic appreciation of simple principles.  There are exceptions, corporate rules and personal tastes.  There are tons of variables, dozens of shapes and sizes, more pictures than the mind can process.  We have information overload as a society.

Billboard design is storytelling with pictures. Ideas can surprise LOOKers with words or excite them with pictures.  Humor, drama, intrigue, all influence the decision making process.

Creating a billboard design is a challenging communication task that requires the illustration of concepts with clarity and simple power and when done well, they will entertain and leave a lasting impression in the mind.

The environment where billboard advertising appears is considerably different from other media. It is pure advertising. Innovative, beautiful or humorous designs can often be more memorable. People are intelligent, and good designs involve viewers by stimulating their imagination to solicit a response. Dramatic tension or suspense influences viewer interest shown on three different cognitive levels: rational, emotional and cultural.

Designs showing positive product or social benefits achieve better recall responses with viewers than designs with inaccurate or misleading information. A call to action is an effective technique for engaging a viewer. Displays that include Internet addresses, telephone numbers and special offers can produce impressive results in certain circumstances, depending on the layouts.

“We all know what we like when we see it.  The trick is figuring out what it is that we like. An even bigger trick is ME seeing what YOU like.  The trump card play is then deciding what the LOOKer likes most importantly, and what YOU like.”  Chris Cowlbeck