billboards

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Design

Teeth-Baring Dracula Reveals Himself on Sinister Billboard Only When the Sun Sets

In a newly released advertisement for BBC One’s remaking of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the iconic vampire stays true to his vile nature and appears only at nightfall. During the day, the sinister promotion depicts blood dripping from stakes driven into the billboard, an allusion to theories about killing vampires. When the sun sets, a haunting shadow appears resembling Dracula with his mouth open and teeth bared, seemingly ready to prey on his next victim. To add to the darkly themed advertisement, creators have included a glass case complete with daggers below the billboard that reads, “in case of vampires, break glass.”

Dracula was created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, who also worked on the classics Sherlock and Doctor Who. Chris Hooper, who is in charge of marketing at BBC One, noted in an interview with The Drum, that the advertising campaign wanted to revitalize the portrayal of the classic character. “Each element has been designed to surprise⁠—from the cheeky campaign line, ‘Bloody Legend’, to the use of Lust For Life on the trailers, and this special build, which takes a playful, tongue-in-cheek approach to the legend,” he said. If you’re in either Birmingham and London where the billboards are located, you might even encounter the creepy vampire in person. This play on shadows is also in a similar vein as artists Kumi Yamashita and Tim Noble and Sue Webster. (via My Modern Met)

Art

Billboards That Advertise the Surrounding California Landscape by Jennifer Bolande

All photos by Lance Gerber / courtesy of the artist and Desert X

Jennifer Bolande‘s work Visible Distance / Second Sight, is not one that you stop your car at and observe, in fact, its not one that even requires slowing to admire. The several billboard installation stretches alongside the Gene Autry Trail and Vista Chino in California, bordering the roads with scenic images of the same mountains that peak out behind each piece. In some instances the images match perfectly with the surrounding range, creating an alignment of fabricated reality while one zooms past the display.

Similar to artist Brian Kane‘s billboard displays of forests and galaxies in Massachusetts in the summer of 2015, Bolande’s work calls attention to nature in a ceaseless vacuum of pushy advertising. By placing images of the environment beside the roadway Bolande hopes to point passersby back to the landscape itself.

The piece is part of the exhibition Desert X which also features Doug Aitken’s mirror-covered house. The exhibition runs through April 30, 2017, and you can see a full schedule of tours and events on their website. (via Designboom)

Art

Artist Buys Billboard Advertising Time to Display Art Instead of Ads on Massachusetts Highways

All images @Brian Kane, photography by Nate Wieselquist and Simone Schiess

Created as a set of billboards along two Massachusetts highways, “Healing Tool” is a temporary public art installation by artist Brian Kane produced to temporarily relieve stress and promote introspection during one’s monotonous daily commute.

Kane’s digital billboards circulate between pictures of surrounding natural environments, creating “unvertisements” that promote nothing instead of shoving products, restaurants, and services in consumers’ faces from above. The piece builds upon a body of work Kane has been producing that places digital experiences into real world situations. “Healing Tool” is named after the Photoshop tool used to patch over errors in photographs, just as his project is patching over unnatural blips of landscape (billboards) seen from the highway.

The pieces change depending on the time of day. Daylight hours feature natural images of areas surrounding the billboards, while evening hours display high-resolution images of the moon and Milky Way that allow viewers a clear glimpse of the cosmos despite urban light pollution.

Kane explains, “By removing the marketing message from the advertising space, we create an unexpected moment of introspection. People are allowed to interpret an image based on their own experience, and not necessarily with the singular focus of the advertiser’s intent.” (via The Creator’s Project and Junkculture)