Visual clutter caused by the outdoor advertising in the sub-urban areas of Sri Lanka

Abstract

With the Expansion of digital technology and low cost printing methods, outdoor advertising in the sub-urban areas of Sri Lanka was greatly propagated throughout the last decade and has become a major cause of the visual clutter. In the Sri Lankan context the visual clutter as a whole is not the only factor that causes an eyesore. The fact that they are designed poorly; with excessive and inappropriate use of colours, typefaces and other visual elements, violating the concepts of visual aesthetics, remains a distinctively negative characteristic of the outdoor advertising in the sub-urban areas. In this study, a questionnaire was designed with the concern of obtaining data about the knowledge of graphic design, theories, technical skills & practical application, inspirations, communicative skills, etc., to understand the potential of the people who are responsible for creating these visuals and their processes. Approximately about fifty questionnaires were collected from young people who are working as graphic designers in small-scale advertising companies, in the areas of Gampaha, Minuwangoda, Divulapitiya, and Kelaniya. The results suggests that the poor quality of the visuals in question is affected not only by the lack of proper conceptualizing and extremely limited time spent on the creative process but also by the lack of proper knowledge and skills in graphic design of the people who have worked on such outdoor advertising, thus aggravating the visual clutter.