Richardson redefines outdoor advertising

After enduring nearly three decades of fortifications, barricades and restrictions, the conclusion of the war in May of 2009 has seen the City of Colombo blossom like never before. From a city under siege, to a city enjoying new-found freedoms, the progression from “eye-sore” to “eye-pleasing” has been nothing short of dramatic.

While the entire beautification process of a large city requires meticulous planning and action on many fronts, a key element in any internationally-reputed city is the prevalence of street furniture of world-class standards.

World-class street signs, billboards, bus shelters, gantries, cantilevers revolve around visually eye-catching designs that are legible and uniform in design, dimensions and positioning. Collectively, high-quality, aesthetic street furniture serve to convey the impression of an environment that is organised, orderly, reliable and safe. Its importance therefore is paramount in defining the big picture of a developed city.

For Sri Lankans, and those residing in and around Colombo in particular, one of the early indications of Colombo’s changing face was the appearance of a quality of street furniture that one was only accustomed to seeing in movies or on visits overseas. Today, however, all main roads, side roads and lanes throughout the city and surrounding suburbs are dotted with the distinctive ‘white lettering on blue background’ street signs, which appear in all three official languages of Sri Lanka – Sinhala, Tamil and English.

Further Colombo today has been beautified with artistic and creative bus shelters where prominent brands are displayed; also the poster panels have been redefined into billboards where the top panel displays distinct brands. The precision in street furniture is further enhanced with diamond graded stickers on gantries and cantilevers all around Colombo.

Behind this undertaking is Richardson Outdoor (Pvt) Ltd., which was incorporated in the year 2003 as an outdoor advertising company in Sri Lanka. Over the last few years the company has grown phenomenally and diversified into many outdoor advertising mediums such as billboards, bus shelters, hoardings, gantries, street name boards and other specialty advertising.