Turning a Great Idea Into Great Outdoor           

 At Sun Outdoor Advertising, we offer the services of our Graphics Department free of charge with the purchase of any outdoor campaign. If you, however, decide you would like to design your billboard yourself, here are some basic tips which will help you design Great Outdoor.

Keep it Simple: A person only has about 7 seconds to read your message, so the fewer words the better. We recommend no more than 5 to 7 words.

Make it Powerful: Use a dramatic graphic - something to catch the viewer’s attention and draw them in to read your message.

Get Noticed: Use bright colors that stand out from the grey sky and the billboard's surroundings. The colors should also have high contrast for easy readability.

 Keep in Mind Production & Cost Considerations

Bulletins: We computer generate all of our bulletins on vinyl. The cost stays the same no matter what. A basic black & white design will cost the same as an eye-catching graphic with a rainbow of colors or a powerful photograph. So go for it! Let your creativity go wild!

Creating Your Own Ad?    return to top

Here are some basic guidelines and templates for you to download.  If you have any questions please feel free to email or call our Graphic Artist at (253) 312-8690.

If you choose not to use a template from SUN OUTDOOR, designs should be created in proportion to final billboard size.       

          Suggested scale for all vinyl production  is:   1/2"=1'

If you are including photographs in your design, the photos should be 300dpi at 1/2"=1' scale.

All logos and graphics should be in vector based format whenever possible. The .jpg from your website will not work.

For the most accurate color-reproduction, please include all PMS color callouts for each element of your design.

If possible, convert all text to paths to eliminate any font matching errors. Include the font files anyway, just in case we need to make changes.

What Program Do I Use to Submit My Art?   return to top

The programs and formats listed below will enable SUN OUTDOOR's in house artist to open your digital file and make sure all the components of your artwork are ready for production.  By using these preferred file formats SUN OUTDOOR will also be able to make minor corrections or changes if necessary in order to eliminate possible production delays.

Corel Draw up to ver 11

Adobe Illustrator up to ver. CS

Adobe Photoshop (please keep file in layers to allow for possible changes or save as a CMYK tiff file)

submitted via:    return to top

Disk – include a print-out of your artwork in color or with color call-outs

e-mail (if the file is less than 5 MB): Arbos@harbornet.com

FTP Upload – please contact our Graphic Designer when artwork is ready to have an upload link sent to you.

If you are a design professional, SUN OUTDOOR can also produce your outdoor design from Quark Xpress, other popular graphics programs or newer versions of the above programs,  Unfortunately, SUN OUTDOOR cannot currently access these files and will not be able to proof your job for problems before sending it to production. PLEASE INCLUDE A COLOR PRINT or a PDF or JPG file, if submitting electronically.

Sun Outdoor is designing my Billboard, but They will need my Logo.    return to top

Do not send the .jpg from your website, the resolution is too low. The logo on your business card, won't work either.

We prefer a digital vector file. This is a file created in a program such as Corel Draw(.cdr)  or Adobe Illustrator(.ai). I can take it in either one of those programs or as an .eps file. Most graphics programs can export your file into one of these options, if you don't have these programs.

Bitmap files such as .jpg or .tif will work, but are not the preferred option, as in most cases I need to redraw them.  If you do submit a bitmap file, please make sure it is at least 300 dpi.

Camera ready art is also acceptable, but again, not preferred. Camera ready art is printed in black on white paper, the logo on your business card or brochure usually isn't clean enough to scan well.

Please provide your logo on disk or via e-mail.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Sun Outdoor's Graphic Designer, Rachel Arbogast at (253) 312-8690 or via e-mail at Arbos@harbornet.com

ARTWORK TEMPLATES    return to top

Use these handy templates when you create your artwork!  If the size you need is not below, please email us and we will send you what you need!