Billboard Design Specs
Billboard design specs are a series of aesthetic guidelines to help you design a billboard that will sell a product by hailing a wide population with advertising. With a billboard, your message must be readily visible and understood by people passing by in cars and on foot every day. Although these specifications are essential to finding a core audience through the advertisement, it is what you do within these guidelines that enables your message to stand out from that of the competition.
Other People Are Reading
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Your Message
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The message of the advertisement should be provocative, recognizable, and above all brief enough to be registered by an audience zooming by on a highway. Consider the text, image, and overall message to be part of the billboard's "package" for what it offers to the consumer. Thus, it should appeal to their extremely limited attention span while on the road, and at the same time reward them for the limited distraction it provides. A billboard advertisement is not at all the same as a magazine advertisement, where the viewer can pace themselves to absorb the breadth of information on the page.
Text
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The text should be large enough to be viewed from a distance, and should communicate what you are selling in eight words or less. Instead of focusing on the details of your business (phone numbers, email, etc), the billboard should grab your audience with a succinct message that either amuses or impresses the viewers and encourages them to capitalize on the "lead" suggested by your advertisement. Font color is key to making the text stand out from the rest of the billboard, by providing a vibrant contrast from the background color scheme for your message to grab the intended audience. Red, black, yellow and white are your best options.
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Images
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Once you have mastered a slogan for your billboard's message, find an image that supplements the text. Limit yourself to one image or visual referent to the product or brand that can resonate on many levels of subjective experience. For example, the image used for an anti-poverty non-profit will reach a deeper emotional level than a billboard for a fast-food restaurant. A successful billboard image speaks volumes to your audience's implicit desires and expectations from outdoor advertisement by providing them something they've never seen before, thus heightening their expectations for your brand or product.
Other Specs
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Use vinyl covering rather than paper or paint as a medium for displaying your advertisement. Not only is it glossier, it stands up better to weather and outdoor elements. Make sure the billboard has built-in lighting so that your message can be viewed in the nighttime. Always make the decision of what specific billboard and where you want your advertisement; never leave it up to the billboard salesperson to decide for you. The location of a billboard is almost as key to the message, as the surrounding environment places your product or brand in context with its surroundings.
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References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
