Architecture, graphics, lighting, and the storytelling component of the exhibition content create a potential experience for visitors.” She then uses design tools like color and typography in her designs to visually tell a story. When I asked about how she does this, she responded, “As a museum curator, creating exhibitions is a primary opportunity to work with different designers to create a total experience. She is a museum curator at the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and she gave some insight into how she brings brand attributes to life through different media. Part of this journey of reading Design is Storytelling for me involved emailing Ellen and asking her questions about the book. This helped them create a more meaningful, personal experience for visitors. They used a heat map to indicate emotional highs and lows, which gave them insight into how and where design should be placed. Ellen specifically mentions the Louisville experience design agency Solid Light, and how they used emotional journeys to map out an exhibit on the Civil War. These highs and lows worked together to make an experience for you, and you walked away with a perception of it. There may have been sad parts of the exhibit, there may have been funny moments. Then when you entered the exhibit, different signage, sounds, and maybe even smells guided you through the space. It somehow sparked your interest, and you had a rough idea of what it was going to entail. You were exposed to it somehowâmaybe through an email or from a conversation with a friend. Before you ever stepped foot into the exhibit, the experience of going was already working on you. Think about the last time you went to a museum exhibit. One of my favorite parts of the book was the discussion of emotional journeys. By weaving these stories together to fluctuate over time and space, we can create experiences that really move people. Design never sits still, just like a story. You eye coffee packaging while you impatiently wait for your morning cup, stare at a billboard while stuck in traffic, or nervously look over a menu on a first date. While ‘things’ like a logo or billboard may be static, the way we experience them is not. If we can extract brand stories and bring them to life, we can then use design to better tell those stories. It’s how tales were passed down, how we learned from each other, how we made social connections. It’s connected humans for thousands of years, before text was ever written down. Storytelling may sound arbitrary and fluffy, but when you think about it in context, it makes sense. She claims that by keeping this in mind and by using these tools to extract brand attributes, we as designers can create brand stories, better communicating with people. She then goes into detail about how we experience design and how it can and should be a sensory experience. She discusses tools that cross both the writing and design world, like narrative arcs, storyboards, personas, and more. The book is separated into 3 sections: ‘Action’, ‘Emotion’, and ‘Sensation’. In Design is Storytelling, Ellen draws parallels between, you guessed it, design and storytelling. “Designers today produce more than logos and cereal boxes they create situations that stimulate the mind and body over time.” It’s helped me objectively see how and why design can be so impactful, and why it means so much to me. Since then I’ve read the book twice, and it’s radically changed how I approach design. Ellen gave her keynote on designing for the senses, and a couple of times she referenced one of her books Design is Storytelling. Having heard about her since my time in design school, I was thrilled by the opportunity to attend. During the 2017 AIGA Louisville Design Week, renowned designer, author, and curator Ellen Lupton gave a keynote that, not to be dramatic, changed my design life.
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