Start with a Story
— When inspiration doesn’t come easily —
As a solutions-focused designer, our Creative Director Russell Toynes has a particular dislike for designing posters. The gross creative freedom with a lack of purpose and direction leaves him feeling completely overwhelmed. Over the years as a design educator, he’s found that many of his students have similar feelings. If you were lucky enough to catch Russell’s talk at the 2022 Brand New Conference, you know that he learned that he finds comfort in working within boxes. One tip for building boxes and conjuring inspiration, he picked up from his college professor, mentor, and good friend, Oen Hammonds. Oen, an insanely talented strategist and designer, has designed several posters for Art Crank, After Hours, and IBM. When Russell asked him how he was able to design thoughtful yet simple posters that everyone loves Oen shared the secret to his creativity. "I write a short story."
Designers are, or should be, natural storytellers. We weave ideas into visuals. We carve a path for viewers to consume information online. We help navigate readers across a webpage, business card, menu, and even posters. So when we are not given enough information to help guide our design we need to give ourselves some breadcrumbs to follow so we can make thoughtful and informed design decisions along our journey.
Writing a short story doesn't and shouldn't contain design direction. Rather, it should evoke inspirational ideas and opportunities. For example; Art Crank, a poster show where the only requirement is that the theme needs to be about bicycles. A very logical marketing focused designer like Russell will sit and spin his wheels running through all of the possibilities. But Oen shared the visual story he used to guide his pen(tool). The children's rhyme, “Jack and Jill went up the hill”. He now had visuals generated by the story that would help guide his design direction. At a minimum, the story helps put up some guardrails to keep the design exploration focused.
“Jack & jill rode up the hill to fetch a pail of water. A car hit Jack and broke his crown, and Jill chased after.”
The concept of storytelling is particularly necessary in building a brand. When cool and trendy is what is requested of a brand, we can quickly find ourselves subconsciously copying what we see around us. Without a story and a concept we get the hipster logos of 2009-2014. Not quite awful but far from good, and definitely not memorable or unique. Whether designing a sign or a brand identity we have to ask "why" to everything. Answering the “why’s” help build the boxes needed to focus design thinking. But, more importantly we avoid wasting time with the rock fetching exercise of “I’ll just know it when they see it. A short story that articulates a brand’s values and purpose gives us something that will keep everyone, design and partner, moving in the same direction.
A short story for building a brand might be something like this;
With the goal of disrupting the sign industry, a small family-owned business with roots signage, wayfinding, and traditional design, is committed to changing how design and signage is valued in construction and development. They are passionate about elevating the experiences that required building signage brings to a space. Their background, education, and process are unique, setting them apart from others in the signage and design industries. They believe that instead of clients they have partners. Together they are working to climb the mountain and reach their goal of doing good work for good people.
This short descriptive narrative allows a ton of room for visuals for logos and naming, but more importantly allows for exploration. There is enough fodder here to blow out a visual identity and give it the legs needed to grow beyond a logo mark.
With storytelling comes elevation and inspiration, driving creativity in all its forms. Design needs specificity and intentionality, and storytelling is a very effective and necessary tool. If you find yourself staring at your screen, lacking direction, start with a story. You’ll be surprised where it takes you. But you don’t have to take our word for it.
