Visualize to Communicate for the Future
The traditional PR or corp. comm. person and those that are successful have been good writers. Mostly PR pros debated over tactics or the spectrum of how to use words and leverage relationships. Tunheim at 21 years old isn't different.
But now it's time to start thinking in pictures, images, and graphic content. Journalists are doing it, as I am trying to illustrate over at Graphic Journalism. Now its time for communicators to do it. And they have to do it fast.
It was a problem our client Izzy's addressed last year with their RFID-driven Flavor Up system.
At #sxsw, Oglivy via #OglivyNotes is doing an excellent job of literally illustrating the future of telling stories. They are using Image Think, as is Alcatel-Lucent.
Each presentation is captured as art. Understandable art. Art that communicates.
The day after the talks, Oglivy distributes posters of the art. I am trying to collect each one.
Design is of course a small element of the work any agency does, but the art of a corporate communicator should no longer only be words. It can be words and images.
This just amplifies the "infographic" phenomenon.
Just as we used to "design" the pitch, now we have to "design" the story and deliver it.