Rate This Board by Greg Callaham

Rate This Board allows a billboard designer to rate a random piece of billboard artwork using the following scale: 1 (not good), 2 (below average), 3 (average), 4 (very good), 5 (great). Then the designer talks about what they may have done differently. This week’s rating is provided by Greg Callaham www.gregcallaham.com) who has 30 years of experience in outdoor advertising design.  Insider has used and endorses Callaham’s services.

Asia Pacific Heritage Month  

Rating: 2 (Below Average)

This board for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month does a very good job of getting your attention with the bright red-orange background. After that it’s difficult to read.

  • I almost didn’t see the sponsor’s logo
  • The text is small
  • There isn’t enough contrast between the words and the background
  • The advertiser logo is pretty, but not easily read.
  • With a word count of 19 we cannot expect the target audience to read, understand, and remember this message in five seconds while driving.

I understand there are some things we cannot control if we want the advertiser to be happy, and I’ll bet word count was out of the designer’s control.  Here’s what I would have suggested:

  • Move the logo to the left and keep the red-orange around the logo to draw the eye. Now the reader knows it is something about Asian Pacific Americans right away.
  • Outline the logo in white to give it some separation, preventing the letters and background from camouflaging each other.
  • Make most of the board black so the white text of the quotation has plenty of contrast. Enlarge the letters as much as possible even if it means going to three lines. Now it can be read at a glance, which is all we have.
  • Tie the credit text to the logo with color. Honestly, most people will not read that anyway, but it’s good form to have it when using a quotation.

Here’s how I might have designed the billboard.

[wpforms id=”9787″]


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