Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in communication design. We use various examples to shed light on how storytelling is evolving, how it charges content with emotion and how it makes products and topics attractive and approachable.
In keeping with the season, our photo section takes you out into nature. Martina Borsche focuses intensively on how scents and the emotions associated with them can be captured in images. Xiaole Ju combines an artistic with a documentary approach and shows us the Ruhr region in a way that is both charming and unusual. Gabriel Röck also went outside and collected the garbage that people are increasingly throwing around. He has turned the garbage into a very unusual book and asks: "Why do we put up with it?". A new look has been created for mobile.de, Germany's largest used car portal, and it is particularly exciting to see how design decisions were made - because often neither the customer nor the agency had the final say.
Graphics+ "Storytelling"
Storytelling sells things better, as you learn at university. But the art of packaging something in a story and making it emotionally accessible doesn't just make products appear more attractive. It also makes rather unwieldy or unpopular topics accessible. For example, a team of students and experienced publishing experts designed the coalition agreement as a magazine, making important but dry information interesting. In Oldenburg, a climate campaign is now showing how citizens can benefit from climate protection. Without any finger-wagging, but with plenty of humor and a trendy design. Designer Gary Hustwit has tried out a completely different kind of storytelling. He portrayed the musician and artist Brian Eno and created a film that is composed anew and randomly at each performance. Storytelling thus becomes a product of chance, but it also shows that stories can always be told differently. It is precisely this quality that makes them so fascinating.
The cover
The cover of this issue also tells a story. It begins with "Once upon a time" and leads into the magazine through punched holes, allowing insights and perspectives. Sophisticated blind embossing makes the theme tangible in Haitian terms and the Curious Particles Natural Lily Flower paper itself tells an exciting story. The natural paper from Antalis has organic inclusions of flowers and plants.
The cover was printed with a spot color, the die-cuts were made with a Heidelberg platen and the specialist company Bölling activated an old MAN maternity press for the embossing. Only this had enough power to emboss the lines and structures with sharp edges.
The cover motif was designed by Theresa Göser with support from Tobias Holzmann.
The showroom
Two contributions in our showroom in particular demonstrate what timeless design is. Lora Lamm shaped many brands in Milan in the 1950s and 1960s and even today her work has lost none of its charm and radiance. Clavius' designs are partly reminiscent of the eighties and nineties, but something unmistakably new is created here when the designer mixes typographic craftsmanship with references from pop culture. In Copenhagen, the creative minds at Studio Morfar combine emotional design with data-driven growth strategies, while Format Design focuses on added value in packaging design, branding and events.
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Grafikmagazin 04.25 shows what successful storytelling design looks like. This issue also offers many practical tips for your work.
You can order Grafikmagazin 04.25 with a focus on "Storytelling" here, free of shipping costs (within the EU).
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