How to Write to Excite, Ira Glass on Finding His Voice and Why We Really Care About Logos

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10 stories we've enjoyed this week

Illustration by Kiev-based illustrator and graphic designer Taisia Povaliy - Work with her

Hi All,
As mentioned last week, we're just about to kick off a big piece of audience research looking at how we find, use and share stories, now. We want to find out how these behaviours have changed since the pandemic and what this means for an organisation's content strategies. It's something we've been looking at closely for some time. Now we're going to dig a lot deeper. We're looking for commercial and non-profit partners. Find out more about the project and how you can get involved.

We're hiring a new audience researcher to help with this and other research projects. This post is closing soon so apply now or share with anyone you think fits the post.

Finally, we're doing some work with the Permaculture Association and would love it if you could help us by taking part in this survey.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend.
Hugh

The Short Story

How to Write to Excite
(Deck)

Humans of New York: Venus' Story
(13 part Instagram story)

Seeing Faces on a Big Screen
(7 min watch)

Ira Glass and Michael Lewis on Finding Your Own Voice
(30 min listen)

There Are Three Kinds of Thinker. Which One Are You?
(3 min read)

Subconscious Writing and Jeff Tweedy's Mumble Tracks
(8 min read)

The Secret Reason We All Care Deeply About Logos
(4 min read)

5 Great Ways Libraries Got Creative on Tiny Budgets
(4 min read)

Why Opening a Window Might Help You Think Better
(5 min read)

A Street Photographer's Photos of Ukraine 2001 - 2021
(Photo gallery)

A man wearing a straw cowboy hat, sun glasses and a blue shirt is standing in a library holding a a sign that says 'FREE'. To the left is a white board with the word 'Zero' written 4 times and $0 symbol written three times in large letters.

How can we help you?

Storythings is a strategy and content company based in Brighton and London. We'd love to help you with some creative and bold ideas.

Here's 3 reasons to get in touch.

1. You want to talk to us about content production: podcasts, videos, animations, illustrations, editorial.

2. You want to talk to us about content strategy or format development.

3. You want to create a brand or an identity that makes it easier to communicate your message.

We do other things too. We're very friendly and always enjoy meeting people, so get in touch.

The Full Story

How to Write to Excite
Corporate writing often suffers from too much logic, not enough magic. Writer and Strategist, David Stevens has created this brilliant deck filled with references and exercises to turn your writing into something people care about. Excellent stuff!
(Deck)

Humans of New York: Venus' Story
This is such a rollercoaster of a story. It's brilliantly told, as we've come to expect with HONY. I should warn you, this story does contain abuse. It got me in a few places but none more so than when I reached the end and went back through every photo, one by one.
(13 part Instagram story)

Seeing Faces on a Big Screen
Our favourite video essayist, Nerdwriter, takes a very close look at how superhero movies aren’t the only movies worth seeing on the big screen. I do believe that massive faces emoting on a massive screen can be just as powerful as action and explosions.
(7 min watch)

Ira Glass and Michael Lewis on Finding Your Own Voice
Ira Glass, the legendary host of This American Life, chats to The Big Short and Moneyball author Michael Lewis. Ira remembers having no confidence in his early days at NPR and demonstrates this with some unrecognisable early recordings. Michael looks back at his problem with pacing. Both had a turning point when they became 'me'. It's great to hear such talents talking about their craft this way.
(30 min listen)

There Are Three Kinds of Thinker. Which One Are You?
A short but interesting read on the three varieties of thinkers.
(3 min read)

Subconscious Writing and Jeff Tweedy's Mumble Tracks
We often encourage writers to start by writing subconsciously. Get 'draft zero' on the page without giving it too much thought. It might feel like a waste of time to begin but when you return to your work later you will find something that can be crafted into gold. Songwriter Jeff Tweedy writes lyrics by singing subconsciously along to a melody. Just noises or meaningless phrases. He calls these mumble tracks. Anyone who sat through the eight hours of 'Get Back' will have watched Paul singing nonsense lyrics for weeks before landing on the final lyrics for 'Get Back'. It's a huge challenge for creatives to trust their subconscious mind to come up with something of value but it's such an important part of the creative process.
(8 min read)

The Secret Reason We All Care Deeply About Logos
Nobody cares about a logo until it changes. Then everyone does. The new retro Burger King logo was a hit with fans. The new Gap logo, on the other hand, upset fans so much that they ended up ditching it and returning to the old one. Our love of logos is not about design but about memories: "It’s always been about what a logo represents. Logos are a shortcut to memories. Take away the logo, and you remove the connection to all of those moments you associate with that brand...So not only do new logos hold no meaning (this has to be built over time), but they also take away the thing that did. A double whammy to the audience we’re trying to attract."
(4 min read)

5 Great Ways Libraries Got Creative on Tiny Budgets
I don't think I've ever seen a better advertisement for libraries than Curbside Larry.
(4 min read)

Why Opening a Window Might Help You Think Better
Why Is This Interesting dives into recent studies that show how the amount of CO2 in a room can impact our mental capabilities. All I could think about whilst reading this was all those stuffy, stinky classrooms of my childhood.
(5 min read)

A Street Photographer's Photos of Ukraine 2001 - 2021
Juri Nesterov’s photographs show us life in Kyiv as it was before.
(Photo gallery)

We hope you've enjoyed this week's newsletter. I'm sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you've received this from a friend you can subscribe here and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading and see you all next week,

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the team at Storythings

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