UUAP


> Diag Boards

 

> Fall/Winter Hours:

M-Th 10am-11pm
F 10am-6pm
Sun 12pm-11pm

Over 60 advertisement boards are located at various places around campus, from the Diag and the Arch to the Hill Area and North Campus. Due to high demand for Diag boards, The SORC conducts a lottery each semester. Contact SORC staff for more information about the lottery or click here to get on the mailing list.

Reserving Diag Boards

Basic Description and Eligibility

Diag boards are plywood advertisement boards in over 60 different locations on campus. Student organizations and university departments can rent these spaces to advertise for their events; they are not available to unaffiliated businesses or individuals.

Advertisers complete a contract with The SORC for weekly reservation of the spaces. They create their designs on canvas and submit them to SORC staff, and SORC drivers place canvases on the plywood boards.

Availability

Diag boards are effective and inexpensive, so they are very high in demand. The SORC conducts a lottery at the beginning of each semester for Diag board reservation appointment times. The SORC does not assign Diag board locations; rather, each group is assigned an appointment time at random. A representative of your group chooses from the available locations at your appointment time. Earlier appointments have better selection of the "good" spaces.

Appointments are held the week classes start each semester. Appointments are scheduled in the afternoon and evening, so as to minimize the likelihood of conflicting with students' classes. Spots that remain open after appointments are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Click here to see a list of spaces that are currently available (updated weekly on Sunday evenings).

Dates change every semester, but the full details of the lottery are announced via SORC's email list and explained in greater detail on this website in December (for winter lottery) and April (for Fall lottery).

Diag Board Maps

Click below to view maps of the boards' locations.

What Are the Best Spaces?

Effectiveness of locations varies according to each group's needs. For example, if you are advertising for a weekly meeting in the Union, your need would be different than someone advertising for a concert at the MLB. But each location has 1-4 sides. SORC maps are numbered so that side "1" is best, "2" is next best, and so on. This may vary according to your needs too, but it gives you an idea of historical preference.

We have four classifications of Diag boards based on location:

Content Requirements

All basic content requirements established by The SORC apply, most importantly: the name of the student organization or department must be visible on all ads. Letters identifying your organization must be at least 2" tall. Your organization must not violate any content, trademark or name usage policies.

Payment

The SORC holds contracts for 48 hours (this is extended to Thursday after the lottery).

If you have not paid or made alternate arrangements by then, your contract will be canceled and your spaces will be available to other groups. SORC staff will extend the deadline on a case-by-case basis. Just call during regular SORC hours and explain the need for an extension.

Limits

Your organization can reserve as many as 16 spaces at its initial lottery appointment, not to exceed 2 spaces in one week. When all scheduled lottery appointments have passed, you may return to The SORC and reserve more spaces. Be forewarned, though, that selection may be very limited at that point.

How to Make a Diag Board

Materials You Will Need

Diag board canvas is available at The SORC for $2.67 per foot. Free samples of material are available if you would like to purchase the material elsewhere.

You may not use tape, staples, contact paper, laminates, or any other adhesive materials. You must use marker or paint directly on the canvas. Use permanent markers or acrylic latex paint; markers are available at The SORC. Vinyl lettered canvases made by a professional sign company are also acceptable.

Hint: Use markers if your canvas is going to stay up for 3 weeks or less. With prolonged exposure to the sun, markers will fade. Use paint if your board will be up for more than 3 weeks. Painting takes up to 8 times as long.

You may not use oil-based paint or spray paint. A latex brand called Liquitex has a good color selection and dilutes very well. Campus bookstores and major craft stores have a wide selection of colors, but it is important that you choose "opaque" colors rather than "transparent" or "translucent" so that the paint will completely cover the surface. Otherwise, several coats will be necessary and brush marks will show.

Tracing Your Design

The SORC has an overhead projector, which allows you to trace a diag board from a transparency quickly, neatly, and easily. Transparencies for use with the projector can be made at The SORC for only 50¢. Reserve the overhead projector at The SORC for $3.00 per hour.

Margins

A few inches on each side do not show when the sign is in place. Measure carefully and keep all important information (date, location, phone number) away from the edges.

Construction Guidelines

Be certain to use the correct dimensions:

Dimensions of canvas: 52" x 72"

Actual viewing space: 42" x 66"

Submitting Your Canvas

When your canvas is completely dry, fold it in half with the design facing inward, and keep folding (neatly!) until it is about 9" x 15". Fold so that the back upper right corner of the canvas is exposed. In small letters, write your organization's name on the exposed corner. Now it is ready to submit to The SORC.

Deadlines and Placement

Canvases are due at The SORC by 10.45PM on Sunday. If The SORC is closed on Sunday, this deadline is extended to Monday at 12:00 noon. You can submit canvases as late as 5:00PM Thursday, but a $10.00 late fee applies for each item. Here is when you can expect your late canvas to be placed.

If you submit your canvas on... It will be placed...
Monday before 3PM Monday night
Monday after 3PM Thursday night
Anytime Tuesday Thursday night
Anytime Wednesday Thursday night
Before 5PM Thursday Thursday night

 

Canvases submitted after Thursday at 5PM will not go up until the following Monday during the regular Monday route (provided that your organization has the space for an additional week).

Retrieving Your Diag Board Canvas

Once SORC drivers have taken a canvas down, it will be at The SORC for two weeks, during which you may pick it up for free. After two weeks, it becomes property of The SORC and may either be discarded or sold as a used canvas.

Do-it-yourself Graphic Design

You can reserve the Banner Production Area and an overhead projector at The SORC. Transparencies for use with the projector can be made at The SORC for only 50¢. Bulbs and repairs can be very expensive, so The SORC charges $3.00 per hour to help defray these costs. The maximum charge is $15.00 per day.

An 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper with 1.25" side margins and .5" top margins is a good scale for a Diag board. Banners are more complicated, but make the design 10 inches long by 3 inches tall, and you can enlarge the printout on the copier so the projected image will be large enough.

The simpler the design, the better. Complex designs with great detail can be difficult to trace and paint. Furthermore, passers-by generally only take the time to absorb the basics of your banner.  Too many words - it will be ignored.

Material Costs


Prices