Teen Gets His Two Billboards Moment

Gavin McConnell, a graduating Ridgeview High School senior, receives a prize for his winning ODOT billboard design from John Hickey, director of Asphalt Pavement Association of Oregon, which co-sponsored the contest. Credit: Ridgeview High School

“Their job is risky. Don’t make it deadly.”

It’s a straightforward concept. The language is concise. Combined with clear illustration, the message packs a punch.

And now it’s one of ODOT’s newest billboards — one that might save road workers’ lives.

The billboard is the work of Gavin McConnell, a recent graduate of Ridgeview High School in Redmond. His design is also the Spring 2025 winner of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Work Zone Safety Billboard Design Contest, geared toward making roadwork zones safer for workers.

McConnell’s work will not only appear on two billboards the entire month of July, but he received a $250 prize, which the incoming freshman at the University of Oregon will sock away for a rainy day, he said.

McConnell’s billboard will greet drivers at two locations — on Hwy 97 at O.B. Riley Road in Bend and along Interstate 5 in Douglas County.

“It’s really cool. I’ve never had my stuff on anything,” McConnell told the Source.

McConnell, 18, has been keen on creating things for as long as he can remember. As a kid, he began making comics — about 60 of them during elementary and middle school, he estimates. In high school, he paired his creative output with the digital animation skills he began developing in a graphic design class, taught by Ridgeview teacher DJ Halloway. There, McConnell got his hands dirty with Adobe Illustrator, one of the design industry’s requisite software programs. He also got a chance to experiment with new design hardware, such as digital tablet computers.

“Digital art and graphic design are so cool,” said McConnell, who will study art and technology at UO. “I like the idea of doing art in an industry, rather than just for self-creation.”

Halloway had just finished teaching Adobe software to his design class when he tasked them with creating entries for ODOT’s billboard contest.

In his design conceptualization, McConnell began with a black background. That meant he would need text in contrasting white. He figured out the copy during an at-home writing session with his younger brother Levi McConnell. To emphasize the lethal implications of careless driving, McConnell colored the word “deadly” in red. He made a polygon profile of a hardhat-wearing road worker to humanize the message.

“Billboards are very good reminders,” McConnell said.

It’s this pragmatic approach that McConnell wants to apply to future graphic design projects, such as advertisements and commercials. He finds format constraints artistically liberating.

“With a lot of graphic design, you can’t paint people perfectly. It’s about using certain elements to capture the idea,” McConnell said. “I could use a couple basic shapes to make a turtle. Graphic design is more much free in its possibilities.”

John Hickey, the executive director at Asphalt Pavement Association of Oregon, which co-sponsored the billboard design contest with ODOT, said in a release that the competition leverages high school students’ creativity at a time when they are also becoming new drivers.

“What could be better than having creative high school students work for a real-life client on a real-life issue that has serious, and sometimes deadly, consequences?” Hickey said. “The kids get exposure to an issue on which we adults struggle to make a difference, and they learn about the dangers of speeding and distracted driving.”

Asked what advice McConnell might give a younger person interested in graphic design, he said resist the urge to compare your work to others.

“I would always look at other people and be like, ‘Man, I’m so far behind,’ McConnell said. “But the reality is, if you enjoy something enough, and you keep pushing to find opportunities, you’ll get better at your own level. Comparison is the thief of joy.”