Julian Norton, left, and Lamar Advertising V.P. Matthew Duddy.

Oct. 10, 2008 - If you're driving along Troy-Schenectady Road during October and are reminded of your civic duty to vote, you can thank Shaker High School graduate Julian Norton.

Norton designed the advertisement currently displayed on a billboard across the road from Kmart. The billboard includes the iconic picture of U.S. Marines planting the American flag on the island of Iwo Jima at the end of World War II, and that photo fades into a picture of the Stars and Stripes. The word "Vote" is written across the middle of the billboard, and at the bottom is written, "They did their part. Now do yours."

The advertisement above was designed by Shaker grad Julian Norton and is displayed on a billboard along Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham.

Norton, who graduated in June, is now an advertising and design major at SUNY Purchase. He designed the advertisement last spring as part of a competition in Advanced Digital Art class, taught by John Doolittle. Students were asked to design a message that would encourage people to vote in November.

Doolittle said he got the idea for the billboard competition when he heard that Lamar Advertising of Albany conducted a similar competition with another school district. Lamar owns the billboard on which Norton's design is displayed. Doolittle spoke to Matthew Duddy, Lamar's vice president and general manager, who agreed to work with the students and to post the winning design on the billboard.

Duddy visited the class to explain what Lamar does and he gave students an Adobe CS2 template to work with. He later visited the class to announce the winner and to explain how Lamar employees choose the winner.

This was the first time the high school has worked with Lamar, but plans are in the works to do so again in the future, Doolittle said.