Single balloon animals on a heart, simple hat  or stick/tree. Dog pony dinosaur monkey cat & giraffe are what I do most of.
Flower, sword and a two balloon spiral braid hat are very popular too.
Ken Stillmans alien hitchhiker is a great punter pleaser too.

Having something appear fairly quickly is very important to the audience experience.

Don't knock the humble dog. For the younger kids, flowers and dogs are what they relate to most strongly. Colour choice and the persona you display are at probably more important than twisting cleverness in producing emotional engagement.

me too

Real horseshoes?

http://www.farriersupplies.co.uk/produc ... roduct=453

A bit more developed

"e flexibus unum" is a twist on  "e pluribus unum", the motto of the USA

"From the many, one" > "From the twistings, one"  was my thinking. Google translate has it as "a torquens unum" which loses the joke a bit. Any latin scholars out there?

Optional cheval rampant and camelopard rampant

A quick knock up

I still think theres a place for the sheer speed of a four petal flower. I did almost all five petals today, but there were a pair of twins in my queue; I inflated all four 260's with two in loops before twisting. The almost instantaneous transformation was a real part of the magic for the two little girls, I am quite certain.
Comparing a completed four petal flower with a completed five petal one, the five undoubtedly wins. But in terms of impact on the audience, sheer speed has an aesthetic value.

Mind you, I expect many of you can do five and six petals in the time it takes me to do four anyway.

After a serious rethink & retwist of this one, Ive decided that I like five petals best.

Mea Culpa, sort of.

I decided early on that it was quite possible to provide just as much joy with a four petal flower as a six petal one, and that I could do more of them, thereby producing equivalent joy but for more people. I always do an apple twist but there are those who use the tail end of the balloon for the middle bit, and who is to say that the same argument doesn't apply?

However I am currently doing a major review of my skills and approach, and am finding that things I initially dismissed as too risky or time consuming and hence avoided practicing, are really worth doing.

Maybe I'll even start doing six petal flowers

There seem to be some problems with the formatting of the Captain Visual e-book according to several poor reviews. I've just got the printed version from lulu.com and am very pleased with it. 18 quid or so including delivery. Much better than the crazy prices I've seen elsewhere

What the punters are really buying is an experience. You are in charge of that experience. Balloons are just a tool you use. Be ready for pushy unpleasant people to be upset by not getting what they want. It's good for them to be upset, but don't join in with them. But it's better that you focus your attention on the well behaved ones. The more clearly you focus your attention on good behaviour, the less you create bad behaviour. Managing attention and expectation is more important than managing balloons.

Keep it simple. Unless they ask for a sword, I do single balloon animals on a single balloon stick/tree/heart/hat, or a two colour flower.  Don't show off how clever you are with ballloons; it's not about you. If you do something complex and time consuming, you will please one or two but create disappointment in many.

Give a sense of choice but keep control. Little ones find it easier to choose colours than models.  "Do you like pink and white?" is almost certain to get a yes from little girls (I buy a lot of pink and white) and easier to answer than "what colour would you like?"

Paying attention to colour is very important emotionally. Match or compliment clothing, hair/eye colour football team colours as appropriate. Of course lots of people have clear ideas about what they want and will tell you, but many are more comfortable going along with your suggestion than having to choose for themselves. If you are getting low on colour choices, sell them the idea of the choice you make for them. "Orange and black: dynamic!"

I generally find that dropping  regular subtle hints that the punters should organise the queue themselves works very well while there are adults involved, if its just kids make them stand in a line. If the aggressive ones push to the front, start serving from the back and tell them why.

The more in control of the psychological situation you appear to be, the less other people will feel the need to take control.

I was doing a conceptual art project, getting a thousand random people to write in my book. One of them was the balloon busking guy who regularly works in Chester. The idea was infectious. I bought a kit from the local craft shop that day, and was back for more balloons in a couple of days. A week later I had filled my house with balloons, had 7 or 8 reasonably reliable single balloon models, and discovered wholesale balloon supplies and proper quality balloons.

Within 2 weeks I had made my own clown costume and began busking.

I still haven't completed the conceptual art project.