Young Songwriter 2024 Trophies
Discover the clever design concept behind this year’s Young Songwriter trophy, by Finnian Smith, product designer, songwriter & bespoke tailor
Last year, I designed The Young Songwriter 2023 collection of trophies with these concepts in mind; to make each one an identical shape, to signify that we, as songwriters, have a unified goal of creating music; each trophy was adorned with a unique pattern because, though connected by our shared journey in creating music, each of us, our perspectives, processes and experiences are unique which should be not just acknowledged, but celebrated.
Most prominently, I embedded a philosophy passed to me by a wonderful, wise and storied musician – Ricky Lee Braun; these are just containers, empty vessels emulating acoustic musical instruments, but they represent the fact that what inspires us to create music doesn’t come from tangible material objects, but from within ourselves.
This year, the trophy designs still uphold each of these concepts, however, further layers of conceptualisation have been added in hope that they might offer some food for thought for this year’s clutch of talented young songwriters…
When producing this collection of trophies, I ran into some manufacturing mishaps. I’m incredibly lucky and thankful to say that my friend, Lauren and her father very kindly came to the rescue and helped me with some essential last minute fabrication… resulting in the lovely, glassy surfaces of the trophies. When offered a bag to protect these delicate pieces in transit, a thought flashed through my mind; I opted to just throw all the pieces in my bag (which I think perplexed Lauren slightly), knowing full well that they’d probably wind up getting scratched and scraped as I travelled around London – lo and behold, I was right, but it was all intentional, I promise!
As any guitarist will tell you, it’s a uniquely gut wrenching experience when you gouge that first imperfect ding in your lovely shiny guitar! But slowly over time, as the dings and scrapes and scratches keep accumulating, you come to realise that these imperfections don’t detract from the instrument, they’re what gives it its unique personality – and what make it yours. Each mark has its own story which stems from an experience, just like the trophies travelling every corner of London and now displaying their own unique set of scrapes and scars and imperfections. For creative people, perfectionism can stand in the way of our creativity. I’d like these trophies to remind you that imperfection should be part of your creative process. Be messy, be playful, be explorers… the imperfections will ultimately make your songs unique and embody your personality.
One thing that I think everyone can agree on is that it’s incredibly encouraging that young people are still interested and flourishing in the art of songwriting. In today’s world of increasing digitisation and mechanisation, it’s vital that organic creative practices like songwriting are propagated and supported for younger generations.
When I was a young songwriter, the promise of the Internet, streaming and the easiness of releasing your music to reach audiences was promised to us. For better or worse, it worked. And yet, we now see that these tools, such as streaming, have brought a devaluation of music and left greater inequality throughout the industry.
And today, further tools are being introduced that these young songwriters are going to have to be aware of. As such, the colourful pattern backgrounds of each of these trophies was created by me with the help of artificial intelligence. My own relationship with this technology is that of an optimistic skeptic, but there’s no doubt that this technology will increase its reach into the creative fields. How that plays out is still unclear, but what is crucial is that our young creators are conscious of it, respect it and develop their own relationship with it; is it a powerful tool to boost your creative abilities, or is it something more invasive?
I love utilising randomness and happy accidents in my creative practice, and as this was an exercise in fast creative turnaround (I made them the night before the awards!) I found that AI provided a productive springboard for me to quickly explore ideas. Each design was chosen by me depending on what instantly resonated, relinquishing my overthinking, tinkering and, honestly, my responsibility. I was merely the curator, if not the creator. Each recipient will have their own emotional reaction to their trophy; from loving it, right through to hating it and everything in between, perhaps even a combination of feelings about it. The point isn’t so much whether you like it or not, but to encourage you to think about how it makes you feel, and to remember that your creative journey is always in an elaborate dance with the world around you.
Congratulations to all the 2024 participants, and keep writing, the world will always need songwriters!
