Sharing is Caring

The thing I love about the balloon industry in NSW is that everyone is willing to help each other out. There are two industry bodies - BASA NSW and QBN. Both are vibrant groups of balloon professionals that offer training and info to members.
At a recent training event I saw this design that was done by Maureen Egan from Balloon Elegance. She shared her design from her portfolio with everyone at the training session.



A client asked me to come up with a design for their Brazilian Carnivale them at the office. Thanks to Maureen, I had the perfect design in my repertoir.

Thankfully Maureen is simply following on from all the instructors who have come before her. When I am called on to instruct I try to share design concepts that will (hopefully) enhance other balloon businesses.

By sharing we create a stronger industry and a bigger base of decorators for our customers to choose from. As a customer you should ask your chosen decorator if they have their CBA (Certified Balloon Artist) or BASA Accreditation. If they do, they are part of a network of professional balloon artists, and you can feel confident in using their services. They can create fantastic designs like the ones you see here.

Black and White...with a hint of Christmas

I wanted to do a short piece about this job we did late last year. There are two reasons.

1) It was one of the most simple and most stunning decor jobs we did (unfortunately the photos do not do it justice).

2) Have a look at the ceiling height.


I booked a Christmas party at a new venue in Sydney that I have never decorated before. I neglected to do my homework on the venue specs, and where we would be able to set up at the venue.

I dropped Alicia and Wendy at the venue, wished them good luck and I raced off to collect the others who were at another job. To their credit, the girls managed to find the tiniest little area, and with time against them, they got it done.


When I returned the client loved it, and it took my breath away as I entered the room. I was amazed that such a simple concept could look so sensational.
I apologise that the photos do not do it justice.

Christmas Arch Outdoors ?

I was called by Forth Wall Events and they wanted a "Grand Entry" for their clients Christmas Party. It had to incorporate '80' because the client was celebrating 80 years in business in Australia. Also it was outdoors, so had to be able to withstand the elements..... The easy part of the brief was the 1000 balloon drop and confetti canons from the stage inside the marquee, but I'll do a blog for drops and confetti another time.



So we settled upon this design that fulfilled all the requirements. It was a very hot and windy day at Randwick racecourse early in December. We had to underinflate the balloons so they wouldn't burst in the heat, and we had to secure the frames of the almost 3mtr tall 80 sculpture so it wouldn't be blown over.

...Alicia would love to be able to give up balloons to be Australia's Next Top Model. Please no-one tell her I posted this pic.

A Masquerade Christmas

I love masquerade parties. A company came to me with some great ideas and the budget to make it a reality. They had hired out the dungeon of a castle for their event and every room was to have a different colour scheme and different designs.

At the entry we created some masquerade twisted towers.












The red room was to have funky top centrepieces.















The black room was to feature lots and lots of feathers.










...even on the floor bunches



















The blue room saw some topiary trees with feather highlights - add lots of blue lighting for effect.

















To finish the whole thing off we did some floor to ceilig columns. And of course all the designs had co-ordinating masks on them and lots of lights in the balloons.

An Evening with the Stars

The one thing I am quite proud of is the fact that over the years MAD Ballons has built a very loyal customer base. We do two functions a year for this client, and their Christmas party is always the highlight. This years theme was an evening with the stars - colours red, black and gold.
The only thing with loyal customers is that we need to give them something different for each of their events, and this event was no exception.


First up you need a grand entrance if there are going to be "stars" at the party. Each group of "stars" had their photos taken on the red carpet as they arrived, and our ballon rails were the perfect backdrop.

I LOVE the Masterbow Maker, and I got to have some serious fun for this years centrepieces. My deluxe masterbows are mounted on cakeboards and we add in lots of accessories for huge visual impact and interest. Each table had a number of these, depending on how big each group was.

We added 20" gold stars to each masterbow centrepiece and put the table numbers on the stars. This made it quick and easy for the guests to locate their tables. The red and gold boxes were personalised with their names, so they really felt like stars.

Once the formalities were done it was 'to the dancefloor' to bop the night away. "Dancing with the stars" ...sorry, bad pun.

"Take Flight"....into a new office space

I was called in to Microsoft to assist in the launch of their new offices and workspaces. Encouraging innovation in their staff they wantd them to 'take flight', and what better way to illustrate this theme than with balloons.



Using a number of sizes, from 16", 24" and 3' balloons, we set about the task. Also wanting their staff to bend their minds Microsoft required some "balloon bending".
I was having fun with this one. We used some 5.5' balloons for this purpose.



Then to the cafe area for some ceiling work. Not able to create the balloons in midair, we created an illusion of the ballons magically hanging up in the ceiling (no hooks and no helium involved here) to create a bit of a random, think outside the square and go with the flow effect.

You get a better idea of the cafe look from this picture. Taking flight and ideas cascading all over the place.

This is the only office photo that I can use here. Security. We had large 3' balloons placed through the offices as well as 250 of the yellow 15" single bubbles distributed to the workstations (not able to take photos of the workstations).
The installation was required to last for 2 weeks. No problems. I used Ultra Hi Float and most of it lasted three weeks.

Harry Potter Premiere

Midnight, 18th November and the much anticipated Harry Potter Deathly Hallows (pt 1) was released. For the Premiere event we were asked by Events Cinema's at Castle Towers to dress their cinema and also Gold Class for the event.



What better way to greet the many witches and wizards than an 11 metre Nagini (Voldemorts snake). Tickets could only be purchased once you passed underneath his watchful eyes. Careful now.

The event was absolutely huge. The cinema didn't want the Nagini's in place too early. As a result, some of the die hard Potter fans started arriving just as we were finishing off.

As you can see the Gold Class had cauldrons, brooms and even a polyjuice potion cocktail, especially devised for the event.

The cinema did a great job with their decor and the Nagini slithering above their guests was the finishing touch....and of course the local Harry Potter fans.

Many thanks to my friend and colleague John Martin from Balloons Funtastic in NZ, for giving me his "eel" design for this event.

I need an entry to WOW the audience!

The rock band Good Charlotte came to Sydney last November for one concert at Luna Park in the Big Top. The entry of the Big Top is a bit 'industrial' looking, so the client wanted to transform it to a WOW area. As well as transforming ugly to WOW, the client wanted to create a physical barrier to keep the audience away from the sound box and other AV and lighting equipment that was up the back.



The budget was not excessive, but we were able to create the WOW they were after using the fantastic 40" starpoints. We linked these together to create two 16 metre walls that fitted perfectly from floor to ceiling. It created the physical barrier as well as the WOW that was required.

The client was ecstatic with the finished product and the fact that we were on budget. She had looked at a number of other options but most were outside her strict budget.
As they say on the A-Team "I love it when a plan comes together!"

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Welcome to 2011. Yes, there is a pulse and the blog still shows signs of life. I apologise that I have been off the air for so long. We have been extremely busy over the silly season, and are now enjoyng a short break. However, I thought I had better show you the proof of our MAD-ness in the last few months.

So....... have you ever wondered what almost 2,000 balloons looks like on level 36 of the Shangri-La in Sydney? Well, here it is. As yu can see it pretty much fills the space. Between this and the other two levels we completely decorated the team was glad when it was over.





Now much as I would like to say that the patrons were paying serious dollars to come and see our fabulous balloons, I think the view may have something to do with it. It is the best view of the world's largest NYE fireworks display in Australia's biggest city

"Amazing" New Zealand

In August I had the great privilege of taking my Best of World Balloon Convention class to New Zealand. While I was there they gave me a new name. No longer am I MAD Dave Taylor, but check out the sign - The Amazing Dave Taylor! It works for me!

Auckland was first stop and our 30 class attendees did not quite fit in the photo. Such is life!

My teaching style is slightly different to others. I have attended many classes over the years and nothing is more boring that someone standing up the front talking all day. So in my class there is lots of hands on, so no-one has the opportunity to start snoring.......

Please make sure you smile when you are helping me with the demo, because you might end up on my blog....

And by the end of the day we ended up with all sots of great ideas. The taper daisy, that I am holding, the winnie-the-pooh bubble towers, the taper columns at the very bottom, and much more.

Here are the Christchurch balloonies. These are the tough ones that braved the freezing temperatures to get to class, so well done I say. A fun day was had by all.

Thankyou to all my New Zealand friends - both new and old - for making my trip such a memorable one. You guys are all great!

love your work!

Footy Finals - Wests Tigers

The footy finals are long gone now, and no the Wests Tigers did not feature in the Grand Final. However when it was still up in the air we were called in to decorate Wests Ashfield Leagues Club. On Monday the client walked us through the club and outlined their desires.

We we asked to install on the Tuesday......!

WestsTigers is a joint venture club so everything had to be split down the middle - black and orange for Tigers and black and white for Wests.

So we burnt the midnight oil and came up with the following designs to fulfil the client needs.

1)An entry piece that will wow everyone as they enter the club!

2)The Sports Bar was very bland so we gave it a bit of a lift

3)The escalators leading up to the lounge. Lots of garland was the answer and it fitted perfectly in the cavity beside the lifts.

4)Finally, the restaurant. "We want a big arch and something else around the place."

Large Topiary Balls - big impact, but high enough to be out of harms way, and will definitely go the distance.

The client was very happy, as were the thousands of fans who turned up to the club to watch the final. Unfortunately the result did not go their way, but the club was happy, as everyone hung around the enjoy the fantastic atmosphere created by the balloons.

Yes, we also decorate parties at home!

Hi David,

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to you and your staff for doing such an amazing job on Saturday.The balloon artwork looked absolutely fantastic and really helped to give a bit of class to otherwisewhat would have been just a 'backyard job'!

The marquee looked absolutely stunning when it was all finally set up with the tables etc and reallymade an impact when guests arrived and walked through the marquee. The choice of balloon colours was perfect for the theme of rock and roll and eveyone commented on how great the decorations looked!Nothing popped, blew away or disappeared during the night and Tom's 50th Megaloons and name was perfectly placed behind him when he got to cut his cake.

Thank you Daivd and thank your lovely staff for your professional, efficient and beautiful work. It really made a difference to how it all looked in the end.I wouldn't hesitate recommending or using your service again in the future.

Kind Regards

Margaret Schembri

BASA Qld - WBC & modern aviation issues....

I was invited up to Brisbane by BASA QLD to present my last Best of WBC for 2010! It was part of the 2 day training and also included presentations to the new CBA's. I was due to arrive in Brisbane at 3.3pm, ready for the presentations at 7pm. Thanks to the miracles of modern aviation, I did not arrive in Brisbane until 7.30pm, and was informed that my bag (along with about 70 others) was still in Sydney.

I finally made it to the hotel at 8.30pm, and everyone was very good about it, and very accommodating under the circumstances. It reminded me of a lady by the name of Bonnie Thurber - a Stampin' Up creative genius who arrived in Melbourne for regionals in 2009, to be told her bags were still on their way. She rose to the occasion in magnificent style. This video is a tribute to Bonnie. Thanks for the inspiration!

Certified Balloon Artist

Certified Balloon Artist (CBA) is the only internationally recognised accreditation within the balloon industry. It is the benchmark of industry professionals, and customers should be ensuring the company supplying the balloon decor for their event has CBA's on staff.

The reason you, the customer, should do this is because it takes a considerable effort to attain your CBA. The process is as follows.

Firstly you need to join the Qualatex Balloon Network and purchase the three kits. The topics are Balloon Basics kit, Balloon Deliveries & Bouquets kit and Balloon Decor kit. Each kit contains an extensive DVD with demonstrations and information of that topic. Once you have watched the DVD you must complete the online test and submit it for a Qualatex Education Officer to mark. Once you pass all tests with 80% or more you are eligible to sit the 4 hour practical test.

The 4 hour practical test includes replicating a design, submitting two of your original designs, constructing a column and more. During that 4 hour practical test each person will have to face a panel of CBA's who will ask a number of questions that include colour theory, design, business principles and safety. Again the person must get above 80% to be awarded their CBA.

Last week I was in New Zealand to test a number of balloon professionals that had completed their online tests, and were ready for their practical tests. 13 people took the tests (in Auckland and Christchurch) and New Zealand now has 12 new CBA's. One person was not awarded their CBA because their work was not up to the standard required. Below is a 'fly on the wall' experience of the CBA 4 hour practical test.

"Your 4 hours starts now!"

after 1 hour the designs are taking shape....

2.5 hours in and it is looking good....

"you have 20 minutes to go..."

The new (and relieved) CBA's in Christchurch!!

So, next time you are looking for balloon decor, make sure the company you use has CBA on staff. It indicates a level of professionalism and commitment to the balloon industry that you can rely on.