Mackenzee Simms / Contributing Writer
Step Sing is an integral part of the Samford culture and will celebrate its 70th anniversary this year. One of the ways groups build excitement for this event is by displaying beautiful banners in the Caf.
The objective of the banners is to present the title of each Step Sing group’s show without giving away the theme.
“We wanted to create a vague but also very intriguing design for our show,” Anna Caroline Kirkland, the artist behind Freshman Girls’ banner said.
For some groups, manipulating their show title to believe their true theme was a breeze, while other groups had more trouble.
“The name ‘Current Events’ presented a very easy path to follow when creating an idea for the banner,” Alpha Omicron Pi’s artist Madi Schrenker said. “Whenever I thought about current events, I instantly thought of the news and thought a newspaper would be fun to do.”
Artist Maddie Lee had a more difficult time working with Alpha Delta Pi’s show, “Swiped.” She said it took a lot more brainstorming before they settled on the Dora the Explorer theme for the banner.
Every group also encountered their own set of trials and tribulations while painting their banners.
Lee began painting Alpha Delta Pi’s banner, but as the paint dried, it began to peel off, prompting her to switch to wall paint.
“I had to go out and buy all different paint,” Lee said. “What was hard about that is that they didn’t have the exact paint colors I wanted. If I had more time I could have mixed them myself but I didn’t.”
Other artists talked about the difficulties they faced as well.
“I spilled a lot of orange paint on an area of the banner that is white, so that set me back a little bit,” said Tri Delta’s artist Sloan Jolly, “Fortunately, the white paint that I used is pretty thick so it was able to cover the spill.”
Each group put in an incredible amount of time and effort on their banners, with work times ranging from 10 hours to two days. Despite all of the hard work and difficulties, most of the artists were pleased with the final product. For Sloan Jolly, what the banner represents matters more than the final product.
“The whole idea behind these banners and Step Sing in general is to have fun, so at the end of the day, I am happy with the idea that the banner is a part of a show that is forming so many great memories for so many people,” she said.
