This year’s Great Mississippi River Balloon Race T-shirt and poster design could be considered a bit modern retro.

Created with state-of-the-art graphic design software, the artwork’s inspiration was born nearly 30 years ago — when the artist was just a toddler.

Tim Givens, a graphic designer at The Natchez Democrat, worked on the 2014 balloon artwork for two years, but it’s inspiration lived in his head for much longer.

“It all goes back to Ron Miller’s 1987 design,” Givens said. “I’ve had a poster of his design for the longest time, and I always really liked it because it was red and yellow, and to the point.”

The predominant red and yellow design of the poster featured the mansion Rosalie and balloons in an art deco style.

But it wasn’t until Givens found himself walking the streets of Natchez two years ago that this year’s artwork began forming in his head.

“My car broke down after work one day, and I had to walk home,” said Givens, who lives in downtown Natchez. “As I was walking, I pulled out my phone and started taking pictures of houses and landmarks.”

Soon, Givens was working to recreate something similar to the 1987 piece created by Miller and Kirby Meng.

He entered his artwork in the 2013 balloon race art contest, but lost out to another graphically designed piece created by a Democrat co-worker, Ben Hillyer.

“I was really glad Ben won it,” Givens said. “It’s been paintings for so long, and though they were good, I wanted to see somebody go back to the graphic design-type look. That’s what Ben had. He took a picture of something and worked a lot with graphic design.”

For 2014, Givens allowed Meng and Miller’s original artwork to even more directly influence him as he incorporated red and yellow and paid homage to Meng and Miller’s design with an image of Rosalie. Givens added landmarks, such as the water tower, St. Mary Basilica and the Mississippi River Bridge at Natchez.

“If you look at mine and (theirs), you can definitely see similarities, especially in the colors,” Givens said. “My design is pretty much an ode to (the 1987) design.”

Givens created two different designs that were both worthy of recognition, according to GMRBR Executive Director Babs Price.

“We all liked both of his designs so much that we decided to save one for next year to go up against the 2015 entries,” Price said.

Growing up in Natchez, Givens was always attracted to art.

“From as early as I can remember, I would doodle with a pen and pencil on anything I could find,” Givens said. “I remember being a young kid at my grandmother’s house, flipping over some Christmas paper and drawing Ninja Turtles.”

It was Givens’ love for art and the 1987 balloon piece that encouraged him to work with art through middle school and high school at Trinity Episcopal Day School, as well as through college at Ole Miss. But after graduating from Ole Miss in 2010, Givens was burnt out on art and decided to strive toward a graphic design route.

Still, Givens had a desire left unfilled and a tribute left unmade. Givens will see his creation flood the streets of Natchez when the balloon festivities kick off Oct. 17.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, but I’ll probably really get to experience it and be gracious of it when I see people wearing the shirts,” Givens said. “It would be pretty cool to hang my design next to (Miller’s) at my house.”