What's your Story?

Watching the Grammys last night I suddenly remembered a dream of mine. Growing up in the MTV era (when they actually played music clips), I had my heart set on creating music clips of my own. Something about telling a visual story in 3 minutes was very appealing to me. That, and A-ha's "Take on me" creative music clip.

In a way, being a designer, I am living up to that dream. I tell visual stories in the spaces I create, except, I don't have 3 minutes to tell it, I'm on the tighter one tenths of a second end of the time frame.

visual story boards help people envision their new spaces

They say first impressions are lasting. This idiom, true to meeting people, is true to spaces and even more so in commercial spaces. Just take a walk at any high street or busy shopping mall and look at store front designs.

Many office spaces miss the opportunity of creating that good first impression. Or what we designers like calling - That Wow moment.

Which brings me back to the Grammys (which I felt did not deliver anything new or exciting this year). There has to be a story, some sort, of a narrative. While it's common to have TV programs scripted down to the shoe laces. Many spaces lack that type of attention to detail.

In office spaces companies need to use this opportunity to further ingrain their corporate brand, not just on their web sites and logos, but also in their physical space. If employees are surrounded by a space that communicates their company's values it's easier for them to feel part of that company.

Any good design will start with a story, a narrative if you will. How you would like people to interact with your space and amongst themselves, will give you the start of the narrative, and like with any good novel there would be layers added to that narrative. Light, color, sound, texture, are just some of the examples of these layers.

Just communicating your story with your designer will allow for a start of a productive and successful design process.

So what is your story?