We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carolynn Hayman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carolynn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of the most meaningful projects I have worked on was called The Big Balloon Build in Vincennes, Indiana. This project brought a group of 65 balloon professionals together for four days to create a bigger than life Candyland made out of over 125,000 balloons! The project raised over $130,000 for local United Way charities and collected over 14,000 pounds of canned food for the community. I was lucky enough to be chosen as a Team Leader for this project and led the Character Team which created giant Candyland characters which were placed throughout the display. The thing that made the project so meaningful was the community support for the project. Businesses welcomed us in for meals, donated amenities for the artists and turned out in droves to see the final outcome. The camaraderie amongst the balloon artists was also amazing. We all formed such strong bonds and learned so much from each other. It was unlike any other project I’ve ever worked on!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I have been working as a balloon artist for over 15 years. My passion for balloons began when my daughter was ten years old, and we learned to twist some simple designs. From there, I sought out as much information and instruction as I could, and I found a wonderful community of balloon artists willing to teach me and share ideas. This was before the age of Facebook, so I didn’t have access to all of the resources which are now available to a newcomer like I was. My passion was really sparked when I attended my first balloon convention in Chicago. I met over 200 balloon twisters from all over the world and saw works of art that were just breathtaking. The connections I made at that convention continue to this day, and I have attended many more balloon industry events and now teach at many of them.

My work in my local community can be a birthday delivery piece, a giant balloon garland to highlight an event, an entire baby or wedding shower’s decor in balloons or a balloon costume to bring excitement and attention to a local business or community event. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan which is a university town, so I have many parents who hire me to send balloons creations to their students for birthdays and other holidays. In addition to that, I love to teach balloon art and design to other balloon professionals. My favorite thing to teach is balloon costume design. It’s always a treat to build a giant balloon piece, but then to get to bring it to life as a costume is absolutely the most fun thing I get to do!

My interest in balloon costumes began when I saw a costume competition at one of the conventions. I then had the opportunity to wear a balloon costume, and it was so exciting to see the reactions that people had seeing me jumping around and making them laugh. It made me want to do it over and over again! I designed a few costumes that were unique and lots of fun to wear, but I really wanted to design one that would win an award at the conventions. In 2016, I designed a full-body unicorn costume that was over 9′ tall and was named Conrad the Unicorn. He had a spectacular rainbow mane and danced on stage to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off”. As I was building the costume at the convention, people kept asking me if he was going to poop rainbows, and I kept saying no. But after so many of the same questions, I decided that this must be what the people wanted, so I incorporated that into my performance. I even had the emcee get in on the fun and “clean up” after Conrad when he left the stage. The laughter and reaction to that performance was unforgettable, and Conrad the Unicorn won a costume award that year! After that, I was asked to participate in the Chicago Pride Parade as part of another balloon company’s float. Conrad the Unicorn was a huge hit at the parade and got over 30 million views on social media with his videos. Since then, I have been invited to teach costume design at many conventions. I usually try to teach more simple designs (Conrad is over 800 balloons!) which people can take on more easily. I sell instructional videos and work with other balloon artists quite frequently. I’ve been lucky enough to participate in the Chicago Pride Parade five times with my friends’ company and design lots of Pride themed costumes for them over the years.

With the pandemic, I got to focus more on local balloon business, so my designs are usually much smaller than a balloon costume. But I sometimes still get to make and wear the costumes. My family has a tradition to wear balloon costumes on Thanksgiving and run in our local Turkey Trot. During 2020, we ran a virtual 5k by ourselves dressed as holiday gnomes, and a few friends joined us wearing balloon snowflakes. It was super festive and brought a bit of joy to our neighborhood. Mostly, that’s what I love about balloons – they bring joy and can be a little bit surprising!

Have you ever had to pivot?

When the pandemic hit in 2020 and things shut down, a lot of balloon artists had events canceled, and our conventions were canceled, too. Early on, many of us would meet up on Zoom at night and talk about ideas, share stories, and more. With no indoor events, many artists started offering no-contact outdoor balloon displays. This was something that I had not offered in the past, and I was worried about doing outdoor work as there are so many elements that can affect the balloons. Other artists were posting ideas and sharing success stories. A friend asked me to make balloons for her daughter’s birthday and put them outside their house, so I did. I posted a few pics on social media, and I was immediately inundated with requests for these “party poles” and other outdoor displays. I had to learn new ways to work with the balloons, order different types of balloons than I had in the past and learn to market this new product line. I was so busy, and it was great to get the positive reactions of people who saw or received the balloons! As restrictions changed and people wanted indoor balloons, I added on new products and really started focusing on offering a diverse product line. It has been very different from my focus on costumes and teaching, but it has been so rewarding to have built a strong customer base around town from this.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think one of the most rewarding things about being a balloon artist is that it almost always sparks interest from people who don’t know what that means. It’s also fun to be able to show pictures and videos to people and see their reactions. So many times, they’ve never heard of this art form and are super curious to learn more about it. I also love that balloons don’t last forever, so you really have to appreciate them when you see them! They are a bit like fresh flowers in that way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.popdesignsandcreations.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/popdesignsandcreations
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/popdesignsandcreations
• Other: www.instagram.com/conradtheunicorn

Image Credits
Jen Geer Photography for the Artist’s photo shot