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.
