As the city of Gainesville celebrates its bicentennial year, new celebratory elements are popping up around the city.
In the downtown area, new light pole banners have been installed, depicting different icons the city is known for.
"Main Street was just looking to come up with a project to come alongside the initiatives the city was already doing," said Main Street Manager Nicole Ricketts. "We hadn't actually had pole banners in some time and we just thought this would be a neat project to go after."
The illustrations for the banners were designed by local graphic designer Garon Hart. Hart is a volunteer for the city's marketing committee. He moved to Gainesville in 2017 from Roswell, but had been coming up to Lake Lanier for many years prior.
"At the beginning of 2020, Nicole Ricketts... I think I had one meeting with her and then the pandemic hit," said Hart. "But they had already planned on doing some sort of celebration for the bicentennial. She wanted to do these banners around downtown. At first they were talking about doing a contest and she asked me if I would get involved... and then she called back and said, 'You know, why don't you just do them?'"
And with that, Hart took the accolades and icons that make Gainesville and began designing illustrations with those themes. Hart said the Lake Lanier design with an Adirondack chair was the first design he illustrated, and set the style for the rest. Engine 209 - one of Rickett's favorite designs - was next, which Hart said the detail was a challenge to illustrate.
"I had never really developed that style of illustration, I've never professed to be an illustrator, but it just kind of fell into place and I just kind of did the rest based on that style," Hart said.
Some of the themes are well known favorites, like the Poultry Capital of the World, or the '96 Olympics. While the Olympics has its own banner, there's also one dedicated to the accolade "The Hospitality Capital of the World."
"At the Olympics, one of the TV announcers who came here to cover the Olympics dubbed us the Hospitality Capital of the World," said Ricketts.
That design has a special nod to local business, too.
"It's based on Southern Baked Pie Company," said Hart. "I had met Amanda Wilbanks at a radio program that we did together and I was just really impressed her, and we always go to Southern Baked Pie, so that was kind of the inspiration for that banner."
Other banners feature the Georgia Trendsetter City title, a designation by the Gainesville Municipal Association, earned for leading new initiatives in town, according to Ricketts; and the Queen City of the Mountains. Hart said there were also some text-only flags.
The banners were a community effort.
"It was just a really great project, to be able to work with a designer that donated his time who just loves downtown," said Ricketts. "We had a local print company support that, so they're pretty low-cost to be able to pour into this, but also just give back to the economy in a fun way."
"I did donate my time to it, but it was during COVID, my workload wasn't busy at the time, and I really enjoyed working on it and developing this new illustration style," said Hart.
The new banners are on display on light posts between E.E. Butler Parkway, Jesse Jewell Parkway, and West Academy Street and fit with the rebranding the city began in 2019.
