Madison Kahn

In our modern world, brands can be thought of as a perceptual frame through which customers understand, value, and experience products. At their core, brands are a source of visual communication. Billboards specifically have been a key mechanism for promoting visual brand messaging since the Industrial Revolution. Early billboards were used to make quick impressions through subconscious viewing, as they were placed alongside major highways. As they became more and more mainstream, a new kind of billboard emerged that was designed to grab viewing attention through creative messaging and playing with the environment in which it lived. In our current moment, a third kind of billboard exists, which I claim can be thought of as a “Living Billboard.” I define Living Billboards as digital billboards that harness the power of context by using new technologies to transform the physical world to natively weave into people’s lives as they journey through public spaces. My “Living Billboard” combines augmented reality with my artwork to create a new consum- er playground. I believe that experiential billboards are a huge space for brands to explore new methods of visual communication.