Job:12-84823 Title:RP-Graphic Design That Works (LDW)
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Text (DS)
Adams Outdoor Advertising
Client
Adams Outdoor Advertising is an Atlanta-based
company specializing in billboard advertisements.
CREATIVE D IRECTOR
Kevin Wade
DESIGNER
Martha Graettinger
FIRM
Planet Design Company
Process
The biggest challenge in developing the logo was finding a way to combat the nega-
tive stereotypes surrounding the billboard advertising industry, says Kevin Wade, a
principal at the Madison, Wisconsin-based Planet Design. “Billboards tend to be a
medium used only after a company has decided to use television, print, or radio
advertising,” he explains. “Adams wanted to change perceptions, and one way to do
that is to develop an identity that is different from the industry norm.” And since the
norm in the billboard industry has traditionally been nondescript type treatments,
Wade’s team decided to do the opposite and develop a symbol. The team began by
sketching designs based on a capital A, the first letter of the client’s name. One
direction transformed the A into a monumental object seen from below, an allusion
to a billboard viewed from a passing car; another approach flipped the A onto its
back, transforming it into a road disappearing into the horizon. From these experi-
ments evolved the idea of an A as an easel displaying a blank canvas, a concept,
says Wade, that seemed to lend a kind of “blue sky, anything’s possible,” quality to
the client’s product. Pursuing the easel concept, Wade’s team refined a design in
Illustrator, opting for bold outlines so that the mark would be legible both in very
large sizes, as in billboards, and very small, as in business cards. Next, the team
searched through stock photography for images to place inside the logo’s central rec-
tangle. The four images that were ultimately chosen—a blue sky, a sunrise, a pool
of water, and a shooting star—imbue the final mark with an aspirational quality, a
message that is further emphasized by the company’s tagline: “Out There. Thinking.”
What Works
The primary logo, a capital A bisected by a horizontal rectangle, visually references
a billboard. The logo’s four variations, each of which features a different photo-
graphic image in its center, stress the flexibility of billboards as an advertising
medium.
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