Seven words at highway speed: designing a billboard people can actually read

One idea, seven words or fewer, big type and strong contrast

A billboard is readable at highway speed when it carries one idea in seven words or fewer, uses large and simple type, puts light against dark or dark against light, and shows one strong image instead of several. Lamar's design guidance says billboards are often viewed in a matter of seconds and recommends communicating the message in seven words or less. It also notes research showing that high-color contrast can improve outdoor recall by 38 percent. Everything else on the board should serve that one idea or come off.

I review a lot of billboard ideas with owners at Lamar's Dallas–Fort Worth Billboard Office, and the ones that struggle almost never fail because of the location or the color of the logo. They fail because they try to say too much. Here is how to avoid that.

You get a glance, not a read

Think about how you look at a board yourself. You are driving, your attention belongs to the road, and a board is something you take in with a quick look before your eyes go back to traffic. That glance is all the time your ad gets. A driver will not slow down to finish your sentence, and they cannot scroll back to read it again.

That is the real constraint behind every design rule. A board is not a small ad made bigger. It is a different medium, closer to a road sign than to a brochure, and it has to work for someone who sees it for a moment while doing something more important.

Distance adds to the challenge. A driver usually first notices a highway board from far away, when the letters are still small, and the board is only at its full size for the last moment before it slips past the window. The design has to read early, from a distance, which is why size and simplicity matter more than detail. Fine print, small photos and decorative touches that look good up close are simply invisible from the road.

Counting the words, and what counts

Seven words is a useful ceiling, and it includes everything a driver has to read: the headline, the business name if it is not a logo, any web address and any direction such as an exit. Owners are often surprised by how quickly they hit the limit. A name, a service and a phone number can use it all. The cut feels painful at first, but every word you remove makes the remaining ones bigger on the board and faster to read, and in my experience the shorter version almost always reads better on the road than the crowded draft an owner started with.

The way to get there is to decide what single thing you want a driver to remember, then cut every word that does not serve it. Here is the kind of rewrite I do with owners all the time, using an imaginary dental practice.

• Before: practice name, accepting new patients, most insurance accepted, evening hours, phone number, website
• After: New patients welcome, plus the practice logo and next exit
• Before: a list of five services a home-service company offers
• After: the company name and one promise that sets it apart, said in four or five words
• Before: a slogan, a photo collage and three offers
• After: one photo, one offer, one logo

Contrast decides whether the words are seen at all

Contrast is the difference between the lettering and what is behind it. Strong contrast, such as dark letters on a light background or light letters on a dark one, can be read from far away and in any light. Weak contrast, such as two colors of similar brightness, turns into a blur, even if the colors look striking side by side on a computer screen. Lamar points to research that high-color contrast can improve outdoor advertising recall by 38 percent, which is a big gain for a choice that costs nothing.

A simple test helps: convert your draft to black and white. If the words are still easy to read in grayscale, the contrast is strong. If they fade into the background, they will fade on the road too.

Type that holds up at a distance

Choose typefaces that are legible from a distance. Lamar's guidance says to avoid intricate fonts and weights that are overly bold or thin. Ornate script, condensed letters and thin strokes all close up when seen from far off, and extra-heavy letters can fill in their own open spaces. A clean, medium-to-bold sans serif with generous spacing is the safe choice.

Logos deserve a look too. A logo that works on a business card may have thin lines, small text or a tagline that disappears on a board. Your designer may need a simplified version for outdoor use, and the vector file of your logo helps a great deal. If you are not sure what file you have, the guide on telling whether your logo file is ready for print explains the difference between a usable file and a blurry one.

One picture, used large

A strong image can do the work of several words, but only one image, shown big. A single product, a face, a plate of food or a finished project read instantly. A collage of small photos reads as clutter. Busy photographs behind text are a common trap: the words sit on a mix of light and dark areas and lose their contrast.

Lamar's guidance also talks about hierarchy, drawing attention to what is most important. Decide the order a driver should take in the board, usually the image or headline first, then the name, then any direction, and size each element to match that order.

Phone numbers, websites and the urge to add contact details

This is where most boards go wrong. Owners want a phone number, a website and an address on the board because they are paying for the space. But nobody can write down a number at highway speed, and a long web address is unreadable. Lamar's guidance makes the point directly: overcrowding a design with contact information is not necessary, because a memorable board lets viewers find the business later on their phones.

So make your name easy to search, and make sure what people find is ready. If you include anything, keep it short: a simple web address, or a direction such as the next exit for a business near the board. I would rather see a board people remember and look up than one that lists every detail and is forgotten.

QR codes deserve a special mention, because owners ask about them often. A code that works on a poster or a table card is useless on a highway board: nobody can or should point a phone at a board while driving. Save the code for places where people are standing still, and let the board do the one job it does well, which is making your name stick.

Designing for a digital rotation

On a digital board, your ad is one slide in a rotation. According to Lamar, ads rotate every 6 to 8 seconds, so your slide has to make complete sense on its own. Never split a message across two slides; most drivers will see only one. The same word limits and contrast rules apply, and bright, simple layouts read best on an LED screen.

Digital does give you options a printed board cannot. You can change the message as often as you want with no production cost, run a different ad at different times of day and use live content such as a countdown. My guide on choosing between a digital and a static billboard explains when that flexibility is worth it.

Making a static board break the frame

A static bulletin offers something a screen cannot: physical extensions. Lamar's bulletin page notes that an ad can extend an extra 5 feet at the top, 2 feet at the side and 1 foot at the bottom, and our designers can add 3D props, moving parts and lighting effects. A product or shape that reaches past the edge of the board catches the eye in a way flat artwork rarely does. Used well, an extension carries the one idea; used just for decoration, it is one more thing competing for the glance.

Many of the same mistakes show up on storefront signs as well; the guide to sign mistakes that cost customers is a good check for the sign on your own building.

Testing the design, and getting it done free

Before you approve a design, test it the way a driver will see it. Shrink it to the size of a postage stamp on your screen and see whether you can still read it. Show it to someone for five seconds, take it away and ask what they remember. Look at it from across the room. If the answer is not your one idea and your name, simplify.

You do not have to do any of this alone. Lamar's Dallas office offers free design services, and our office has its own graphic design staff who build outdoor creative every day. You can bring your logo, an idea or a full design, and you will see a proof before anything goes up. My guide on how a billboard campaign comes together from the first call shows where design fits in the timeline.

Questions people ask me