The Power of Visual Storytelling
“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller.” - Steve Jobs
Stories. They're everywhere.
There’s great comfort in knowing that the Avengers filtered Thanos and his army into thick brown dust, and dear Jack made it safely down the beanstalk before the giants could. Ending the story with victories give young children a peace-of-mind that allows them to sleep soundly at night.
Or real life stories.
MLK, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa. Each individual inspired millions through their tales, raising generations of thought-provokers and change-seekers to fight for their freedom. Their legacies still live on today.
Or the not-so-good side of tales.
Fanatics like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot, with all the power in the palm of a man’s hand to incite terror and death, wiped out generations of people in a short span of time. The epitome of human evil.
Fast forward 40 years, along came Bernie Madoff and Sam-Bankman Fried (SBF). How can an 18th-century looking old man, or a dishevelled, afro mop-top college student convince thousands (or millions) of people to invest in their fraudulent schemes, ultimately leading to devastating financial losses that echo throughout the world?
That’s the power of storytelling.
For peace or destruction. However you choose.
A lesson for parents: the ones with the best storytelling skills — regardless of platform, purpose, or movement — wins over the minds, hearts and emotions of your children.
Of course, until the entire house of cards comes crashing down.
"Migrant Mother" (Dorothea Lange, 1932). An iconic photograph of the struggles faced by working-class Americans during the Great Depression. Hardship and resilience of the human spirit in one capture.
The Greatest Stories Ever Told
Now take a step up the ladder. Let's talk visual storytelling.
Inspiring masses to take action through visual mediums (photography, art, design) has an equal, if not more, power to impact it’s audience than general storytelling through speech and words.
This is true for some reasons:
✔️ Engaging the senses - we feel unexplainable emotions that the image evokes
✔️ Universal language - transcends cultural and linguistic barriers in a way that words cannot
✔️ Memorable - we are more likely to remember an image than a string of words
✔️ Complex ideas - a well-designed visual can communicate a complex concept for ease
✔️ Creativity & imagination - helps develop analytical skills and out-of-box thinking
"Blue Marble" (1972). The view from the Moon.
A simple image transformed civilization's perspective of the world.
Not until the Apollo 8 crew captured their million-dollar view out of their space bedrooms, no one saw Earth as a small, fragile blue sphere floating in the middle of nowhere. This sparked off a global environmental movement by highlighting the interconnectedness of all life on Earth.
One image, lasting impact.
Back down on earth, the power of visual storytelling lies in its ability to communicate a complex political situation. The fate of the 'Tank Man' remains a mystery. But it for sure became an enduring symbol of defiance in the face of violent authoritarianism.
"Tank Man" (1989). A unidentified man faced down a
People's Liberation Army (PLA) tank on Chang'an Avenue, Beijing.
Over the last millennia, visuals of sort have been used as powerful testimonials of human achievement, mythical victories and supernatural tales. Regardless of its legitimacy, humans are drawn to it. We feed on the dopamine effects of these tales and how it transports us into another world.
That being said, combining text and visuals to generate an unspeakable emotion would probably be the best of both worlds (especially seen in advertising). I'll leave them here:
Dentistry Group (2019)
Heineken (2009)
Mcdonalds (2021)
Lesson: when your child looks at a visual, they're telling themselves their own story. Their sense of imagination & curiosity is heightened. From beginning to end, the stories they consume will inspire action (or inaction).
But more than that, what stories are your children telling others?
The ability to tell stories in the 21st century is not a nice-to-have. It's a necessity in this highly complex, technology-laden present (& future). And to stand out purposefully in this ultra-competitive world, your child will need the creativity to come up with the most compelling stories to move people.
In a sea of sameness, humans crave for an authentic voice to guide them forward.
Children who tell themselves the right story, and then proceed to inspire others with the same story, will become leaders of tomorrow.
Be well,
Miss G (@gladyssoh)
