In this lecture we were taught of how narratives are essential in a creative's design process.
As Aristotle quotes "A whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end." Of which we can now refer to as a 3 act structure, which can be linear in its sequence of approach, or can be non-linear in that the narrative can not seem to run in order. This is seen when some popular films start with the conclusion of the story before the previous information is revealed.
The linear approach to narrative, is what which is illustrated in the diagram above. The setup of the story then leads to a peak of confrontation before actions working to end with a final resolution.
This is known as Freytag's Pyramid
Rather Quiller Couch noted that he thought there was 8 essential stories in which are narrative seeks to explore. These were believed to be man against; man, fate, society, supernatural, machine, god, self or nature. And in the case of the recent Ben Stiller movie "Walter Mitty", each of these is individually explored to make up the narrative of the full film.
Exposition- e.g. crawler text in the star wars franchise films (setting scene and context). This leads on to the narrative- this is an account of connected events, "that which can be narrated" (Feldman) in order to usually visually narrate an explanation of a solution. Examples of companies which work on the premise of connecting events- are feed music.com, basilico. Finally denouement- ends with the story you were really trying to convey throughout, what is the; issue, event, characters and context.
Story Based Meanings
Story Based Meanings
Duarte- " The audience does not have to tune themselves to you- you need to tune your message to them".
This is meaning that in the narrative of these companies, the meaning was predetermined and this lead to the evolvement of the story around what they want. An example of this is from the shoes brand TOMS. This company was established in order to fundamentally resolve the effect of poverty on material possessions in poorer countries- yet they were unsure how to go about this. This is the ESTABLISHMENT stage. Then it was noticed that "an absence of a shoe" was significantly prevalent, and the EPIPHANY OF PHILOSOPHY to change this came about. In order to supply suitable shoes to those who needed them, they initialised a "one for you, one for me" kind of approach in which when someone purchased a pair of TOMS, a pair was paid for for someone who needed them too. REALISED AMBITION came when this style of shoe became a trend, in which more and more purchases, resulted in even more shoe donations to those elsewhere.
Structure
- IMAGERY- redbull "aussie fishy story" illustration and cartoons are used to portray the narrative.
- TONE OF VOICE- Massimo Vignelli sets a style in which can be seen in his book designs.
- SYMBOLS, ICONS, AND COLOURS- should have a 'glance ability'. Miles and Civaschi's "life in 5 seconds" symbols for stories. Logo design such as sony vaio- portrays sound waves and binary code within to merge analogue and digital. A.k.a semiotics.
- HIERARCHY OF INFORMATION- how to present- e.g. rules like in pixar's 22 rules of story telling. e.g. short and sweet, "i have a dream", memories or 6 word story rules (Ernest Hemingway) in which a limit of 6 words is best e.g. "for sale, baby shoes, never worn".
- NAVIGATION- is the narrative linear or non linear. Does the moment gradually increase of is there peaks of interest and engagement like in Christopher Nolans' visualisation of interest pieces. Colour can navigate scenes, as script colour (incredibles colour storyboard), Plutchik's 'colour wheel of emotion' as a guide for movement between colours.
Poiesis- to make
Praxis- to practice
Theoria- to look at
