National Balloon Classic
Festival Poster + Ticket
Poster Design • Illustration • Typography
Target Audience: Festival attendees, families, and tourists
Goal: To design a vibrant and cohesive visual system that not only promotes the event but also serves as a lasting memento, allowing attendees to carry the experience with them beyond the festival.
This National Balloon Classic festival poster is a conceptual promotional design celebrating the iconic hot air balloon event in Indianola, Iowa. The illustration depicts a man waving from a balloon seen from below, emphasizing scale, movement, and the celebratory atmosphere of the festival—based on a real life image. Influenced by Milton Glaser’s expressive illustration style and typographic framing, the design combines bold shapes, vibrant colors, and playful lettering. The project includes both a poster and a matching ticket design created in Adobe Illustrator, showcasing a cohesive visual system for festival promotion.
Challenge: The primary challenge was balancing authenticity with originality—capturing the disruptive, anti-establishment energy of punk design without simply replicating existing styles. The project required translating a historically DIY and analog aesthetic into a cohesive digital layout while honoring its feminist and political undertones.
Tickets
Companion Piece
Significance: As a companion piece, the ticket transforms the visual identity into an interactive artifact, connecting the promotional design to the attendee’s physical experience while reinforcing its value as a collectible object.