Storytelling through design

Design Management Journal, Fall 2003 by Sametz, Roger, Maydoney, Andrew

Choosing a typeface, or several, to tell a story involves integrating the "inward" and "outward" learning and matching that to the type fonts that support the needed meaning and attributes. And type often has meaning on two levels-its sensory effect (it "feels" hard or soft, friendly or elegant, human or mechanical) and its cultural associations (Snell Roundhand will always evoke weddings; Futura references the Bauhaus and all the associations it radiates, even if not actually identified by the audience; and ye olde Caslon Antique conjures up colonial America). These associations can either reinforce or detract from the sensory meaning. Some faces, of course, have almost no meaning, probably because of their ubiquity: Times Roman, Verdana, and Arial are good examples.

In parallel with Howard Gardner's taxonomy of story types, imagery can be about me-you, a group-community, and/or value-meaning. To build an imagery storytelling building block, the first decision to be made is "Who and what are the story about?" Is it the organization and/or its offerings, the user-participant beneficiary of the offerings, the context in which the "me" and "you" interact, value and benefits, or some combination? In addition to "telling" about the characters in the story (and the character of the characters), imagery can also contribute to setting a familiar context, introduce a "new" element to the story, explain, help establish the back-story, and supply the detail that makes the story compelling.

Content of imagery can be representational or evocative, straightforward or metaphorical. The former is often more appropriate to show a person, place, or thing in a story; the latter connects well to stories of process and value. (Of course, there are no "rules." Even people can be implied. Two coffee mugs and a plate of cookies around a half-completed Scrabble game certainly evokes people even if no one is shown.) Either approach-and there's a continuum of options between representational and metaphoricalshould evolve from looking inward and outward.

Colors, like type fonts, have both sensory readings and cultural associations. Red, while being attention-grabbing and hot, can also mean "stop" and, in financial stories, "red ink" or losses. Primary colors, especially when used together, can either evoke the simplicity of Dick Jane or the canvases of Mondrian and De Stijl, depending on your cultural reference points. But cultural associations are, of course, culture-specific. Red, for instance, is associated with marriage and the birth of sons in China, while white references death and mourning; in Egypt, black connotes fertility. That said, it is often how color is deployed-how the building block is executed-that sets the context, tone, and rhythm of the story.

Making Choices: Execution

All words are not created equal. Through choice of font, weight, size, leading, column width, and use of space, the communication designer can give voice to a story-and vary the volume, pitch, rhythm, emphasis, and articulation in much the same way an oral storyteller does. A blank column creates a pause; a contrasting column width-with type rendered in a contrasting face, weight, or color-creates another level, another character, much as a storyteller does when he or she shifts position. Large, generously leaded type welcomes readers and gets them comfortably seated in front of the teller.