Taking a drive down an unfamiliar road, or simply driving to and from work has become nowadays more pleasurable and less stressful. What with
multitude of billboards plastered all over city and suburbs, they have become a wonderful centerpiece with backdrop of heaven and earth.Have you ever imagined what life would be like without these big, larger than life posters and signage to aesthetically improve our place? Are you not amazed at how great quality and colors are? Are you not struck with brilliance and true-to-life depiction of images in each of these billboards?
When billboards were first posted, they not only expressed artistic creativity, they also were medium of information and reminders for people of current events and new products. The people then were not yet attuned on billboards being very powerful tools in helping others in ways that they have never imagined before. Fortunately today, we have learned of its uses and are utilizing them in several ways.
Billboards are cheapest and it reaches more people than any other form of advertising. Thus, many small businesses, and even some of big corporations for that matter, utilize this form of media because television and radio commercials are more expensive and costly.
One state in fact used billboards to improve visual quality of their community, and also serve as tools to reduce alcohol consumption by minors. Still another state made several billboards to try to convince people to stop smoking, to prevent spread of AIDS, and to offer pregnancy support.
However, despite its practical uses, billboards first and foremost are works of art in modern sense. Its production process, from conceptualization to posting, is definitely a designer's and artist's imaginations put to life.
When designers are put to work to create these magnificent billboards, they do not see their assignment as something corporate or practical. I mean, sure, they see also numbers in every assignment. But let's face it. Within each of these designer and artist, billboards are their next work of art. With every billboard assignment, they see themselves as modern Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh.
According to one review, Van Gogh's most searching artistic analysis was of himself. This is shown in his famous self portraits. However, Van Gogh was also very appreciative of profuse of colors found in nature. In fact, one of his very famous paintings was Irises. Similar to his self portraits, Van Gogh's Irises are carefully studied with same sincerity and precision. The elements of colors- like greens, red, yellow, orange and white, and different ranges of blues- all made painting look luxuriant and produce a gay colorfulness and richness.
