Designing Like a Pirate Part 2: Transformation, Enthusiasm, and Have a Good Hook!
One of my favorite days each year is International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th, which is also my baby sister’s birthday), I actually have tried to conduct marching band rehearsals while interjecting pirate phrases. I wouldn’t recommend it to the novice. For those not familiar with some of the lingo, here is a quick tutorial. Viewer Discretion Advised, it’s pirate talk, after all.
Avast, Ye Cap’n! Let’s get on with this Salty Sea Blog!
TRANSFORMATION:
I’m not using this word in the same way we talk about transform in the creative process (Everything’s a Remix), no this is about our own transformation.
Blackbeard one of the most feared pirates in history actually transformed himself before boarding and raiding a vessel. Although a sometimes violent man, he mainly relied on fear in order to plunder ships. It is said, Blackbeard would embed and then light fuses in his beard to play up on a demonic connection with his ship’s flag which featured a devil.
As a designer, our transformation has to do with changing our thinking about our design purposes and goals. Moving beyond the, “Well that’s good enough”, “It fits the phrasing”, it has velocity”, etc. mindset. Rather we enter the thinking of having the goal each time we design to excite the audience member. Show them something they haven’t seen before. The transformation is happening in us as we add skills to our “Design Armements”.
We may not always reach that goal of eliciting the highest excitement or wonder from our audience, that’s okay. The transformation is having that goal in mind every time we sit down to design. We are constantly striving for it. Like a pirate, we are striving for that ultimate buried treasure.
ENTHUSIASM:
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.—Ralph Waldo Emerson
If we transform our thinking as stated above, we will most certainly be enthusiastic about our design! As humans, we apply much more energy to something for which we feel enthusiastic. That enthusiasm spreads to the design team, the performers, the booster parents, everyone connected to the design in anyway, and ultimately to our audience.
Enthusiasm is so important to a designing band director. It is a very powerful way to get the entire vision realized. If you have an idea that doesn’t garner your enthusiasm, don’t go any further with it. If you can’t get enthusiastic about its possibilities, then more than likely you will not be about to get anyone enthusiastic about them either.
How would things go for a band of pirates if their captain wasn’t enthusiastic about boarding a nearby cargo ship? Probably not very well,
HAVE A GOOD HOOK:
We all know about Peter Pan and Captain Hook from our childhood. Besides being a grown man fighting with lost boys, Hook had a terrifying sneer, a cutlass, and that HOOK. Designing like a pirate means our design needs to have a good hook….Or maybe several. You know, those moments that just work. The visual design, staging, choreo, and audio all work as a perfect team. I’m not talking about performance quality. That’s for another blog. I’m talking about design quality. Is it written into the program to give the performers the opportunity to generate effect with their performance of the material they are provided?
A good hook can be something unique to your program or it can be a moment that just takes your breath away. Whatever it is, have at least 1 good hook.
Here’s to all out there ready to design like a pirate! YAAAAAARGH!
I love hearing from readers. Please leave a comment or share this blog with a friend. Cheers—DB