What losing concerts taught me as a Designer
I love going to concerts. Festivals, sold-out arenas for pop stars, random clubs where this one guy I kind of heard of before is performing, anything. There is something spectacular about the world that live entertainment transports you to. You walk into this space surrounded by people with at least one similar interest to you. Then the lights go dark and everything you were worried about that week fades away. Your only focus is now on that stage and the energy in the room. The lights, the music, the graphics, it is escapism.
On March 13, 2020 I had tickets to see Pussy Riot at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. The following weekend I was seeing Mac Demarco at the Observatory in Santa Ana, Ca. Then at the end of the month I scored sold-out tickets for Doja Cat. It was supposed to be the best spring break ever. Of course that was taken away when Covid hit.
I want to be clear that losing concerts was absolutely not my focus during early quarantine. I have no problem giving up my social life in the name of a world-wide pandemic. Sure, I was upset that my plans got cancelled, but I just hoped that I would get a refund or be able to see the postponed concerts in April.
Quarantine gave me time like I have never had it before. My dream summer internship in NYC got cancelled and I was in my childhood bedroom. I decided to give myself little projects to keep up with my art as a graphic designer. I had always wanted to learn 3D programs, so I fiddled with Cinema 4D all summer. It was a harsh learning curve, but I felt more and more confident as the summer went by.
Working with the 3D program and projecting my finished projects onto my wall at night became my new escapism. I would stare at the render progress line for hours waiting to show my family what I made. They looked forward to it too.
Although my concerts were cancelled and I had to move home for a while, I was able to expand as a designer and be experiemental for the first time.
For our first project in Senior Studio I knew I wanted to research more of what goes into a full-scale concert production. I focused on some of my favorite artists, designers, and studios such as Possible Productions, Luke Tanaka from Odesza, Es Devlin, and John McGuire of Trask House.
In the video I created I start off by featuring a few of my favorite concert productions: Kanye West’s “Yeezus” tour by Trask House, ODESZA’s “Moment Apart” tour by Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, Ariana Grande’s “Sweetener” Tour by Possible Productions, Travis Scott’s “ASTROWORLD” tour by Trask House, and Childish Gambino’s “This is America” tour by Moment Factory. I built hype on the concert idea, and then the video turns to black when covid hits. Everything changed for the entertainment industry in March.
Every audio in the video is from a live concert, except for a few quotes from John McGuire about his woras a production designer at Trask House. His statement “Every show is in contrast to black, taking the time in your day to make sure that the venue you are performing in…can actually get black.” resonated with me with reference to Covid. Things might be bleek right now, but you can’t make a show unless the room is dark to begin with.
The second half of my video is my Cinema 4d work that I created this summer and my process projected onto walls in my design studio. I recorded it on my camera and overlayed it ontop itself. I wanted to make each frame stand alone as a piece of art. It is overwhelming, it is being at a concert, It’s escapism.
