Billboards Are My New Media

The pandemic and politics of this year has both stifled and stretched my creativity in 2020, but several weeks into 2021 I am feeling more artistically fluent than I have in a year. Most of my work in the last year has been centered around protest signs and writing, and that isn’t changing. This year my work is still very much about sending messages and involves words more than classical rendering. I am interested in seeing where this goes, and I want to share my most large scale work to date, a billboard!

I am a member of a local activism group MAARCH for Justice (Madison Area Anti Racism Community Hub), and they chose my design as a response to the Trump Parade that happened in our community in November. (See my blog post “F*ck Your Feelings” for more info about that event.) There has been a big movement in our community centered around “Kindness.” It is a well intended movement and artists in our community have made “Just Be Kind” signs that can be seen all around the community. The challenge is that our community doesn’t seem to be getting kinder, and it seems more divided than ever. When I drive around seeing the signs, they seem to be there to combat “meanness” which is an approach that doesn’t lend itself to constructive action. It reminds me of when I traveled internationally a few years ago and landed in an airport that had signs posted everywhere to “Stop Corruption.” I was on guard for corruption for my entire stay, and I absolutely found corruption while I was there. When we post signs to “Just Be Kind” are people actually being more kind from that instruction, or is the bigger message to be on guard for “meanness” in our community? I also think of my southern heritage where so often kindness can be warped into manipulative and passive aggressive acts, so I know that kindness isn’t necessarily the answer to everything…bless its heart. I thought about how I could develop the idea of kindness as a goal and not a demand as I developed my billboard design. I also thought about the idea of kindness meaning different things to different people, and that opening conversation about that could open a path for understanding.

One of the “Just Be Kind” signs present in Madison, Indiana. Artist unknown.

I decided that my design would center around things that I view as kindness to hopefully open up conversations about the word. I think treating people as people, not problems is kindness. I think that helping people who feel like they don’t belong understand that they are a valued part of our community is kindness. Welcoming immigrants, supporting the LGBTQ+ community, acknowledging that black lives matter, and recognizing that this community is for everyone is what kindness is all about for me. Kindness is also calling out your community when they aren’t being kind. 

The billboard was installed in December thanks to some generous MAARCH for Justice members that funded the printing and first month of the sign’s display cost. It is located in Hanover, Indiana on US HWY 56/62 next to the Dutch Discount Market. The design was focused on readability, so it is simple. The varied fonts are to help each sentence stand out as individual statements. The varied colors are to move the eye around and to play into the theme of diversity. The varied shades of grey in the background are to separate the “This is kindness” statement from the other statements, and at the same time it makes the composition reference a not so subtle equal sign. I do not intend to profit from this project. If someone likes this sign and wants to see it in their community, just go to my contact page and send me an email so that I can share the file.

If you are interested in contributing to keep the “This is kindness” billboard up in Hanover, here is how to donate.

Send a check and make it payable to:

Heitz Sign Company

905 Industrial Drive

Madison, IN 47250

Ask payment to go to “MAARCH for Justice” account.