Throughout its evolution, outdoor has grown as a medium to incorporate ambient, transit, street furniture, building wraps, street poles and internally illuminated backlight signs. The medium has become so popular that research figures indicate that billboards reach 85.9% of the adult population, a figure marginally exceeded only by radio and TV.

Despite these obvious benefits of the medium, the creative execution has the power to either damage or promote not only the advertised brand, but also the situation of the billboard. ‘The outdoor advertising structure, whatever size and however well placed, is merely the facilitator, or canvas, for advertising messages and communication. Creative design allows for an effective outdoor campaign,’ says Lyn Jones, marketing manager of Continental Outdoor Media (formerly INM Outdoor). ‘We spend much of our sales pitch to creative departments within agencies on how to design for outdoor. A creative message that works for a magazine or newspaper cannot merely be transferred onto an outdoor format. The creative guidelines for outdoor advertising are reiterated to agencies at every opportunity.’

These thoughts are echoed by executive director of OHMSA, Les Holley. ‘Creatives are not making full use of the exciting applications that outdoor affords them. It is not simply an opportunity to take a print ad and blow it up to billboard proportions, it requires a bit more creative insight and ‘out of the box thinking’. Use of die-cutting, 3D effects and clever copy make an advert memorable and understandable.’

Results of a survey conducted by Continental Outdoor Media for its clients, the outdoor company urges creative agencies to think carefully about every design aspect. The designer must consider elements such as colour contrast, perspective and font choice to ensure maximum visibility and legibility of the advert. Pointers include

Colour contrast: Black font reversed out of yellow is the most effective as is blue on white. However, red on white and yellow on orange are undesirable. By juxtaposing different colours, ill-contrasting colours cause vibration and therefore low visibility.

Perspective: Perspective is another important aspect of outdoor design. The greater the speed that the vehicle is travelling, the more the driver’s angle of vision is reduced.

Font: Letter visibility and font choice is perhaps the most important. Although there may be the temptation to glam up the artwork with interesting fonts and capitalise them for added impact, the complete opposite is achieved. Large fonts look like a blob from a distance, whereas delicate fonts become lost. Upper case copy may also seem like a logical choice, but this in fact makes it harder for readers to make out the message.

Compared to mainstream mediums, outdoor is more problematic as readers have to be able to grasp the core idea of the brand in a moment. ‘Simplicity is key,’ says Jones, ‘Creatives need to focus on a singular message. The copy should be legible. The most important key focus of an outdoor campaign is the idea. The bare, simple idea. All advertising should begin with the outdoor concept and design. If one is able to encapsulate a brand message on outdoor, designing for other media follows easily.’