Albert J. Ortega Sr. wanted to win the Merced County Fair's annual logo design contest for a lot of reasons, but his biggest motivation and was to make his grandchildren proud.

His entry in the 2012 Merced County's Fair's logo design competition took first place. Ortega's design will be used to illustrate the fair's slogan, "Cows Just Wanna Have Fun." The theme commodity for the 121st fair is dairy cows.

The slogan and logo will appear on posters, T-shirts, ads, banners, schedules, the fair's website, Facebook and more to promote the fair. The fair is June 13-17.

The fair's Board of Directors selected the first, second and third place graphic design winners at their October 10 board meeting. There were 28 submissions and all eligible entries were assigned a number for judging. The numbered entries were reviewed by the fair's marketing/promotions committee before the winning entries were picked by the fair board. The entrants' names weren't revealed until after the winners were selected.

The winning logo features a couple of cow "girlfriends" arriving at the Merced County Fair in a vintage convertible, with one cow behind the wheel and the other waving from the front passenger seat. Ortega said his design was inspired by his love of classic cars and the 1991 movie, "Thelma and Louise," starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis.

Ortega, 49, lives in Merced and works as a graphic designer at Quad Graphics. He designs ads for Yellow Pages books at the Merced company. This isn't the first time Ortega has won the fair's logo contest. He created the logo for the 2006 Merced County Fair with his "Vine-Ripened Fun" design and he also came in second place in the 2011 logo design contest. Winning the contest the second time around was even sweeter, he said.

"I was totally shocked when I found out I won this year's contest," Ortega said. "I wanted to win so I have something to show my grandkids that I'm a good artist and they'll be proud of me."

He can't wait to take his three grandchildren – Iris, 6, Levi Jr., 2-1/2 and baby Albert III to the fair next June with their parents. His favorite thing to do is to check out the exhibits, especially the fine arts entries.

Ortega will be awarded $500 in prize money, a pair of season passes to the five-day fair, and he'll experience the thrill of seeing his artwork on fair promotions throughout the county.

The 2012 slogan, "Cows Just Wanna Have Fun," was the winner submitted by Prudy Mook of Atwater. She received $100 for her winning slogan and a pair of season passes to the fair.

Dusty Dahlgren, who won the 2011 logo design contest, took both second and third place for his logo designs this year. He will receive two pair of season passes to the fair. Dahlgren, 34, of Los Banos, is the Art Director for Image Masters and On Target Marketing in Merced. He's looking forward to taking his wife, Nicole, and children, Drew, an eighth grader and Gianna, a second grader, to the fair.

For more information call (209) 722-1507, fax (209) 722-3773, or email to Info@MercedCountyFair.com. Visit the Fair’s website, www.MercedCountyFair.com and connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.