A board for a live aviation channel, built to OUTFRONT's print spec. I redrew a low-res title as vector, rebuilt an RGB blue so it printed royal instead of purple, and sent a package that went straight to the printer.
The finished board, installed. The client supplied every element; I laid them out and built the press file.
A billboard gets about three seconds of a driver's attention, and any flaw in the file is magnified 48 feet wide.
Airline Videos Live runs a live YouTube channel filming aircraft on approach into LAX. The host had booked a 14×48-foot bulletin with OUTFRONT and brought the pieces: headline, his photo, the YouTube mark, a QR code and the channel logo. He needed the layout finished and a file the printer could run.
The brief: fill the board. No wasted blue, everything legible from the road.
I built two layouts on OUTFRONT's Los Angeles template so the client could compare real options. The headline takes the left half at a size that reads from a moving car, the host anchors the center, and the logo closes the right edge so the eye moves left to right once.
Every proof carried the printer's guides: an orange cut line with corner trim marks and a blue dotted safety line inside it. When the client asked if his hat would be cut off, I moved the photo down so the hat sat at the safety line.
The Watch These Planes title existed only as a raster image. It fell short of the printer's resolution requirement at billboard scale, and there was no source text or font file.
I redrew every letterform and swoosh by hand as vector paths, with no auto-trace. The client also got the vector as a standalone file, so his next banner or shirt starts from a real logo.
Why redraw instead of upscale: an upscaled raster looks fine on a monitor and soft on a 48-foot face. With vector, the printer's RIP renders the edges at the press's resolution.
The client's brand blue was a bright screen RGB (#0032B2). Converted to CMYK, it picked up too much magenta and read purple on the proof. The client caught it right away.
I rebuilt it as a royal blue in CMYK with the magenta pulled back. Before he saw it, I told him the corrected blue would look a little duller on screen, because monitors show blues that ink can't reproduce.
OUTFRONT's proof came back with one ask: make the host larger. I scaled the photo, checked its resolution at the new size, set the hat at the safety line, and posted an updated package to the printer's shared folder about half an hour later.
The board went up under the landing approach into LAX. Planes land right over it, so the headline gets demonstrated every few minutes.
The printer approved the files and the board went up in Los Angeles. The client extended the placement through the end of the year.
– Kevin Ray, Airline Videos Live
I lay out billboards, banners and signs and build the press files to the printer's spec.
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