Which Way Does Your Billboard Face? Sun Glare, Time of Day, and Legibility

What does billboard facing direction really mean?

Billboard facing direction is the compass direction the face points, not the direction traffic travels. An east-facing board points east, so westbound drivers read it. That matters because the sun sits in front of some faces and behind others at different hours, which changes how readable your ad is during your audience's drive time.

Most buyers compare boards on traffic counts, price, and location. Few ask which way the face points. But two faces on the same structure can look completely different at 7:45 on a November morning. One is lit up like a stage. The other is a dark rectangle with the sun right behind it.

Facing direction is not the same as read side. Read side tells you whether the board sits on the driver's right or left. We cover that in our guide to right-hand read vs. left-hand read billboards. This post covers which way the face points and how the sun affects it.

Key takeaways

• A face is read by traffic moving the opposite way it points. East-facing means westbound drivers.



• When the sun is behind a face, drivers look toward the sun to read it. The face goes dark, and the glare gets worse.



• Morning sun favors east-facing faces. Evening sun favors west-facing faces.



• From fall through winter, the low sun stays in the southern sky, which works against north-facing faces most of the day.



• Match the facing to when your audience drives past, then design creative that holds up in glare anyway.

How does the sun change what drivers see?

The sun either lights the face from the front or sits behind it. When it's in front, the face is bright, and colors look true. When it's behind, the face falls into shadow, and the driver looks almost straight into the sun to read it.

That second case causes two problems at once. The face itself gets darker. And the driver's eyes adjust to the bright sky around it, so the face looks even darker by comparison. Fine details, thin type, and colors that are close in brightness blend together.

The sun's position isn't a guess. The NOAA Solar Calculator gives the sun's compass direction (azimuth) and height above the horizon (elevation) for any place and time. We used NOAA's published solar equations to check the times below for Tulsa. Oklahoma City and Kansas City land within a few degrees.

Morning sun favors east-facing faces

In the morning, the sun is in the eastern sky. An east-facing face points toward it, so it's lit from the front. Westbound drivers see it clearly, with the sun behind them.

A west-facing face is the opposite. The morning sun sits behind it. Eastbound drivers heading toward the sunrise have to read the face against the glare.

Evening sun favors west-facing faces

In the evening, it flips. The sun moves to the western sky, so west-facing faces get front light and eastbound drivers read them easily. East-facing faces become backlit, and westbound drivers heading into the sunset get the glare.

That's why the same structure can carry a great morning face and a weak morning face at the same time. Neither is bad. They just win at different hours.

Why fall and winter make it worse

Glare is strongest when the sun is low, and the low-sun hours line up with rush hour for much of the year. On October 23 in Tulsa, the sun is only about 3 degrees above the horizon at 8:00 a.m., sitting east-southeast. By 6:00 p.m., it's about 6 degrees up in the west-southwest.

When clocks fall back in early November, both commutes slide deeper into low sun. At 7:30 a.m. on November 2, the sun is about 7 degrees up. At 5:00 p.m., it's about 4 degrees up. Drivers spend both rush hours with the sun near eye level.

Summer is kinder. On June 21, the sun is already about 20 degrees high by 8:00 a.m., so the glare window passes earlier in the day.

The north-facing problem nobody mentions

Here's the part most buyers miss. In winter, the sun doesn't just rise in the east and set in the west. It rises in the southeast, stays in the southern sky all day, and sets in the southwest. At noon on December 21 in Tulsa, it's due south and only about 30 degrees up.

That means a north-facing face has the sun somewhere behind it from morning to evening. Southbound drivers read it against the bright southern sky. A south-facing face gets front light most of the day. If your campaign runs from November through February, the north-south question can matter as much as east versus west.

Which billboard facing fits your audience's drive time?

Pick the face that gets front light when your audience drives past it. If your best customers see the board on the morning commute, an east-facing face (westbound traffic) usually reads better. If they see it on the drive home, a west-facing face (eastbound traffic) usually reads better.

Start with where your audience is going and when. A few examples of how that plays out:

• Morning inbound traffic. A coffee shop, breakfast spot, or pharmacy wants drivers headed to work. Look for faces where morning light lands on the front.



• Evening drive-home traffic. A restaurant, home services company, or retailer wants people heading home with time to act. Look for faces that are front-lit late in the day.



• All-day traffic. A hospital, law firm, or brand campaign needs steady visibility. Weight the decision toward faces that avoid long backlit stretches in the season you're running.

A simple decision rule

Use this rule when you're choosing between faces: put the sun behind the driver, not behind the board, during the hours your audience matters most. If two faces are close on traffic and price, the one that's front-lit at your key daypart is usually the better buy.

Facing is one factor, not the only one. A backlit face on a much busier road can still outperform a front-lit face on a quiet one. Use facing to break ties and to set creative expectations, not to override traffic and location.

What changes after dark and in low light?

After sunset, the sun stops mattering, and lighting takes over. An illuminated face reads at night in any direction. An unlit face mostly drops out of the picture after dark.

That matters more in winter than buyers expect. When sunset comes before the evening rush, much of the drive home happens in the dark. If your audience drives home after dark, illumination can matter more than the face's direction.

Across Whistler Billboards inventory, most faces are lit. In our Oklahoma inventory, 429 of 506 faces are illuminated. In Kansas City, 87 of 103 are. For details on how static and digital faces are lit, see how billboard lighting works.

Digital faces and dawn and dusk

Digital billboards make their own light, so they hold up better than static faces in dim conditions. But they still face the same sun problem in daylight. A digital face with the sun behind it competes with that glare. Strong sun hitting a screen head-on can also flatten contrast.

Digital also lets you change the message by time of day. If a face is backlit in the morning, you can run your simplest, highest-contrast design in that window. Our guide to dayparting for digital billboards walks you through how to plan for it.

How do you design a billboard that holds up in glare?

Design for the worst hour your board will face. Use high contrast between text and background, keep the message short, and lean on bold shapes that read as silhouettes. If your creative only works in perfect light, it won't work during a low-sun rush hour.

Glare punishes the same things that hurt readability everywhere, just harder. A few rules matter most on a face that will be backlit part of the day:

• Contrast in brightness, not just color. Red on green or blue on purple can look fine on a screen and turn into one muddy tone in glare. Light against dark holds up.



• Fewer words. When the face is dim, drivers need longer to read it. Cut to the one thing they need to remember.



• Bold shapes. A strong logo, product, or shape is still recognizable as a dark silhouette. Thin lines and small details disappear first.



• Big, heavy type. Thin fonts vanish in glare. Use weights that still read when the face is darker than it should be.

We cover the broader design traps in mistakes that ruin billboard readability. Glare just makes every one of them more expensive.

What do billboard operators see that buyers miss?

The most common mistake is judging a board by a midday photo. At noon, the sun is high, and most faces look fine. That photo can hide a glare problem that shows up every morning and evening when your customers actually drive past.

Ask to see the board at the time your audience sees it. If you can, drive it yourself at that hour, in the direction your customers travel. Five minutes in the car tells you more than any proof sheet.

The second miss is assuming facing direction is rare. It isn't. Every network has faces pointing every direction. In the Whistler Billboards Oklahoma inventory, the 506 faces split almost evenly: 129 face north, 129 face south, 125 face west, and 122 face east. So when you compare two or three boards, odds are good that at least one is backlit during part of your key daypart.

Kansas City looks different. Of 103 faces, 80 face north or south and only 23 face east or west, because so much of that network sits along north-south corridors. For Kansas City buyers, the winter north-facing issue deserves extra attention.

Last, remember that glare affects the face, not just your ad. On a digital board, every advertiser in the loop gets the same backlit hours. That doesn't make the face a bad buy. It means your creative needs to be the one that still reads when the light is wrong.

Buyer checklist for evaluating a billboard's facing direction

Run through this list for each face you're comparing. It takes a few minutes and can save you from a board that looks great on paper but fights the sun every rush hour.

• Which way does the face point, and which direction of traffic reads it?



• When does your audience drive past it: morning, midday, evening, or after dark?



• Where is the sun at those hours during the months your campaign runs? Check the NOAA Solar Calculator if you're unsure.



• Is the sun behind the face during your key hours, or behind the driver?



• Is the face illuminated, and does the evening rush happen after sunset in your flight dates?



• If it's digital, can you schedule a simpler design during the backlit window?



• Have you seen the board at your audience's drive time, not just in a midday photo?



• Does your creative pass the glare test: high contrast, few words, bold shapes, heavy type?

If you want to see how faces are oriented across Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Kansas City, ask your Whistler Billboards rep to pull the facing and read direction for each board you're considering. We record both for every face in our inventory.

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean when a billboard faces east?

An east-facing billboard points east, so drivers traveling west read it. The facing direction is the way the face points, not the way traffic moves. Spec sheets usually list both the facing direction and the traffic direction that reads it.

Is an east-facing or west-facing billboard better?

Neither is better on its own. East-facing faces get front light in the morning, and west-facing faces get front light in the evening. The better choice is the face that's front-lit when your audience drives past it.

Does sun glare really make billboards harder to read?

Yes. When the sun is behind a face, the face sits in its own shadow while the driver looks toward a bright sky. The face looks darker, contrast drops, and thin type and fine details disappear first.

Why is glare worse in fall and winter?

The sun stays lower in the sky, and its low hours overlap with rush hour. After clocks fall back in November, both the morning and evening commutes in Tulsa happen with the sun only a few degrees above the horizon.

Do digital billboards have the same sun glare problem?

Mostly, yes. Digital faces make their own light, so they handle dim conditions better than static faces. But a digital face with the sun behind it still competes with glare. Dayparting lets you run a simpler, higher-contrast design during those hours.

How can I check which way a billboard faces?

Ask the billboard company for the facing direction and the traffic direction that reads it. Then compare that with the sun's position at your audience's drive time using the NOAA Solar Calculator, and, if you can, drive past the board at that hour.

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