Truism

I've always admired artist Jenny Holzer and how she can evoke a story with simple statements: she calls them 'Truisms'. And at the heart of every good story is just that: one, pure universal truth about the condition of being alive – or just being. It is an observation so startling that it can't be contested and in fact, you wonder why you hadn't been able to articulate it yourself. That is what great brands achieve and deliver: an artful, elegant, true story.

AT

PS: on account of the interweb, you can now follow Jenny Holzer on Twitter for minute by minute truisms.

Signs That Say What You Want Them To Say And Not Signs That Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say

Gillian Wearing exposes in her art the opposition between public and private faces. She called her work 'editing life'.

When I look at how people use brands I often think how we use them to tell the public world a story about who we are: or rather how we wish to be perceived by others. They are a way of protecting our private selves from disclosure. We carefully edit into our lives the ones which best represent our desired public persona.

And look at how brands are facilitating this in the way they present themselves to consumers: linked-in says I'm networked; facebook says I'm social; fairtrade says I'm ethically aware; Nike says I challenge myself. The list goes on.

Perhaps in the future, brands will start to facilitate a more open, revealing dialogue: a collective experience. A confessional platform for group catharsis, closing the gap between all of the fragmented versions of ourselves that exist out there digitally.

AT

Optimistic Design

Rochelle Canteen

Labour and Wait

Canteen

Design as culture

While not being explicitly 'british' - all these brands tell a story of a very classic and understated form of british design and lifestyle. They carry a sense of improvement through design, and refer back to the mid centruy period of design and industry that had such optimism and drive that it is still inspirational (for me at least) today. They express a form of design that is open, eclectic, collaborative and thoughtful, and also is aware of it's place in a wider movement of modernism which swept across northern europe through the 20th century.

And they do all this through the combination of space, product and people. Their spaces are meticulously designed expressions of what they stand for. They represent the 'content' perfectly and help tell the story of the brand in a well balanced and implicit way. Their product / content is of course the main reason to visit these places - and in each case they are outstanding examples of their genre. And the people who work there appear to live/love the brand - embodying the values through the way they interact with people - the best kind of brand advocacy.

And so, on the subject of expressing identity through design and objects, these are perfect examples of businesses and organisations who manage to tell a story of themselves, of what they believe in and what they are inspired by.


RT

Clever clever google

We all know google are the masters at making us all look good. Their platform model allows users to shape the internet in their own image. And now they are letting users tell the story of how great google are for them. Smart, cheap, elegant, emotional and very human centred - very google.

RT

New Weather

One of the poems that makes me fall in love with words all over again. It made Paul Muldoon a poetry megastar at just 21 years old: now he is poetry editor of the New Yorker. Sparse and painfully plain. Not a word is misplaced. Pure art.

AT
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Wind and Tree

In the way that most of the wind
Happens where there are trees,

Most of the world is centred
About ourselves.

Often where the wind has gathered
The trees together and together,

One tree will take
Another in her arms and hold.

Their branches that are grinding
Madly together and together,

It is no real fire.
They are breaking each other.

Often I think I should be like
The single tree, going nowhere,

Since my own arm could not and would not
Break the other. Yet by my broken bones

I tell new weather.

by Paul Muldoon

Experiential Theatre

I want to go and do this. Dalston's Cafe Oto is hosting Etiquette, an interactive, experiential piece of theatre and wonder. You go with a partner; put on the headphones and enact the play with the objects in front of you, laid out on the table. You become the actors and the action. What a fascinating piece of experiential design: makes me think about how brands are engaging with consumers in this cultural context. Where people expect to be given the props and the stage, rather than the play. Because everytime it unfolds, it is different, unique. Each participant can carve out a moment in a crowded, public space. And passers-by might not even know what they are doing; imagine how much more you will learn about the characters having actually embodied their story.

AT

Storytlr

Just got wind of this today - what a cool/wierd idea. Storytlr is a site which allows you to aggregate all of your various blogs, flickrs, twitters and the like, and publish a story about yourself (it's another anit-vowel name too, that must count for something ...).

Seems to be fascinating next iteration of "web 2.0" and I look forward to seeing how it develops. However it develops though, what an amazing leap of lateral thinking that gives people a whole new way to express themselves and who they are.

Maybe this is the digital version of collecting objects that express your identity?
RT

Oscar Wilde & wallpaper (Objects and Identity)

A less famous story, but instructive none the less - when asked why he thought America was such a violent society, Wilde replied "because you have such ugly wallpaper". Now, the start of the following theory i have to attribute wholly to Stephen fry - but it supports my theory so there you go ... The argument runs that human beings have done our best to despoil the greatest beauty available - nature. Compounding that is the fact that so many of us choose to live in 'ugliness' created by ourselves (Wilde was an aesthete, and a pioneering interior designer), so what must that do for our sense of self worth and how we value others? And finally, living in ugliness, and devaluing ourselves and those around can only, eventually lead to violence...

I like this line of thought particularly because it makes explicit the fact that we do value our surroundings, the things we own and use, and the relationships between all these things. We spend our lives building an identity - for the outside world, and for our internal world. And we do this through the stories we tell about ourselves, and also through the objects we collect around ourselves. Through an implicit and explicit selection process we build a visual version of ourselves that we trust to help tell our stories ...

Which leads me to the fetishisation of objects. Check out Apartamento Magazine for a beautiful realisation of this process in a magazine. It's fun and thoughtful, and honest. And it allows the stories of the interviewees to come to the fore (through their stuff and their selections), and to not be overrun with stories of the designers or producers of the objects (in contrast to other publications).




So while this post is leading nowhere in particular - and there are a few incomplete and under explored ideas here - it will be a recurring theme over time.

One to return to and explore ...
RT

Quote of the Day

"The universe is made of stories, not atoms."

Muriel Rukeyser

Ideas to Live By

What an artful invention: making the art of living a physical space. The School of Life is a place to find space to think, converse, debate, articulate and all other such things. A place to explore ideas and ask questions: from philosophy to literature, psychology to arts. To stretch your mind. To find inspiration. Can you tell I love this concept? I'll stop soon, I promise. But you've got to agree that it is a genius idea to take the abstract world of thought and make it accessible by creating a place to go and find it. And this month, as well as a series of lectures and courses, you will find book shelves dedicated to: How to make the journey inside your head, How to find a job you love and How to find pleasure in everyday things. Once more: awesome.

AT

Telling your Story to the World

Enough said (and eloquently, too). Hear, hear to Strategic Design and Branding company Swink.

AT

In Troubled Times

A 3,500 sq m House of Barbie opens in Shanghai in March, where visitors will be able to visit the spa for hair and nails; a shop of make-up accessories and couture fashions, including a $15,000 Barbie wedding dress by Vera Wang. And by night, one of the restaurants becomes a hip bar, complete with karaoke, a DJ and pink martinis. And you can have your baby at the new Hello Kitty hospital in Taiwan. Cartoon stories being reinterpreted for adult consumers.

Makes me think of where we retreat to in times of complexity. In China, people are being bombarded with Western culture at a startling rate and are greedy for the opportunities and exposure this brings. By becoming Barbie and embodying her story, they can assume her easy materialism and confident persona to navigate the new world: “Barbies want to talk to Kens. You have to have a place for that.” And by Hello Kitty's side, even childbirth seems less daunting. It is a comforting regression to the stories of childhood.

AT

Wonderful Documentaries

24 Hours on Craigslist
Tea Time

Two films with superficial and deeper connections.

Firstly they are great documentaries which explore human stories, behaviours, desires and the way they enact them. They both start with a wide range of 'characters' and allow the stars to emerge as the film roll on.

But, they also both explore from the point of a central hub, and follow the connections that emanate from and cross through that hub. They are both about society, networked-ness and the importance to humanity. And most importantly, they both let the story emerge naturally - and allow the viewer to understand and feel the implications for themselves.

Enjoy
RT

Devolve Me

Devolve me is a lovely and simple app on the open university website where people can upload their own photo and have yourself turned to different ages of man. What a great way to engage people in where we come from and how we got here - an endlessly complex story. And also, a great way to start to tell the story of Darwin, a man responsible for so much of modern thought...

RT

I Want a Handbag

What whimsy. Selling gloves and handbags can be a story too when they become a series of micro stories.

AT

Well Tell Stories

We Tell Stories

Wow, look what happens when you cross a thriller with GoogleMaps; follow the story of a teenage girl live on twitter; or transport yourself to Arabia and the shoes of a president with protesters rousing outside. When two unexpected mediums collide, it is pure alchemy. Imagine all the possibilities of crossing technology with stories -- a treasure hunt story with SatNav? Hide and Seek with Google Latitude? A story with carefully curated iTunes soundtrack intervals?

AT

Haughty Seagull

originally uploaded by Sameli.

I love the pointlessness of the sign - who is it addressed to? And the utter disregard of the gull on top - sticking it to the man!

It raises questions like - where is this sign? what is the context? who decided? and what is the problem they were trying to solve? All stuff we'll never know, and all stuff we could make up for ourselves...

RT

hello

Everyone, everywhere is bandying around this term: Storytelling. But what does it really mean – turning a page; round the campfire; a gripping yarn?

For centuries people have told stories to simplify the world, understand information, remember, be remembered – and most importantly for plain entertainment.

We are living in complicated times, so these reasons seem as valid today as ever before. And we have more tools than ever before to tell them.

This Blog is about exploring the stories that inspire us everyday – and sharing them, to inspire you – hoping in return you'll share back your stories with us. When you look, you see stories everyday, everywhere...

AT & RT