625 Plainfield Rd. · Ste 142 · Willowbrook, IL 60527 · Phone: 847.671.2225 · Fax: 847.671.1967

Production

Design Guidelines
Effective design is crucial in outdoor advertising. Make sure your message is clear and legible, and condiser these guidelines when preparing outdoor ad design:

  • Keep your content brief and succinct. Your audience will usually only have a few seconds to absorb your message.
  • Dramatic imagery can often sieze attention, and is a good way to escape ad clutter.
  • Use large, legible typefaces. An audience will quickly give up on a message that isn't easy to read from their distance.
  • Keep verbiage to a minimum. Outdoor ads are more effective when using 6 words or less.
  • Use color to provide impact and contrast in your ad, but don't overwhelm the audience or distract from your message.

Legibility
Keep sufficient space between letters in your copy, and between lines of copy. If copy elements are too close together, they can can be misread in the instant your audience has to evaluate your message. Also remember that your audience will view your ad from a distance, so avoid thin or script fonts, as they are more difficult to read.

Be sure to choose color combinations that provide sufficiently contrasting hues for maximum readability. The following color cominations represent the most legible pairings, with 1 being the clearest and 14 being the least clear.

Hues

Refer to the chart below to determine how legible text will appear at different distances. Note that higher contrasts will allow smaller text sizes to be legible at greater distances. Complex or distracting background images will reduce legibility.

The following templates can be opened with Acrobat or Illustrator on either PC or Mac:

Production Templates

Bulletins
20' x 60'
19'6" x 48'
12' x 24'
16' x 48'
26' x 24'
10'6"x 36'
14' x 48'
8' x 16'

Wallscapes
19' x 22'
29' x 29'
20' x 57'

Backlit
9'6" x 10'

Distance

Print Resolution

LED Resolution

Minimum Legible
Text Height

5'-50'

High

3mm-8mm

1"-2"

50'-100'

High

6mm-12mm

2"-4"

100'-200'

Normal

12mm-25mm

4"-8"

200'-300'

Normal

25mm-34mm

8"-10"

300'-350'

Normal

34mm-66mm

10"-15"

350'-500'

Normal

34mm-66mm

15"-20"

500'-600'

Low-Normal

66mm-76mm

20"-24"

600'+

Low

76mm-90mm

24"-40"