14th Annual Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival official poster design winner, Tara McMeans, Gulf Shores, AL.

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FOLEY - Tara McMeans, owner of Design Print Promote, is the winner of the 14th Annual Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival poster design contest. The Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival will be held on May 4-5, 2018. McMeans’s colorful artwork will not only be the official poster this year, but you will also find it gracing the back of the official Balloon Fest T-shirts.

McMeans, a native to the Gulf Coast, has been a small business owner for over ten years. She has been involved with the Chamber and particularly the Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival for several years. For the past two years she has designed the official poster and created the detailed event brochures. Her 2018 poster has a unique story. Two years ago, while McMeans was at the festival signing posters, she decided to do a live painting of the balloons, with the balloon “ADO” from Southern Balloon Journey being her main inspiration. McMeans has many talents but will tell you painting is not something that she does often. She finished the painting during the 2017 festival and enhanced it with graphic design before submitting the final artwork to the contest. The South Baldwin Chamber and Balloon Festival Committee are pleased to award McMeans as the 2018 Poster Design winner. They are so proud to have such a creative mind like McMeans to contribute to their organization. They certainly cannot wait to see what else she will come up with.

You can have McMeans sign your official poster at the event this year. Official posters and t-shirts will be available for purchase at the Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival or in advance through the website, gulfcoastballoonfestival.com.