There is no such thing as an off-duty designer. I’ve found, for better or for worse, my mind is always engaged to pay attention to design all around me. It’s what inspires me most of the time and what teaches me the rest.
As my husband and I were traveling over the holidays, we started evaluating the billboards along the side of the road. Typography, imagery, composition, relevancy, execution and our personal opinions became the measures of success as we judged each oversized advertisement in our way.
One sign in particular stood out to us for being overtly uninspiring. The billboard depicts a cropped white house showing only the top dome and the statue of liberty to a background of lightning. The words at the top read “The Storm is Coming!” followed by “A Must-Read” in the opposite corner of the billboard. The user is left to make assumptions at this point. I assumed they were advertising a book about politics which is most likely the case however they left too many questions unanswered. Where can someone find the book? What does the book look like? Who wrote the book? What makes this book more desirable to read than the thousands of other books written about politics? With so many questions unanswered, what elicits a reaction from someone to go out and find this book? Out of curiosity (and the possibility that this was a viral marketing joke), I sought out the book. I searched Borders, Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, Google, but no success. I can’t seem to find anything that resembles the idea or depiction of this billboard. Though the billboard was successfully designed and put up in a high traffic location, was it really a success?
This example is a dramatization of what the general public reads, but it serves as a great reminder for those that plan to advertise a business, idea, or event in the future. Is your message clear and concise? Are you speaking appropriately to the people you want to reach? What action do you want people to take when they see your advertising? Is that being achieved? Is the message consistent in print, video and web? These questions would be a great start in defining what should be included and a few ways you can measure the success of your advertising.
