The Use of Symbolism in Visual/Drill Design
The final show of my university band’s season was about heroes. We decided to do music from the 2017 DC film, Justice League. Right away I decided that 2 design features had to happen; 1. The Batman logo. 2. The Superman shield. As I listened to the arrangement (put together skillfully by my colleague), I decided I would have the Batman logo form first (stretching from near end zone to end zone. Then I would have the Superman shield form in the center of the Batman logo. I picked this idea up from:
Once the shield formed, the sequence went like this: Stand Fast 28, Adjusted Step 28, Follow The Leader/Backwards Push 16. You can see the animation of the design here beginning at about the :28 mark.
I was really happy with the result, because I felt like the movement did a nice job of reflecting what was happening musically. I had never seen the actual film. After completing the entire design, I watched Justice League. Now if you don’t like spoilers…..Sorry. At the beginning of the film, Superman is dead. I know, hard to believe, right? Anyway, there is a huge crisis and Batman devises a way to bring Superman back. So, it makes sense that the Superman shield appears inside of the Batman logo in my design. Not only that, but the shield then does a backward push so essentially Superman is rising. When I finally saw the movie, it all made sense. I had actually captured a main idea of the film in 3 drill moves without knowing it.
So this started my thinking about this topic of The Use of Symbolism in Visual Design. If you do a quick google search, “the use of symbolism in design” you will get a myriad of hits. They make interesting reading. I suggest doing so wholeheartedly.
Some questions (I’m thinking of the marching arts when I ask these):
Does symbolism exist in all visual design?
Does symbolism have to be present for visual design to have quality?
Does symbolism have to be present for visual design to have effect?
Does symbolism have to be present for visual design to have meaning?
While I see symbolism in a lot of the visual design out there (now I can’t see EVERY design), I would say that not all visual design contains symbolism. A lot of visual design serves the purpose of just moving the elements of the ensemble around the stage/field with the purpose of supporting the audio. And a lot of that design is cleverly done at a high level of quality. It generates effect and enhances the music, certainly. But I would contend that visual design which incorporates a great deal of symbolism will carry much deeper meaning and (even when subliminal) will communicate that meaning to the observer.
As you watch these excerpts (I didn’t build this video), keep in mind what you are interpreting as symbolism and what you are interpreting as not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF1O6e9Ool4
As always, I welcome your feedback. Hope to hear from you.—DB