Effective Billboard, Transit and Airport Advertising Designs
Lamar’s designers share their simple tips for creating effective billboard, transit and airport designs. Keep these basic principles in mind as your advertising creative begins to take shape.
Download Outdoor Advertising Design Tips »
Keep Your Outdoor Advertising Design Simple
Outdoor advertisements should be straightforward and to the point. Go with one creative idea. In many cases, billboards, transit and airport ads are used to help your audience get somewhere or suggest what they should be doing. Resist the urge to pack a lot of information onto a billboard. If you keep the message simple, you’ll get a better response. Because our audience is mobile, exposure time is typically four to five seconds. So say it loud and say it clear and in seven words or less.
Use Readable Fonts
Fonts selected for outdoor ad designs must be easy to read from variable distances. Use large, legible typefaces. Fonts with thin strokes or ornate script will be difficult to read, so stay away from those. Adequate spacing between letters, words and lines will enhance visibility. Another tip: words with both upper and lower case characters are generally easier to read than all uppercase characters.
Download Letter Height Guide »
Use Contrasting Colors
Color weighs heavily on the success of an advertising campaign. Research demonstrates that high color contrast can improve outdoor advertising recall by 38%. Choose colors with high contrast in both hue and value. Contrasting colors are easy to see from great distances, while colors with low contrast will blend together and make the message harder to interpret.
Digital Billboard Design Tips
The same design tips (keep it simple, readable fonts and contrasting colors) apply when for
digital billboard designs. Avoid using a solid white background on digital billboards because it doesn't carry the same vibrancy that it does on vinyl. White is a mixture of color vs. an absence of color, therefore it has a tendency to look subdued or muddy. Take advantage of the flexibility that digital outdoor advertising offers. Change your message weekly, daily or even hourly. Design with a creative strategy that tells a story or communicates numerous details using multiple design layouts.
When preparing a file to be printed for an outdoor product, keep in mind that the file that we need is actually smaller than you think. For most products, you do not have to set up a file at 100% of its actual size. Visit our
Products section to locate a spec sheet with the exact design and printing specifications that you need to get started.
Outdoor Advertisement Mockup Generator
Want to see how your ad will look on a billboard? The OAAA's Mockup Generator Tool allows you to view billboard, street furniture and transit creative in the environment. Once you have uploaded your creative, you will be able to zoom in and out to see the work at a range of distances, share the rendering and print a copy for your records. Visit the
Outdoor Advertising Mockup Generator Tool to get started.