Dancescape 2023
CLIENT: Erin Drummond
Assistant Professor & Dance Program Director
Dancescape is an annual program put on by the Winona State Theater and Dance Department that highlights a range of performances and dance compositions. Each year, one lucky designer gets to create the visual identity to encapsulate this weekend of movement. This year, I got to be that lucky designer. My visual system aimed to represent the range of motivations and expressions that is shown through dance; from overwhelming joy to inescapable sadness.
Ask Stupid Questions
This project helped me learn the value of asking questions that are so simple or so basic that they seem stupid. While questions like these may seem useless, they sometimes cause the recipient, in this case, the client, to go back to the foundations. These are fundamental to understanding projects and the appropriate approaches we should take.
There may even be cases where these fundamental questions cause some disagreement among the partners of the project. As a designer, it is my job to not only get down to the root of these questions but to find the necessary and unnecessary elements. This allows me to get a better feel for who the client is and what they are really looking for.
This level of understanding helps me grow in my empathy and as the creative mind behind the project at hand. Sometimes asking these bare-bones questions that no one else is asking gives you key information that others may be lacking. So now I am going to get out there and be a little dumb for my clients.
