"Utilization of narrative design is the key concern
when developing visual communication"
Our lecture with Stephen was a focus on narrative and how to incorporate this into design. Essentially, as designers, we are told that when we create something, it has a meaning/story behind it, that we need to consider this when we are creating a piece of work.
"A whole is that which has a beginning, middle and end" - Aristotle
Looking at Arthur Quiller-Couch, his ideas theorize there are only seven kinds of conflict between man; a character, and another opposing force, which creates seven different plot strings. From protagonists to using conflict against society, using Quiller-Couch's methods to apply to any plot means you can generally assume one conflict is brought up in every film. This method although very broad had another conflict, machine added, to associate with our growing world.
Exposition:
"Setting context, beginning" the description of an idea or event. The exposition is the establishment in any narrative plot, for example, in Star Wars, the rolling narrative at the beginning of the films allows the audience to understand what is going on and to set up the rising action to the film. Usually in Star Wars, the first hour or so is establishing what is about to happen in the finale as seen with the main character Luke, who spends half the films trying to work out who he actually is.
Narrative:
A narrative is the spoken/written account of connected events. The narrative is the main focus of any film, primarily telling the story for the audience. From a point of view of a designer we need to demonstrate/illustrate the solution to a problem of the narrative. I need to visually narrate the solution when creating my own graphics, which is the focus of my proposal, to come up visually with a solution for a problem (space)
Story Based Messaging:
Story based messaging goes along with the idea that when you feel emotionally invested into a story, or, from a designer, product - you're more likely to invest yourself in it. If it's based upon a story or narrative then it's far more emotionally pulling at. For designers this is something we should consider when creating our work, as this would be more of a selling point than something that isn't carefully looked into. The principal of this is that the audience does not have to pay any attention to what we say, rather we need to tune our message in and give them the attention as to get our product going forward. In Pixar's Paper Man, the story is emotionally pulling and more interesting because it inflicts our emotions and is relatable.
Paper Man
Hierarchy of Info:The minimalist the better. With hierarchy, it's more about narrowing down your narrative to create something that's more striking and have a more lasting impact than writing more. Ernest Hemmingsways 6 worded story is an example of this "For sale: baby shoes never worn" it's far more emotionally impacting and leaves open the enigma of what the story is actually about.
Pixar's Colour Palette - The Art of Pixar
Denovement:
For someone developing a visual story, ask:
- What is the story you really want to tell?
- What is the issue?
- What will be the events?
- Who are the characters?
We, as designers, should be asking the questions to the narrative and establishing one throughout our design and products to get more of a response from the audience; particularly with our proposal this is something we should consider.
