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By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer 

MONTEVALLO – Two Montevallo-based organizations are calling on young people in the community to channel their artistic creativity through a new project.

Impact Montevallo and Montevallo Main Street are inviting children ages 5-18 to design banners to hang on lamp posts throughout historic downtown Montevallo.

“Our biggest goal with this project is to shine a spotlight on how talented our young people are in our community,” Montevallo Main Street Executive Director Courtney Bennett said. “We want them to feel welcome, included and lifted up in our downtown spaces. We also want our youth to feel proud of their hometown and proud of where they come from. In addition, we hope it will be a draw for their families to visit downtown to see their loved ones’ art.”

The theme for the banner design contest is “Make Your Mark,” Montevallo Main Street’s tagline through its branding package as a Designated Main Street community.

“It’s a nod to the arts being central to our community and how we want to encourage all of our citizens to ‘make their mark’ on our downtown,” Bennett said.

Designs can feature painting, drawing, illustration, digital and other materials, but participants are advised to consider how certain materials will appear in reproduction. Paint and markers likely will translate better than crayon and pencil; bright, full colors print well, too.

Other tips listed in the contest guidelines are as follows:

• Be bold. Large designs transfer better than small designs. Tip: Consider a more abstract design.
• Designs should fill the entire design area. Do not leave white space unless it is intentional.
• Make your artwork vertical and keep in mind that some cropping near the edges of the banner may occur in the printing and installation process. When creating your designs, keep your most important elements centered on the template.
• Work should be original and not include any copyrighted images (i.e. branded cartoon characters) or names.
• Create a design with minimal or no text. If you include text, avoid proper names like businesses, places and people.

Designs should be submitted no later than Monday, Aug. 2.

The guidelines and template can be accessed at Bit.ly/3hzezJZ. Follow @ImpactMontevallo on Facebook for more information and updates.

The project will involve creating 90 banners. Contest winners will be announced in the fall, unless the deadline is extended.

“We worked with our Montevallo schools during the spring semester, and now we have opened up to accept submissions from the public,” Bennett said. “At this point, we don’t have plans to do an annual youth art banner series, but we will continue to create opportunities for local youth to make their mark on downtown Montevallo through art. We are also exploring ideas for other projects to involve our youth over the next few years, but don’t have anything concrete to announce to the public at this time.”