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The Urban Gallery
Creative Commentary on Billboards
By Rick Robinson

There are no rules.
Has to be said.

A billboard should be to the eye what a shout is to the ear.
Let’s face it, the world is a busy, hectic, crowded place.  Everybody is jamming all over. What’s beautiful about billboards is the opportunity to reach all those people.  What’s even better is nailing their attention with a crisp, immediate message. To do so you need to bring it, you need to shout!

Intrigue and Humor work better than Literal or Aesthetic.
Over the years the best creative has found a way to involve the viewer in a dialogue.  Solving the puzzle or getting the joke satisfies people.  They appreciate the effort and your message stays with them.  Literal billboards or pure visuals without a concept tend to roll off people, like water on veneer.    Bottom line…trust that people can think.

One Idea.
Billboards offer your client the chance to reach millions of people for relatively little money.  It’s great, but there’s a catch.  You have to say one thing and the same thing to everybody.   Period.

2-3 Elements.
People can only process so much so fast.  Too many elements will make the viewer work too hard.  They’ll just tune out and look at something else.

Blow out the borders.
Don’t be held captive by the frame.  Crop generously.  Make it like the billboard is capturing one part of a much larger image.

High contrast backgrounds.
The visual and headline should register immediately.  Make it as easy as possible to read, process and respond to your visual message.

Serifs and crowds can kill.
Simple fonts are easy to read, crowded type is hard to read, and too many words can make it too much work.  Just let the idea work on its’ own.  If it makes sense on a cocktail napkin it will do just fine in Helvetica.

It’s not print.