22 Mar 2024 How a Proper Billboard Should Look
If I had to pinpoint the most prominent problem inexperienced graphic designers make in advertising, it would be the inability to prevent clients from “stuffing” the advertising space with too much information, which is valid for both print and online graphics. The fear that detailing every single offer, service, or promotion on the billboard or webpage is necessary to retain potential customers is the root of the problem.
Before purchasing a billboard space, consider whether a billboard is the best way to reach your customers. Ask yourself:
Is a billboard the best way to reach my customers?
You can describe bad graphics as follows: The billboard is full of small texts in various colors and low-quality photos printed from edge to edge of the advertising space. Poorly designed graphics do the exact opposite of what you wish. In the case of billboards, people immediately forget the content. The problem has a simple solution. In the article, I will show you an example of a cluttered billboard that I will redesign to show how it should properly look.
We can summarize the solution in three words: Simpler is better.
When Amateurism Sinks Your Investment
The task is to create a billboard for Joseph Carot Car Repair. The client sent the copy he wrote himself and one photo he wanted to include. The result of the client’s request in the hands of an amateur could look something like this:
Would such a banner fulfill its purpose? No. The amateur took the complete text from the client and placed it in the advertising space. It’s important to realize that drivers view billboards for less than one second. This means that the hypothetical driver takes note of that this car service Jozef Karot … exists. The short timespan means that a regular driver will barely retain the information that Joseph Carot Car Repair exists even after repeated glances at the result. What promotion and until when? That’s something the driver won’t catch.
Don’t Be Fooled by “Professional” Design
A seemingly “professional” graphic designer will at least improve on the image. The customer needs a suitable one, and there’s nothing to photograph because he works in a garage. Therefore, a “professional” graphic designer will suggest the right photo for the billboard. The photo relates to the information and complements it visually. For example:
The “professional” graphic designer chooses the suitable typeface. They have an extensive collection of fonts and know how to select the one that looks best with the rest of the graphics. So far, so good.
However, the most important thing is to consider what is essential in this advertisement and what is not. For example, listing both an email address and a website address is unnecessary. The importance of a phone number is also questionable. It’s unlikely that someone will stop and start typing the number into their phone. A professional must answer the following questions:
- Who is my target audience? It is most likely men who can remember at least the name “fuel pump” or “engine overhaul.”
- How many can remember what a fuel pump is?
This is the hardest part. An inexperienced amateur simply doesn’t have enough experience and authority to convince the customer that what the billboard really needs is something completely different from what the customer wrote. This task requires a good understanding of the needs of the customer—the business owner—and his customers—the end consumers.
This billboard looks much better. A large “-20%” sign catches the eye at a glance, giving a reason to read further and discover the promotion. The second most prominent information is the service’s name. The web address and number should be more prominent. A dark image in the background forms the overall impression of the billboard. It’s optional for the image to be directly from the service or show the promoted activity. We could stop here, but we advise the customer on one essential thing: to differentiate from the competition by building their own brand.
Building Identity
People can identify symbols faster than reading text. This is why traffic signs are made of pictures and not just words. Thanks to a professional logo, the auto service is much easier to identify by someone who already knows it, and it also appears more trustworthy and experienced to a new customer.
The work of a “professional” graphic designer is done now; it looks good, and the auto service owner is satisfied. We have demonstrated another of the bad approaches. It’s less ” amateurish,” but you can design your billboard to be more effective.
The billboard looked good. But only on the computer display.
In the real world, it wouldn’t be able to catch the eye of passersby. The real impact is added only after completely reevaluating the advertising copy. We also increase the contrast of the texts against the background. Only after these adjustments does the billboard become genuinely effective.
How can you recognize it? As the end customer, how can you gauge the competence level of the company you’ve assigned to design your billboard graphic? Look for a few indicators:
- Look for a company with a team composed of several highly specialized experts. If the company consists only of 1-2 people and meets you in a café, you can be sure that they will be learning how to do graphic design on your dime. One person, no matter how skilled, cannot replace the experience of at least three people (a trained marketing professional, a professional advertising copywriter, a professional graphic designer, etc.).
- Look for a team with many years of experience. An indication might still be a landline number or an office with regular opening hours. You can quickly check the number of “team” members in the office. If only 1-2 people sit there, the “team” consists only of external part-timers.
- Look for a company whose graphics don’t resemble the billboards in example 1 or 2. Ask for previous works. Look at what they have already done. Usually, you can see it directly on their website. Sometimes, you can follow a simple rule: if the billboard has more than a 3-5 word sentence and possibly a website with a telephone number, a graphic designer makes the billboard without the help of other team members. Sometimes, this can happen even with an experienced advertising agency; the customer could have been stubborn. However, you recognize a professional by the fact that they offer you the option of a billboard without a website and a telephone number.
Comparing cheap, “professional” graphic design and compelling billboard design:
Did this article help you? I hope so. Thanks to it, there might be one less bad advertisement worldwide.
Podobné články / Similar posts