Stories and Design

All change!
Change is good I am told, I hope so because I have changed my company name to Raconteur Design. This one will be around for a good while I feel. For a long time I have felt that there is a strong connection with story telling and design. Not just in the sense of the back of pack story although that is a part of it. Good design tells a story. Historically humans from all cultures have told stories as a way of passing on information and creating deep cultural bonds. On an individual level we all tell stories every day. We tell ourselves stories, we tell others stories. We are a collection of stories, our stories are what define us. We use story telling to connect with those around us to impart on others our unique vision of the world.

Robert Fulford in the Triumph of Narrative says "Stories are how we explain, how we teach, how we entertain ourselves, and how we often do all three at once. They are the juncture where facts and feelings meet. And for those reasons, are central to civilization."

Companies tell stories. If money is not the sole motivator for enteprise, what other 'thing' motivates a company. What pushes this hero past the antagonist, the hardship, little red riding hood's wolf? As Joseph Campbell would say, they are "following their bliss", reaching for their holy grail. These stories engage on a deep unconscious level, they speak to the part of us that connects us all as human, they talk about humanity in all it's nuances.

The process of design is in itself a story, where the client represents the story to be told and the designer, a storyteller. I say a story teller rather than the story teller, as we all tell stories and companies are responsible for telling their story in so many ways, design is just one way. The art of design is visually capturing and telling a story in an instant. "Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact." — Robert McKee

For a story to be compelling it must be many things. It's got to have relevant and personable characters - people you believe in and can identify with. It's got to have an engaging narrative that takes you on a journey. And it has to be told in a way that captures your attention. All three of these parts must be well thought out, and resonate with truth and sincerity. Then a story will be listened to, learnt from and retold to others. It will bind communities and create culture.

I am a story teller. The type that went from place to place, gathered people in the square and transported them, inspired them, woke them up, shook their insides around so that they could resettle in a new pattern, a new way of being. It is a tradition that believes that the story speaks to the soul, not the ego... to the heart, not the head. In today’s world, we yearn so to ’understand’, to conquer with our mind, but it is not in the mind that a mythic story dwells. —Donna Jacobs Sife

Stories talk the language of humanity. They create cultures and identity, with stories go pictures. Icons and imagery created by diverse cultures through time speak directly to the unconcious and bring a culture's story to life. So design is a way of telling a culture's story. It represents that culture, it unites it and translates it's view of the world to anyone who cares to listen.