A collaboration between marching band and graphic art students at McIntosh High seems to be a winning combination for the Spirit of McIntosh Marching Band as their competition season gets off to a successful start.
When Band Director Barbara Baker was thinking about props for this year’s show titled “True Colors,” she thought it might be interesting to have the band students work with students in the school’s advanced graphic design class to produce some imagery to use during the performance.
Baker approached fellow teacher Lauren Schell-Bozone, the school’s graphic design and production instructor, about the collaborative idea and Bozone was onboard. The band students met with the graphic art students to discuss the music and concepts of the show, and from there Bozone’s students divided into teams to create designs based on the information from the meeting.
“They presented very diverse and artistic representations for us. We selected one team’s work and had it made by a company in Texas,” Baker says.
A total of 20 props designed by McIntosh students are now being used in the “True Colors” show.
At the band’s first competition of the season, the Stateline Showdown at Heard County High, they earned general effect points and received many compliments, according to Baker. The band also earned all superior ratings in the categories of band, color guard, drum major, and percussion, as well as best in Class AAA. The band was ranked fourth place overall.
A few weeks later at the Georgia Contest of Champions at East Jackson High, the band received all superior ratings in band, percussion and color guard, with the color guard also earning “Best in Class.”
