Sign of the Times – Development of outdoor advertising

Signs are an important part of our everyday lives. You may not think about them, or even notice them, but think of how difficult life would be without road signs, information signs and advertisements.

But signs have not always been part of our society. Even the generic road signs that are found in many countries are only fifty years old. And the whole history of modern signs owes much of its history to the printing press and the increase in literacy during the nineteenth century.

Outdoor signs exploded on to our streets during this period with merchants and retailers vying to attract customers to their shops and stores.
Saturation spurs innovation.

As signs became part of the fabric of the high street, it wasn’t long before they were literally everywhere. The problem with this is that the saturation makes getting noticed next to impossible as people become blind to the signs.

As advertisers attempted to get noticed, innovation became the key to making their signs stand out amongst the crowds. First, sign makers experimented with bulbs – the light making it far more noticeable (especially at night) and then neon was developed.
Neon created a new type of advertising and soon spread across the globe but the development of outdoor advertising didn’t stop there.

Outdoor digital signage

The latest in this long line of innovation is digital signage. Digital signage is the use of flatscreen devices like LCD or plasma TVs used for advertising. Outdoor digital signage is when these devices are taken outside.

Commonly they are housed in waterproof and protective digital signage or LCD enclosures which protect the devices against the rigours of outdoor environments and also act as anti-vandal/theft protection.

Outdoor digital signage is just the latest in a long line of innovations that is helping advertisers to stay ahead of the crowd and ensure their messages are getting noticed.