A Totally Unscientific Poll: What is the Most Important Thing a Visual Designer Can Do for You and Your Group?

A couple weeks back I decided to try and learn something about band directors’ perceptions on hiring visual designers, so I conducted a totally unscientific poll on social media. More than likely, the responses were limited to either friends (Facebook) or followers (Twitter). I didn’t find much evidence of any sharing of the poll. I asked the following:

As a band director, what is the most important thing a drill designer can do for you and your group?

There were 16 responses (not a very big sample, given I have 1.6K followers on twitter of which many are not band directors). Here is how the responses broke down.

Meet Deadlines: 4 votes

Clear Charts/Instructions: 5 Votes

Be Innovative: 1 Vote

Frequent Communication: 2 Votes

Programming Help: 0 Votes!!!

Performance Feedback: 1 Vote

Flexibility w/Numbers: 2 Votes

Affordability: 3 Votes

By ranking the responses in order from highest to lowest percentage of votes, we get:

Clear Charts/Instructions: 31%

Meet Deadlines: 25%

Affordability: 18%

Flexibility w/Numbers and Frequent Communication: 12%

Be Innovative and Performance Feedback: 6%

Programming Help: 0%

I would have to say I’m not all that surprised by the outcome. Band directors want the charts or UDB files (whatever) the visual designer sends to them to be clear with instructions with which they can teach. This is why I have begun including video animations of the design with my recorded voice over explanations/hints. I start with explaining the movement itself and then I move into how I would teach it before moving on to cleaning tips for down the road. Sometimes pathways or pass throughs need some special attention or there is a bit of choreography I have envisioned. In the latter case, I will sometimes do a choreo video (although that is usually scary). This is in addition to very detailed and consistently formatted instructions on each page of the design. The instructions tell the staff the When (measure numbers), Who (Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, Guard, etc.), and How (Marching Style, Facings, etc.) of each phrase

I was a little surprised that Meeting Deadlines finished second. Even though the charts are clear as a bell, if the director doesn’t have them when needed, does it really matter? This is where Frequent Communication is crucial. The designer has to know something about the director’s teaching schedule and intent. Is there a specific day of the week the band is focused on learning drill? How much drill will be taught at band camp? That’s just a couple of questions that need to be considered. The director needs to be very specific and then the designer has to make sure those goals line up with the designing schedule.

Affordability finishing 3rd is about where I would have predicted. Most directors don’t mind spending a little extra to get good design AND good service. And from what I hear, those 2 don’t always show up as a pair. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, “Yes, they are a great designer and I really like their work, but my season was far too tense because of missed deadlines.” This is probably the biggest reason a designer isn’t retained from year to year. Designers can usually design faster than their design can be taught to a high school group, so just because they can crank out a tune on any given night, it doesn’t mean the group can learn it that fast. There has to be lead time working back from a performance goal of the client group and the designer also has to consider time needed by the director/staff to distribute materials let alone become familiar themselves with the material they will be teaching. But I digress. Yes, sometimes budgets are tight and designers should always consider they are working for a nonprofit as a private contractor. There has to be balance in pricing of design services.

Now we come to the bottom 3. Flexibility w/Numbers, Performance Feedback, and Programming Help.

Flexibility w/Numbers finishing this low is a surprise to me. It doesn’t sound like any of my client band directors completed this survey, because all of them….ALL OF THEM have moving targets when it comes to numbers. I understand, kids change their minds, they move away, they move into the district, they change instruments, yaddah yaddah yaddah. That’s why I do everything I can to work with clients as their numbers change. Sometimes I feel like I’m doing Pyware Contortions, but in the end I try to keep the students’ interest at heart. Every kid who wants to and can perform should have a well designed dot. I just remind myself of this when a change is requested Eventually, I do have to commit and move forward. It’s a lot more fun to create than it is to make changes to a design. In some cases, the integrity of the design is gutted because the number changes are just too drastic and I almost have to start over.

Performance Feedback is something I always offer. I actually enjoy getting to see a client group live or on video. With today’s technology, there really isn’t any excuse to not have your designer watch a performance or even a rehearsal run through and offer feedback. Your group is performing a part of the designer’s being. The designer hopefully knows their creation better than anyone else. This is an opportunity for the director to prove to the designer, “Hey, the move in the opener doesn’t work.” The designer can watch and then probably come up with a fix/rewrite that will make things more manageable for the performers. I can tell you there have been many times I have completed a design to only see it at the end of the season and catch things that were not interpretted as intended (that’s one reason I started doing those animation/voice over vids) and I always find it frustrating as I could have helped had I seen the group early on.

Programming Help. Who doesn’t want to be part of a team? A design TEAM! Utilize your visual designer in the programming/planning process as they will catch things that may get by everyone else. They may be able to tell you when a piece of music or specific arrangement just won’t work visually. It could be that a phrase just needs tweaking. Or they can make suggestions as the musical arrangement is being written that will help the overall performance of the ensemble both musically and visually. Don’t underestimate the importance of using the visual designer as a resource in programming. Sometimes I complain about being “The last person in the process”. The music comes to me. Sometimes the guard choreo is already written or even taught before I can start designing. The die is already cast and now I have to come in and add my touch at the end, but my touch may be hampered by being so late in the process.

I love hearing feedback. Please leave a comment below or tell others about my blog. Thanks for reading! —DB