This weeks class was held online and by David Henderson from DHD. David took us through our Storytelling lecture this week by sharing his experience and knowledge that he’s built up over the years in this industry.
The Art of Storytelling –
David spoke with us of the importance of creating an emotional connection with our users by using storytelling and demonstrated this with a brilliant example to help us understand were he was speaking from. He showed us the usage of Christmas ads and specifically the John Lewis ads and how these help create a picture to their customers by using storytelling and bringing their customers on a journey with them. This was good a examples to showcase storytelling by the use of cinematology and how the story was told with little words and more on the picture John Lewis wanted to create to connect emotionally through the connection of family and love, “winning over hearts and mind”.
When David gave this example to demonstrate how storytelling takes place in things like advertisement it had me thinking about what Christmas ads brings me through a story and that I feel I have an emotional connection with to demonstrate further how storytelling can reach out to users and viewers of service or product like myself.
One advert that jumps to my mind when I think of storytelling is the advert that was created by Iceland for Christmas back in 2018 that was banned for TV use because it was too political called “Theres a rang-tan in my bedroom, and I don’t know what to do “. I remember seeing this in my Business class in A-level and seeing it being covered over the news on the political standard that Iceland were setting for a Christmas ad and never really understanding why it was banned when all Iceland was trying to do was highlight an issue.
This ad was very smart creating in a story non-fiction type of way where as a user you got to listen to a story being narrated by Emma Thompson about a orangutang in a child’s bedroom and her not being able to get it out. But the story has a deeper meaning and brings the users along the story perfectly before projecting to them the issue that the story is trying to highlight in a cartoon story way. The backstory of this is was about an orangutang and the destruction of its rainforest habitat at the hands of palm oil growers.
As a fewer of this at the time I was transported into the world of this story of this orangutang and with how the story was told and how it brought me through the funny side of the orangutang messing the little girls room up till the dark reality of humans destroying the orangutang world had me so emotion and had me further wanting to know more about why this might be taking place in the really world. Iceland’s founder, Malcolm Walker stated at the time “ It would have blown the John Lewis ad out of the window. It was so emotional.” And truthfully it really was emotional and I thought was one of the best Christmas campaigns at that time as it brought me into a world that I wasn’t aware through the use of creative storytelling.
How storytelling affect the brain –
David also explain to us how it is crucial that when creating a story you aim to connect with users as the brains releases a neuromodulatory molecule called Dopamine when it experience an :emotionally charged event” which simples helps you remember that moment more accurately. And because of this we can use it to our benefit when it comes to our user to allow them to feel excitement or sadness when they are going through the story that we can trying to tell.
I found this quick Ted Talk called “how your brain responds to stories — and why they’re crucial for leaders’ by Karen Eber on Youtube that demonstrating what take place in the brains when you are being told a story.
This talk starts off with Karen telling a story about a girl called Maria who dropped her phone in-between an elevator gap (weird story I know), she goes on to talk about how she was responsible for a business of 90,0000 employees in 150 countries and that telling stories like the one she did at the beginning of this talk was a great was to connect with people and get her listeners to think what they would do in the situation she was telling. She explained how using data to get your point across usually overpowers the work of the story your trying to explain and that storytelling and data create a power ballad that will allow your listener, users or readers to connect with information differently.
The video then goes through how your brain receive and contain information and which areas keep track of what you’re being told. Two parts of the brain are active when your receiving information this are called ‘Wernicke’ and ‘Broca’s’ areas and these area are where we process our information and why we can forget 50% of it. However, Karen explained that when we are given a story scenario our brains light up and these will trigger our senses and emotions in that moment when we are engaging with information. It’s natural in every human setting to picture the event of a story taking place and your brain working through the process of the story that you are being told in that moment.
This talk was really insightful and I thought explained the workings of your brain when being told a story perfectly.
Brand Identity –
David then spoke through some case studies that DHD have completed recently within their design studio. One case study that I loved listening David go through and how they aimed to create the story was with the ‘Silent Valley the story’ case study. He explained how they were involved in the creation of the A.R. experience working with another coming in America. DHD created a promotional film with the aim to bring the viewer through the journey that would take place when using an application that spotted QR codes around landmarks in Northern Ireland.
Visual Storytelling
David then took us through some Visual Storytelling points to consider, these include:
- Tell the users what they need to hear
- Combing imagery, text, animation and video
- Allowing users to understand how the service or product with help them
This then allows me to think pop what to consider for my Apollo project and what my user will want to see, hear and what they need in terms of content usage of text, animation, imagery and video. When I am including these element into my project it is crucial that it is done correctly to ensure that it fits into the story well and helps with the flow of where I am wanting to take my user.
To conclude this week lecture I enjoyed getting to hear David speak. This was the 2nd time we got to have a talk with David and this time around I loved getting to see his in take and understanding behind the topic of storytelling. I thought he delivered this lecture well and has me thinking further about my users and ways that I can create my story of a newspaper style design and help develop this through the tell the story of the 3 men who made it to the moon.