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I’m a big believer in visual storytelling.

This can be a tough one for PR professionals who come from the world of words. Yet, between assignments overlapping into owned media and the increasing use of mobile devices to access content, visual storytelling takes on greater importance.

With this in mind, my blog — which doubles as a laboratory — conducted several experiments in visual storytelling.

Some worked.

Others didn’t.

Thankfully, nothing exploded.

I strove to create original artwork — riffing on an existing image still counts as original artwork by our definition — for roughly 50 percent of the posts.

Below, I’ve captured 16 of these visuals.

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All in with Business Storytelling
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AmarilloSlimHoldEm 01-15

Metaphors can create a frame for fresh artwork. In this case, the poker phrase in the headline “all in” carried to the photo, where I added a storytelling bent. Plus, how can you go wrong with depicting Amarillo Slim and Elliot Gould in the same shot?

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Industry Pundits on Google Using Its Corporate Blog for the “China Bombshell”
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Frosted_Flakes_box_a

This is one of my favorite images from the year. A box of Frosted Flakes carries the message while the post revisits Google’s decision to dial down its operation in China.

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Should HR Be Telling Stories?
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Job_Journey-336x1024

When Alexander Mann asked me to talk on the connection between storytelling and HR, I put the concept of a timeline to use. Different forms of timelines can tease out visual stories in an interesting way.

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A PR Perspective on the Demise of Gigaom and a Few Words on Tech Media
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GIGAOM_1 (1)

There’s beauty in simplicity. In writing about the demise of the high profile media property Gigaom, I “borrowed” the infamous Elvis phrase. I refer to this technique as a “word visual” — the use of words to construct artwork. It’s a natural for PR folks.

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Man Bites Dog; Makes Plea for Your Input on the Name “Ishmael’s Corner”
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illustration-for-blog_2

Illustration is underutilized in business communications. In depicting the unexpected phrase “man bites dog,” we again prove anything is possible when it comes to illustrations. Taking the visual a step further, we experimented with motion using an animated GIF.

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Return of Ishmael’s Greatest Hits
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Ishmael's_GH

I always wanted to do an album cover. The problem is my voice makes my eight-year old grandson sound like Frank Sinatra. But recasting blog posts as songs and channeling Bruce Springsteen, we created this gritty album cover.

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Seven Issues That Can Crush Today’s Business Writing
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Spoonful of Sugar 11-15

Keeping with the musical theme, this time using Mary Poppins, we bastardized one of the lyrics to fit our purpose. I should contact Julie Andrews to see if she might be open to reprising the song with our twist.

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Never Eat Ramen Alone, Speak Like a Human and the Future of Digital Advertising
CS can be dangerous

Viewing any type of “surface” as a potential frame for visual storytelling is a natural way to insert words into the image. I bet you didn’t know that the Surgeon General has determined that “corporate speak” is dangerous to your health.

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Shaping a Blog Design for Thought Leadership
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FixWretchedBlogDesign_1

I also consider this a “word visual.” The creation of the flow chart didn’t call for design expertise. Instead, the words carry the storytelling.

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Google Job Description: Doodle This
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.einstein_google

Poking fun at a Google recruitment ad, we again turned to an illustration packaged as an animated GIF with motion. I suspect Google’s HR did not add “mettle,” “clever” and “curious” to desired characteristics for job candidates.

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Why Organic Search Should Be Called Earned Search
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Belushi_650

The same qualities found in memes can be replicated in the creation of artwork for blogs and other social channels. The iconic photo of John Belushi in Animal House adjusted so he shouts about SEO delivers one of my favorite storytelling techniques: incongruence.

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Author Reflects on the Harmony of Words and Visuals in Storytelling

illo-1

We can’t take credit for this wonderful illustration. As part of the interview with Ella Frances Sanders, author of Lost in Translation, she provided the wonderful artwork that accompanied the post.

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Tyrion’s Persuasive Language in This Game of Thrones Passage Puts TED Talks to Shame
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This is the cover of the Slideshare deck that supplemented the post on persuasive language. No question about it, famous faces can elevate B2B visuals.

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Five Storytelling Techniques to Give Business Communications Lift Off
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Shape_of_Storytelling

Here’s our own version of the classic story arc that set up a post on storytelling techniques.

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Sifting Through Journalists’ Gripes and Grumbles for PR Lessons
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Woman on Phone Vintage 07-15

Hyperbole works with both words and visuals. Here, we take what is practically a cliché in the PR-versus-journalist tug-of-war and have some fun with it.

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49 Days in Provence Terminé
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49Days

As noted earlier, every “surface” has potential as a visual. In this case, I took the infamous Peter Mayle book cover and twisted it for this post.
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I’m fortunate to have a crackerjack design team to lean on led by Chauncey Hill (creative director) and Bonnie Lamb (editorial services director).

Still, if you dissect what went into creating these visuals, you’ll find many of them were simple projects that don’t call for industrial-grade design.

That’s the power of bringing words into the picture.

This will be my last post of the year. Wishing everyone a healthy and successful 2016.

And hoping you continue to stop by the “neighborhood.”

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