Art B23 - Advertising Graphics
Project 5 - Billboard Ads (Outdoor Advertising)
According to About.com:
"Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians used a tall stone obelisk to publicize laws and treaties...
First U.S. Billboard Erected When Circus Came to Town - In the beginning, Americans used roadside advertising for local purposes. Businessmen and merchants painted signs or glued posters on walls and fences to advertise their establishments and what they have to offer.
It was in New York where the first large American outdoor poster (more than 50 square feet) was posted. Jared Bell's office printed posters for the circus in 1835. In 1850, exterior advertising was first used on street railways.
Public Service is a Billboard Thrust - In the 1900s, there was a boom in national billboard campaigns. Big advertisers began mass production of billboards for the national market. From toothpaste and soaps, to breakfast cereals and sodas, billboards were made to advertise in big bold pictures and images. And in 1913, the practice of filling "open boards" with public service advertising has continued to this day. During the war, there was a concerted effort from the industry to help in the mobilization. While in peacetime, the concern was focused on efforts to generally improve the way of life."
This project involves taking the newspaper ad created for the public service project, and converting it into a billboard. Billboard advertising is one form of "outdoor advertising", thus called because it is outdoors. Other kinds of outdoor advertising include wrapped vehicles, logo signs (on freeways), street level posters, bus bench signs, bus shelter signs, taxi signs, digital displays...
For the widest broadcast of a message, billboard advertising is the least effective and least economical advertising. (Television, while the highest cost, is the most effective. Think of all those televisions out there with all those national ad campaigns.)
Yet billboard advertising persists as a means to localize national advertising campaigns, and carry specific messages in specific markets.
As you convert your black and white newspaper ad into a billboard, notice that the format is radically different from the newspaper ad. I planned this on purpose. These two items are common to advertising campaigns, yet they are quite dissimilar in height and width ratio. I want you to think about how to effectively crop your photo to fit to the long, wide, format of the billboard. Also, how will your headline work in this new format?
Remember, you have 1/2 of a second to attract attention, and you then have about 2 to 3 seconds for the viewer to see the ad.
Do not simply put your photo on one side of the billboard, and put the text on the other side. You won't like the resulting grade you might get, if you do the project like that.
Your billboard is 14' x 48'. This is the standard freeway sized billboard. (Use 4.25" x 15" in InDesign or Illustrator for your billboard.)
Outdoor billboard (danger! cheesy website ahead!)
Effective billboard: simple text, few elements.
Ineffective billboard: too much text, too many elements.
