Greg Callaham on Billboard Design

GregPhoto_smallGreg Callaham is an award-winning graphic designer with over 30 years experience in advertising and marketing whose work consistently receives national recognition for creative excellence. He runs Greg Callaham Graphic Design, a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based design studio specializing in outdoor advertising. He has designed over 10,000 billboards.  Insider has used and can recommend Callaham’s design services.  Insider talked with Callaham this week about billboard design.

Greg, how’d you happen to get involved in the outdoor industry?

I transitioned from newspaper to outdoor in the early 90’s as the art director for POA Acquisition Corporation’s Chattanooga plant. From the first day I loved the challenge of creating an impactful selling message within the parameters of good outdoor. It’s been in my blood ever since. I literally cannot take a vacation without critiquing the boards along the interstate.

new logo 2009What outdoor firms do you currently do business with?

I’m blessed to have outdoor advertising companies as clients all over the contiguous forty-eight states. Art requests and design proofs are handled via phone and email. Final art files are easily transferred to commercial printers via FTP services. And if the outdoor company doesn’t have a regular printer I can recommend one. It’s really pretty seamless.

Why should a billboard company use a design firm like yours?

First and foremost is experience. I understand the medium and know how to use it to an advertiser’s advantage. I have very reasonable rates that will enable an outdoor company to more consistently calculate their ROI on creative and production. And I have fairly short turnaround times. For some billboard companies I am their art department. For others I help with any overflow work they have and save them the cost of bringing an additional designer on staff. The bottom line is I’m a businessman who happens to be a graphic designer, and I know what it takes to build a successful long-term relationship with my clients.

What common mistakes do you see clients and billboard companies make when they design billboards?

The most common mistake I see is too many words. It’s so easy for an advertiser to buy this huge ad space and feel like they have to include everything thing they do so they get their money’s worth. Another common mistake is text that is too small or too thin. Usually, this is because the advertiser has corporate branding standards with which they must comply. The third one is split ad space on small boards. There simply isn’t enough room to do that and it shows on every single one. A lot of times these mistakes are unavoidable due to the advertiser’s circumstances. However, in each of these scenarios I give the outdoor company design options and suggest verbiage to convince the advertiser to lean on our expertise and allow the medium work to his or her advantage. Sometimes advertisers take our advice and sometimes they don’t.

Give us examples of a couple effective billboard designs along with your explanation for why they are effective?

Screen Shot 2016-03-13 at 11.16.58 AMHere are two examples that do a good job of conveying the selling message quickly and effectively. The Kia Superstore of Cleveland design uses bright colors and large text to grab the viewer by the retinas and let them know the price of a 2016 Soul. This ad displayed on a digital face and can be seen for miles both day and night.

Screen Shot 2016-03-13 at 11.18.08 AMThe static vinyl for the Diamond Tower uses a larger-than-life diamond ring to gain the viewers’ attention and high-contrast text to communicate how easily they can successfully shop for the next jewelry-giving occasion. The word count on both is less than twelve.

 

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One Comment

  1. I have used Greg Callaham Graphic Design for more than 10 years. Not only has Greg won some Addys with some some of our ads, he’s also a first class businessman & gentleman. He’s a pleasure to work with and I’m proud to call him my friend.