Newspaper artist wins fair logo contest
By Diane Booth Conway,
Merced County Fair Communications & Marketing Director

   Paul Wilson creates much of the graphic art work and lays out the pages for the Merced County Times and other Mid-Valley Publishing newspapers, so he jumped at the chance to submit entries in the Merced County Fair’s logo design contest and he won.
   Wilson is the first place winner of the 2008 Merced County Fair’s annual logo design contest. The logo he produced to go with the fair’s theme, “Come Rock With The Flock,” will appear on posters, billboards, T-shirts, ads, buttons, banners and other promotional materials to publicize the fair.
   The theme of the 117th fair is sheep, one of Merced County’s top ag products. The fair will be July 15-20, 2008.
   The fair’s Board of Directors selected the winning drawing, which was one of 39 entries. The design consists of a band of four sheep called the “Flock” rocking out on a stage before an audience with their hands waving in the air.
   Wilson will receive $500, a pair of season passes to the fair, and the kick of seeing his winning logo paired with the theme in fair promotions throughout the county. The 2008 theme, “Come Rock With the Flock,” was the winner submitted by Janae Elmasian of Atwater. She received $100 for her winning theme and a pair of season passes to the six-day fair.
   Wilson got the idea to enter the logo contest one day while working at the Merced County Times. He spotted the press release announcing the Merced County Fair’s 2008 Logo Design Contest and decided he liked this year’s theme so much he just had to enter the contest. “I like the slogan, I think it’s cool. I had an idea for it right away.”
   Wilson, 24, lives in Atwater.  He grew up in Winton and Atwater and graduated from Atwater High School. He went to Merced College and studied graphic and web design at the Modesto Institute of Technology. He is Art Director of Mid-Valley Publishing’s chain of seven newspapers throughout Merced County.
   Wilson plans to spend his prize money on some new equipment for his side job, vinyl graphics for racecar ad banners.

   Nellie Mullins of Merced submitted the contest’s second place design. She moved from Phoenix this summer to be near family and has never been to the Merced County Fair. She saw an article about the logo contest online and decided to come up with a design.
   A recent graduate of Arizona State University with a degree in graphic design, Mullins, 36, is looking for a job in her field. “It was a fun, creative exercise for me to do,” she said about the contest.  Her logo shows a trio of sheep playing on a concert stage.

   Julie Rivard of Merced dreamed up the entry that took third place honors. Her design is a collection of sheep singing and playing musical instruments. Entering the fair’s contest has become a tradition. “Every year people, including my Mom, ask me if I’m going to enter,” she said. Rivard has designed the winning logo for six fairs and has come in second or third place countless times, including 2007. “It’s still fun for me and I like the theme.”
   She teaches language arts at Hoover Middle School. The former art director at On Target Marketing taught art at Hoover for a few years until the art program was eliminated for the 2006-7 school year. She and her husband, John, have two sons, Josh and Jacob.
   The second and third place entrants will each receive a pair of season passes to the fair.
   For more information, call 722-1507 or email to Info@MercedCountyFair.com or fax at 722-3773. Visit the 2008 Merced County Fair’s award-winning web site, www.MercedCountyFair.com