[Image: Los Angeles Basin & Artwork: designslinger]

There has been a lot of discussion in the last couple of year about the infiltration of billboards
in Los Angeles. Some city council members have actually proposed designating certain streets in their districts as billboard corridors. A headline from the L.A. Times stated, "Anti-billboard activists are alarmed by a plan to allow signs along a 17-block are, saying the city should first crack down on illegal ones." Activists have not only been fighting the proliferation of billboards in the city, but fighting against the close ties between the billboard companies who contribute substantial amounts of money to elected official's campaigns.

Billboards are clamoring for the attention of all who walk or drive past them. I guess the theory
is that the more there are of them, the more likely to catch the pedestrian or driver's eye. But, honestly they are a blight on the visual landscape. There is an urban design concept however, that makes the argument that signage in controlled environments can actually enhance the urban experience. Times Square is such an example.

[Image: Times Square, NY, & Artwork: designslinger]

The first electrified advertisement appeared in Times Square in April 1914. In the restrictive
urban planning policy of the "new" Times Square, a new building's facade is designed to be covered in as large a sign as possible. If you have been to New York recently, it seems that the marketing campaign has paid of handsomely. Wander into the Square at 11:00 at night and there are thousands of people taking just as many photographs, or sitting on the island between 45th, 7th and Broadway just soaking it all in. It is quite a spectacle.

Back here in L.A., the city planners have been trying to apply the same design concept in
Hollywood. As redevelopment continues along the Boulevard, the city encourage developers to include hyper-signage in their plans. The preservation organization, Hollywood Heritage, along with the Los Angeles Conservancy and home owners associations, have fought tooth and nail to keep Hollywood from becoming the west coast visual equivalent to Times Square. They win some battles and lose some.

[Image: Shanghai, waynemethod via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]

Recently, the Chinese government stopped the building of new billboards in Shanghai along
with ongoing billboard construction. This was an attempt to clean things up in time for the Summer Olympics. The city started to dismantle downtown billboards and banned advertisements from being posted on pillars along elevated roads across the city. I guess the Chinese haven't embraced the "big signage is good" theory, yet. There's nothing like a totalitarian system to rid the countryside of billboard blight.

[Image: Osborne Bull, Andalucia, Spain & Artwork: designslinger]

Speaking of countryside. When we visited southern Spain a few years ago, we saw very
unique billboards - giant cut-outs of bulls. They are four-stories tall, made of sheets of iron, painted black and dot the Andalucian countryside. They were originally constructed to plug a brandy made by a local winery called Osbourne and have become national icons. Not all large format advertising is a bad thing.

And, there's the rub. Billboard ad art can be creative, exciting, and boundary pushing,
unfortunately most of it is none of those things. And, with the advent of the LCD billboard, screen designers could have a field day designing dynamic imagery that moves beyond the mundane. But, will clients give designers those opportunities? And, why do there have to be so many of them? Driving between L.A. and Phoenix, the freeway was littered with billboards, it seemed at times there were more of them than cactus. Why not use the latest technology, along with a thoughtful and sensitive distribution of sign boards, and really have an impact in planning our visual urban landscape?