You’ve got a new Substack and a new book.  Tell us more.

 So, from 2010 to 2021 when I was living in Los Angeles and I published a blog called Daily Billboard, which shone a light on all of LA’s eye-catching billboards, and all the cool stunts, tricks and gimmicks used to attract passersby attention. During the pandemic I decided to shutter my daily blog because I’d moved to Palm Springs, but knew my obsession with billboards wasn’t over so I complied my first photography book, Made You Look!

The book seemed to be well received by the design and OOH industry, and I continued to travel into LA to capture all the best billboards that caught my eye, so at the end of last year I decided to start a Daily Billboard Substack to share my observations of past and present outdoor ads (without the pressure of having to publish on a daily basis).

At the same time, I delved back in to my photo archive to compile a sequel to my first book with the imaginative title, Made You Look Again!

This 272-print edition contains over 500 billboards from around the City of Angels from 2009 to 2026, in addition to movies and TV show ads, there’s billboards from the music, drinks, food, tech and tourism industries. This time as well as sharing copycats, lookalikes and recurring design ideas, I thought it would be really interesting to show what the skies of LA looked like in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election and how a global pandemic was reflected in the city skyline. It’s really a visual time capsule of those historic periods.

 What interesting trends are you seeing in design?

 Because of its role in film, TV and music, Hollywood really is the entertainment capital of the world and that continues to be reflected in the city skyline, billboards are part of its DNA.

I studied marketing in university, so I continue to see a lot of postmodern reinvention of ideas and cultural nostalgia. New TV shows and movies referencing classic film posters, or cultural tropes, to illicit a glimmer of familiarity in proven a concept or design idea. I just love a billboard that spoofs or pays homage to a concept from the past, but then makes it their own.

Since coming out of the pandemic, and maybe this is more to do with the consolidation happening in the entertainment industry and recent success of studios like Warner Bros. at the box office, but in addition to striking key art, I’m also seeing increased activity in special 3D billboard installations and builds.

Lots of marketing dollars being spent by Streamers and Studios alike to make their shows and films turn heads in the city skyline and go viral on social media – recent examples like Netflix’s Apex 3D arrows, Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic 3D mannequin, ABC’s scrubs reboot 3D pill packet, Paramount’s Scary Movie tube men, Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 laser duo billboards. It’s like the skies of LA are alive with ideas at the moment and I love it.

If like me you’re passionate about billboards, you’ll find my new book, Made You Look Again!, always in stock at BookBaby’s online bookshop.

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