Billboards and posters– Hidden potential in urban artifacts
Billboards in today’s city life are an embedded part of the urban landscape. In a high traffic city one finds more billboards than the number of trees. On an average in any big city, we typically spend a minimum of an hour and a half in commute every day of our lives. While waiting for a train in a station, we see kiosks and posters, or driving on a highway we see billboards everywhere. Do they beautify our cities or do they clutter them?
Let me share an anecdotal account to investigate the answer to this question. At 2:30 in the morning, on my return flight from Trinidad, in the corridor leading to the concourse area, I was drawn to a sequence of poster images on the sidewall. The first image was that of a cat with eyes that conveyed yearning. The caption on the image read “Love”. The second visual in the series depicted the exact same image except on this occasion the caption read “Hate”. The same trend was to be seen in the images that followed. I was left to reflect on the message. It was not hard to infer that the sequence had attempted to underscore the value of perspective, i.e. the same experiences can be viewed, understood and ultimately digested in many different ways depending on the perspective one lends to them. The sequence of images was perhaps not meant to be a lesson in philosophy. A few more steps down the corridor, I discovered it was an advertisement for an international bank in New York City, which had a diverse and multicultural mix of people and highlighted its virtues in respecting the varied perspectives of its clientele.
That said, I can state with some certitude that each of us can also cite multiple examples when billboards, in particular their excess number and grotesque arrangement, have proven to be a nuisance both visually and otherwise. In fact, this has been true to the extent that it caught the eye of environmentalists and city planners. A study revealed that in 2000, rooftops in Athens had grown so thick with billboards that it was very difficult to see its famous architecture. Not surprisingly then, in preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics, the city embarked on a successful four-year project demolishing the majority of rooftop billboards to beautify the city for the tourists the games will bring.
It is perhaps clear by now that billboards are both: an essential part of the urban landscape that serves to beautify, impress and engage us emotionally; while in other cases just a giant mess that seems unwanted, out of place and most significantly dysfunctional. The modern capitalistic economy means that these giant metal sheets are likely here to stay. Next, I make some recommendations on “good practices” in billboard design and placement so the common man, i.e. the intended consumer, can indeed be-friend them instead of being intimidated or even worse irritated!
A typical billboard tragedy occurs on highways where often too many are seen together, and in a manner that does not take into account the driver’s position on the road. A common sense fix would be to split them logically by distance. This would significantly enhance the brain’s capability to register them. For the American corporate giants hungry to advertise their European counterparts offer valuable lessons. On European highways, many billboards are arranged in a perspective, one higher than the other, such that they fall under our sight of vision. That way the driver can see them more effectively as the vehicle is moving.
Design plays a significant role in all of advertising and billboards are no different. As is said “:A picture is worth a thousand words”. For a billboard to be pleasing, attractive and finally effective in its designated advertising task – the use of appropriate accompanying imagery is crucial. Successful examples include those of the Apple iPod and BMW 3-series cars with minimal or no text but vivid, catchy and very relevant images.
In certain cases however, clever and limited use of text is both necessary and desirable. Examples include product lines such as insurance, grocery and retail stores, in-tangibles like legal and medical services. Copyrighting is the official term attached to the art of preparing catchy phrase lines for advertising via billboards. A particular example that comes to mind is the Geico billboard which depicts a “small gecko” but uses the term “large savings”.
Finally, technology continues to impact our perception of what is acceptable. Traditionally billboards have been made of PVC vinyl sheets. Recently though, digital billboards that employ LED or even LCD displays have become more common. Shibuya in Tokyo is famous for its large digital billboards. A key benefit of digital billboards is the ability to adapt content on the billboard making it much more interactive like a television advertisement. Digital billboards have many other tools at their disposal to make a lasting impact. For example, it is becoming increasingly common to see the use of holography or 3-D images that improve retention.
Whether Billboards are necessary continues to be debatable particularly from a consumer’s viewpoint. Viewed by some as the ugly face of capitalism, it is simultaneously hard to deny their immense popularity and success as amongst the most effective advertising techniques, often seen as second only to television commercials. This is evidenced by their ever increasing number, size and the technology input thrown into them. It is humbly iterated though that good design and placement are however critical elements for their success to continue, particularly as advertisement continues to diversify via advent of the internet.
>Written by d/visible contributor Nimisha Thakur.
