Getting Started

Adapted from an article by Justin O'Brien and originally published in Digital Chicago,
January/February 1999 issue.

1. Your Viewer is moving, your ad is still. It is there in every condition - sun, wind, rain, snow, and pollution.
2. Say it in 7 words or less. Viewers fly by your ad at 55mph. Make that 4 words and you raise your odds of winning an OBIE. Shows thought, not words. Lay out your ad so a person can read it in "bites".
3. Type usually works best on a billboard if it's bold, straight and , frankly, 'boring'. Choose heavy weights of type. Avoid faces with thin lines. Sans Serif fonts work best in outdoor advertising.
4. Too much of a good thing - like white space - is, well, too much of a good thing. White space doesn't translate well from magazine ads to outdoor.
5. Outdoor has its own color theory. Colors that work best in Outdoor: black, white, vibrant yellows, reds.
   Colors to avoid: brown and earth tones -- unless you want your ad to fade into the background.

As with every set of rules, there are award-winning exceptions. But if you want to break the rules well, it's best to know what they are first.