Excitement filled the air and rumblings of anticipation raced through the auditorium as students and participants of Step Sing 2023 filed into their seats and not-so-patiently waited for the event to begin. One by one, the banners so painstakingly designed and executed by each group dropped down, displaying riddle after riddle of show titles and false themes.
On Jan. 8, the Sunday evening before Spring semester classes officially began, students filled the Wright Center auditorium for Banner Drop 2023, their hellos and reunions accompanied by the buzz of the audience waiting to see how other groups designed their misleading banners this year.
This tradition is the first event to kick off Step Sing season at Samford and acts as the catalyst for all of the conversations that begin circling around campus in the hopes of figuring out the themes of the groups before they are revealed at the big performances. Each Step Sing group is tasked with creating a banner that features the name of their show but is elusive enough to keep their true theme secret.
Each year, one group wins Banner Drop; the banners are scored on design, creativity, and artistic vision, and the group whose banner has the highest score wins. The members of the winning group get early access to Step Sing tickets, which become a hot commodity soon after they begin to be sold.
Independent Ladies, also known as Indie Ladies, was declared the winner this year. Indie Ladies is a group of women who are not a part of any sororities on campus. Chrissy Williamsen, a committee member for Indie Ladies, was solely in charge of the design and execution of the group’s banner this year. Williamsen, a junior studio art major at Samford, shared her thoughts on the process of creating the winning banner.
“I just wanted to do something creative, fun, and playful,” Williamsen said. “I love to paint so I wanted to have fun with it.”
In terms of artistic decisions for the design of the banner, Williamsen commented on both the group’s ideas and her own personal inspirations.
We wanted to do something creative that would complement the show but also wouldn’t give it away,” remarked Williamsen. “A big inspiration was superman, {specifically} the quick change and classic media around him.”
Williamsen also discussed allusions to the true theme that are cleverly included in the banner design.
“The woman’s dress is the color of our costumes and the cat’s eyes are green, which matches our villain,” she said.
Though she said she was proud of her victory in painting this year’s winning banner, Williamsen also expressed that winning was not her main motivation and she just aimed to have a good time through the entire process.
“I went in with the mindset that I wanted to make it the best of my ability. My competitive nature wanted it to win but there were some other good banners,” Williamsen commented. “If you’re not having fun doing the banner, then what’s the point?”
Another banner that tends to receive more attention than others is that of Sigma Chi, specifically because they have a tradition to reuse their banner every year. This tradition began seven years ago, quickly becoming an integral part of Sigma Chi’s Step Sing season and one that Samford students across campus talk and joke about relentlessly whether they are a part of this long-standing Samford event or not.
Noah Griffith, a senior journalism student and returning director of Sigma Chi’s Step Sing show, shared his thoughts on and experiences with the fraternity’s banner drop tradition.
“We know that it’s not going to come out as the most artistic, but we know that people are going to be counting on seeing it and even if it’s not the best, it’s always talked about, and it causes a lot of buzz around the show,” Griffith said.
Griffith has been a part of his fraternity’s show for all four years at Samford, acting as an emcee freshman year and finishing out his last two years here as a director. He remarks on how much the brothers of Sigma Chi enjoy and are dedicated to the banner tradition.
“I think our guys love it. Our guys would rather us use an old banner and they’re always backing us when it comes to reusing the same banner because it’s become such a tradition,” commented Griffith.
He also discussed hidden details and aspects of the banner that reference thereference the true theme of their show every year.
“The banners always have hidden meaning; last year the outline of the bat was the same outline as the masks we used in the show,” said Griffith.
Sigma Chi’s banner never fails to generate widespread conversation and ridicule, but that does not bother members of Sigma Chi in the least. Griffith expressed how the brothers embrace all of the comments and talk around their banner.
“It’s definitely the ugly duckling of the pack but gets a lot of buzz around it,” he said. “By reusing, we’re able to convey the same sort of mystery behind banner drop while also providing comedy which fits our ability to make funny shows.”
Griffith further commented on how the banner subverts expectations of the fraternity’s show each year.
“I think the banner does a good job of downplaying what we bring to the table, and it causes people to underestimate our performance. Every year, people wait to see how we can reuse the banner and it brings a certain infamy around it,” said Griffith.
He went on to remark on this year’s design choices and execution, as well as a lesser-known tradition also pertaining to banner drop.
“It’s a tradition that we do the banner an hour before Banner Drop which makes it more fun too,” Griffith declared. “This year we bought 20 packs of band aids from the dollar store and went to town; we were trying to give away a doctor’s theme with the band aids, [which] also go with the name of the show because they’re ‘stuck’ to the banner.”
Griffith once again seemed to embrace certain reactions to the banner, specifically those of people helping with Step Sing.
“The Wright Center workers didn’t even want to drop it because it looked so bad which I loved,” Griffith expressed.
Though it is his last year in Step Sing, Griffith shared his hopes that the tradition of using the same banner will continue to be upheld by future Sigma Chi show members, and that they might win Banner Drop in the future.
“It’s going to be hard to reuse it next year, but we always try to use the same things every year. One day, it’s my hope that the creativity of reusing the banner will cause us to win,” he commented.
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