Designers often create and review billboard artwork in ideal, even what could be considered perfect, conditions. On a computer screen, everything is stationary, centered, brightly lit, and viewed from the perfect angle. Unfortunately, real-world audiences don’t experience billboards that way. Drivers are moving, lighting changes, and surroundings compete for attention. A design that looks flawless in a static layout can perform very differently once it’s installed. 3D simulation, like Drive Your Art®’s billboard generator, helps reveal problems before they become expensive mistakes.
Why Real-World Billboard Viewing Is Different
Billboards are experienced, not examined. And they are experienced quickly. Most viewers spend only a few seconds looking at a billboard. In fact, the viewing window for outdoor advertising is just 3-7 seconds. That’s all you have to get their attention, get your message across, and make that message stick in their mind.
Audiences rarely see the sign head-on, and weather, shadows, nearby structures, and traffic conditions all influence visibility. Human attention is divided while driving. Because of these conditions, certain design flaws become much more obvious in the real world.
Design Problems That Static Mockups Often Hide
Static mockups are fine for ads that will be seen in a more still environment, such as online or in print. For outdoor advertising, static mockups often hide a variety of design problems. These problems can be costly, as they are expensive to fix and may result in lost business because the intended audience is unable to view the ad the way it was intended.
Text That’s Too Small or Too Dense
Text on a billboard may be one of the most problematic areas. Designers can zoom in on artwork and text. Drivers cannot. Long headlines and excessive copy may appear readable on the screen but become impossible to process at speed. A 3D mockup can simulate actual viewing distances and quickly expose readability issues.
Weak Contrast Against the Environment
A white artboard can make colors look vibrant and make artwork stand out. In real surroundings, those same colors may blend in and become nearly invisible. Green messaging against tree-lined roads, blue designs against the sky, and dark designs in shadowed environments can all turn what seemed like a beautiful ad into an expensive mistake. With a 3D mockup, designers can seen how the colors they’ve chosen interact with actual surroundings and make changes before it’s too late.
Ignoring Viewing Angles
Generally, when a designer shows the mockup to the client, the client has a straight-on view, which presents the artwork at its best. However, many billboards are approached from an angle, and if the layout is dependent on the straight-on view the client had in the office, it may not perform well. Important information placed in difficult-to-see locations could lose its impact. Viewing the design from realistic approach angles in a 3D mockup rather than a perfectly centered screenshot can help catch these issues so they can be corrected before they are hanging 50 feet off the ground.
Poor Visual Hierarchy
Drivers and passengers are often passing billboards at speeds of 55 miles per hour or more. Even at slower speeds, a billboard can pass out of sight in a matter of seconds. Too many competing elements, no clear focal point, and logos, headlines, and calls-to-action can all be competing for attention and cause the viewer to not know what to focus on. Movement makes hierarchy problems more obvious because viewers naturally focus on only one or two elements. By using a 3D mockup, designers can determine which elements naturally draw their focus, which ones are ignored or missed, and rearrange information accordingly to ensure the most benefit from the billboard.
Overlooking Speed and Dwell Time
A driver traveling 65 mph and focusing on their driving processes information differently than someone studying a PDF at their desk. Complex messaging on billboards often fails because it requires more time than viewers have. By using a 3D mockup to simulate the drive-through experience, designers can reveal whether the message can be understood quickly or whether it needs to be revamped.
Why 3D Simulation Reveals Problems Faster
3D simulation reveals problems faster for several reasons, including:
- Realistic viewing distances: You can see exactly what your message looks like at the same distance the intended audience will, so you’ll also see the problems with the message.
- Realistic approach angles: You can see the billboard from every realistic approach angle, which can be particularly beneficial for billboards on corners, entrance or exit ramps, and other locations where your audience may see the billboard from several different angles. A billboard that only performs well from one angle when there are two or more is not going to provide the return your client hopes for.
- Environmental context: Certain colors, text fonts, and other aspects of the design will blend in with certain environments, and a 3D mockup allows you to see this while it’s still on a screen and can be changed.
- Motion-based viewing: You can set the same speed that traffic will be moving and see what the billboard looks like in motion, and that will highlight what doesn’t get noticed by moving viewers.
- Different lighting conditions: From day to night, sunny weather to storms, or even snow, you can see how the weather and lighting impact the design.
3D simulations don’t replace design expertise. They simply provide a more accurate testing environment. Think of it like test-driving a vehicle before manufacturing thousands of units.
The Cost of Discovering These Problems Too Late
When the mistake is discovered while it’s still on the designer’s device, it’s a quick and easy fix. Mistakes become expensive after installation. Once it’s hanging on a billboard 50 feet in the air, both traditional and digital billboards will cost the client a significant amount of money.
Any billboard with mistakes will incur at least some of these expenses:
- Production costs: The client will have both the cost of the initial incorrect design and the cost of printing the new, correct design.
- Installation costs: A traditional billboard will require a crew to install it, resulting in doubled labor costs. Even a digital billboard will incur a cost to change, even though it will likely be less expensive than the traditional billboard.
- Lost media spend: The mistake means that the billboard will not yield the desired results, which means that every impression from the moment it is installed to the moment it is corrected is wasted. In extremely busy locations, this can add up to an enormous amount of wasted ad spend.
- Missed campaign objectives: Every ad campaign has at least one objective, and mistakes can mean missing those objectives. In some cases, such as a one-day only sale or a campaign with a short run-time, the mistake can’t be corrected in time and the entire campaign can end up being a loss for the client.
- Revisions that could have been avoided during design review: As a designer, you’ll likely charge your client for revisions, unless the mistake is an error on your part such as an incorrect phone number or misspelled word. This increases the client’s cost and also causes frustration for them. This frustration could lead them to seek out another designer for future projects.
Catching these issues before launch is significantly easier and less expensive.
How Drive Your Art® Helps Designers See Beyond the Static Mockup
Drive Your Art® allows designers to see beyond the static mockup so you can present the top-tier designs you’re known for. In addition to using our software yourself before presenting the design to your client, you can also use our software as part of the presentation to your client. Consider how the following would take your presentation up a notch:
- Place artwork in realistic billboard environments: Allows designers and their clients to see the design in realistic environments so they can see what the audience will see.
- View designs from multiple angles: See the design from various angles, so you can create a design that works from all angles instead of just one.
- Simulate real-world viewing experiences: Set a speed, weather condition, time of day, or other parameters and see exactly what a driver would see, so you know how the billboard will perform in any viewing experience.
- Share mockups with clients and stakeholders: Designers can share their mockups with clients and stakeholders to get more detailed feedback or quicker approval because they can see exactly how the design will look in the real world.
- Compare creative versions using A/B testing: Got two versions and you’re not sure which one to use? Use our A/B testing function to compare them and see how they both look so you or your client can decide which one is best.
- Generate screenshots and videos for presentation and approval: You can generate screenshots and videos and include them in a presentation or send them as links to your client for review and approval.
Drive Your Art® is a design validation tool, rather than simply a visualization tool. You do the creating, and we help you bring it to life.
Design for Reality, Not Just the Artboard
Great billboard design isn’t just about how it looks on a screen. It’s also about how it performs in the real world. 3D simulations helps uncover issues that static reviews often miss. The earlier these problems are identified, the easier they are to fix.
Want to see how your billboard designs perform before they go live? Schedule a call with the Drive Your Art® team and discover how realistic 3D simulations can help you catch costly design issues before they reach the field.
