Red House Media

Every designer has a goal, maybe even a few hundred of them. I’ve had a few since the time I moved to the Brainerd Lakes area in 1996. Generally speaking, these design goals come naturally from driving around town and seeing places for doing unconventional ad art if you just had just the right opportunity and timing.

The two billboards as you enter Crosby always intrigued me. They were so perfectly in-line left and right, so perfectly matched for each other, but up to this point they always featured different messages promoting different things for different companies. Same old, same old. For the most part past billboards in these two locations also featured non-enlightening messages for visitors and residents as they passed into the city gates. I recall billboards saying “don’t burn your garabage,” “click it or ticket,” “over the limit, under the influence.” Let’s be honest, these messages are good causes and important, but they never really set a good mood as you drove into town.

5 years ago we started working with the Cuyuna Regional Medical Center on the Medical Campus in Crosby. From that point in time I wondered and thought, “how can we use both of these billboards to create not only a welcome to the city, but a brand statement for the hospital.”

Well, it took 5 years to find that solution. When Peter Smith and I worked on a new campaign for the hospital, Pete said to me, “What do you think of this: Crosby Cares.” I knew he once again struck gold. And in that moment we had the two words that allowed us to bridge the billboard gap and create an uplifting message while driving into town. Since launching the billboards we have had countless people who have called and eMailed asking if we were behind it. I’m so grateful we were, it’s so cool.

It’s fun to live in the same community you work in. Everywhere we travel we have the ability to see our design not only promoting our client brands, but also collectively increasing the awareness of effective advertising art in our communities. And that my friends is why I do, what I do.

Until next time, let’s all be sure to exercise our creative license.

Happy weekend.
Aaron

(PS) If you see a spiky hair guy under these billboards applauding his own efforts, that’s me. I still get a kick out of it and a super wide grin every time I drive through the boards. Not sure why, I just love this stuff. I guess the judges at the AdFed competition didn’t mind it either as it won a Silver Addy Award. As the design now goes on to Region competition we silently hope for even more. (Well I guess that wasn’t real silent.)

About the Author Aaron Hautala As creative director of RHM, Aaron believes the impossible isn't. The next time you see him, ask Aaron about Helsinki and swimming in the Baltic Sea after an extremely hot sauna. It’s a good story!