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Meet the man behind the 'Laissez Le Bron Temps Rouler' billboards

"I was like, if you've ever been here, you'd get it," he says.
An image of a billboard, originally designed by Covington graphic artist Robb Harskamp for ESPN, included in a series of NBA city pitches to recruit LeBron James to sign there (image provided).

“Let the Bron Times Roll."

Robb Harskamp sat down with the New Orleans Advocate’s Jeff Nowak to talk about how he came up with the idea for the “Laissez Le Bron Temps Rouler “ billboard.

The image was originally created for an ESPN project that was published on June 13. Harskamp said ESPN worked with designers from 30 NBA cities to design billboards to lure LeBron to their hometown teams.

After ESPN’s project was published, Harskamp was contacted by Outfront Media for an opportunity to use his work on billboards in the New Orleans area. Outfront obtained the rights to user his work, made some minor tweaks for a digital billboard and soon Harskamp’s image was lighting up nine locations.

Three billboards are in New Orleans, two are in Gretna, two in Slidell and another two in Metairie.

Harskamp said he created the image in two weeks for ESPN, but he had some other backup plans. He said ESPN initially suggested “LeBron and LeBrow,” a reference to New Orleans Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

“I was like, if you’ve ever been here, you’d get it,” Harskamp said.

Other concepts included “Throw Me Some Rings, Mister” with LeBron tossing throws from a Mardi Gras parade float. Another idea was LeBron enveloped in a cloud of beignet dust.

Harskamp and his wife Claudine have operated Harsky Design Studio since 2012. For the past three years, their company has been based in Covington.

“It was a blast to work on something like this,” Harskamp said. “I’m so happy that It’s getting some traction.”

Read more on the New Orleans Advocate’s website.

The New Orleans Advocate's Jeff Nowak contributed to this report.

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