Why does someone become a visual/drill designer and why do they continue?

First, I want to say that I’ve considered blogging about the subject of visual design for marching bands for a couple of years now. In the past, I delved into blogging at the outset of my Uber driving career. I found the blogging to be enjoyable, but I just wasn’t able to keep up with it. The stories from my Uber experience just didn’t seem to be as interesting after a few months.

My goal with this blog is to share why I create as well as my experience as I’m creating. It will also be necessary to share some aspects of the drill writing software (Pyware) I use to complete my designs.

So why did I start this? I can remember the spring of my freshman year in high school. I had just finished my first fall of participation in marching band. I have to say I loved it. It was something I thought of constantly. Although I had a beginner’s understanding of how to march my position in the ensemble, I didn’t really understand how the designs or formations were conceived, diagrammed and then communicated to the performers. I knew the basics. There are 8 steps (22.5 inches in length) between yard lines on the football field and there are 28 steps between the hash marks (high school field) and then there are also 28 steps between the hash marks and the side line. Now, the 28 number isn’t really true, but that’s what we were taught by our director and if you’ve ever been in high school band, the director’s word is accepted as gospel. We’ll get back to the 28 step thing at a later date.

So I took this newfound knowledge and began wondering how this all worked. I just so happened to be taking Algebra 1 at the time. And guess what…..We were using graphing paper. We were studying X and Y coordinates. This gave me an idea. What if I used the graphing paper as a way of diagramming some of my ideas for marching band formations? It. Could. Work. Well, there was just one issue. Graphing paper is set up in groups of 5s not 4s or 8s. Remember, there are 8 steps between yard lines on a football field. So this meant I had to draw in the yard lines and things were a little confusing because the graphing paper had darker lines every 5 small boxes….So. Many. Lines. You know what? I didn’t care. I went with it. Why? Because I didn’t know any better. Before you know it, I was diagramming away. There were lines of dots, there were diagonals, there were blocks, there were lines, there were diagonals, and there were blocks. There were lots of lines and lots of blocks. You see, that was all I knew about at the time.

This all happened in the early 1970s when the marching activity was going through some major changes. There were people who were beginning to have the audacity to form curves on the field. OMG! How would we live if everything didn’t fit neatly into our grid lives? You see, in my 1973 band, no one was ever 1.5 steps from a line. They were always a whole number away from any land mark. Otherwise, they were WRONG!

Fast forward 2 years. My little high school band started forming (gasp)…..Arcs on the field. We didn’t really understand it all, but we trusted our new director and it worked.

Fast forward a few more years. Now I’m at the University of Kentucky and we’re doing arcs and irregular curves all over the place. We’re even moving them across the field or rotating them at times. It’s like a whole new world had just opened to me! I was fortunate enough to get to study with a guy who was (and still is) a genius. He just amazed me with how he could put all of that motion together for our university marching band. He arranged the music. And he designed the drill.

In the current activity, we use computer software to plot all of the marching formations. It also syncs with the music so you can see the formations animate while hearing the music. In the 1970s when I began learning this stuff, we were still using graphing paper (although it was a special marching band paper) and a cassette player. You had to imagine the form’s movement while listening to the musical phrases.

So I’m collecting my French curves, protractors, and compasses. I’m drawing everything by hand. This means you have to erase mistakes. You have to make calculations and understand some basic geometry. This was all cool stuff! I took a class in marching band drill design and received some encouragement. I worked band camps and was able to observe others creating the drill for the bands we were teaching. Every experience was new and I just kept adding to my little drill design “toolbox”.

After college, I began designing for my own high school band where I was the band director. Why? Out of necessity. It was an added expense to hire the work done by someone outside of the program and I could do it for FREE! In fact, I was excited to do it for FREE! I just wanted to create something unique and functional for my own band and I couldn’t wait for others to put it into action and still others to watch it from the stands. Did all of the designs work? No, there were many times things had to be changed. I was experimenting and learning. The only real way to learn this craft (and it is a craft) is to keep doing it. Just jump in with both feet and DO IT!

The graphing paper has been replaced by a computer screen (erasing is much easier now) and the performers can see the formations animate while also hearing the musical phrases, but it still has to be created. The computer can’t do that for us.

And now 38 years and hundreds of shows later, I’m still as excited about being a visual designer as I was with that first piece of graphing paper. I love the creative process. I get to dream. I get to work with other creative people to put together a unique production and hopefully inspire others (performers and spectators) o enjoy the activity I’ve loved so much for over 40 years. That’s why I continue. —DB