Every month at Echo, we collect and share a taste of the reading, writing, people, stories, tools and design that have intrigued and inspired us. This past month, we’ve developed a crush on…
…stories through video.
Tony Zhou’s amazing video series Every Frame A Painting examines film and discusses what makes for great art and entertainment. (You might have seen the recent hit Vancouver Never Plays Itself.) In this video essay, he looks at how the type of chair selected by production design is more than a chair – it can say everything about the character and the world they inhabit.
In Praise of Chairs from Tony Zhou on Vimeo.
…when society declared #IStandWithAhmed.
When 14 year old Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to class, the internet rallied against Islamophobia, marginalization, and racism with understanding, encouragement, and humour. Some of our favourite responses:.
From Fast Company: “Mohamed’s arrest and three-day suspension from school have been denounced as indicative of anti-Muslim sentiment and a basic unawareness of what a clock actually looks like.”
From Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, “Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed.”
From President Obama (@POTUS): “Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great.”
From @SpaceCampUSA: “Creative minds are always welcome at Space Camp, and we appreciate donors who help them come. Someone has provided a scholarship for Ahmed.”
…the idea of telling stories in 3D.
Glen Keane, who has animated characters including Tarzan, Pocahontas, and the Little Mermaid, notes that it took him “a lifetime to learn how to draw like a child.” Through the wonderful Future of Storytelling project, Keane shows us here that drawing in virtual reality offers a new medium for expression–and perhaps a new doorway for accessing, or conveying, a child’s imagination.
…the periodic table of storytelling.
We may not remember Dmitri Mendeleev, but we should remember his design–the Periodic Table of Elements–from high school science classes. Here, James R. Harris, of Design Through Storytelling, uses the famous design to identify and list the many storytelling tropes, or elements, that most of us know all too well. It’s filled with elements, or tropes, such as “Star Crossed Lovers,” “Berserk Button” and “Villain Protagonist,” which were culled directly from a wiki called TV Tropes, which was designed to catalogue TV’s weird and wonderful characters and plot devices–but which now, along with the periodic table, simply celebrates stories..
(a story crush, that is) …on Tom Fishburne.
His insightful cartoons and marketing chops mix to create witty and insightful illustrated micro-stories that drive right to the heart of every trend in the business landscape. If you’re in marketing or advertising, his weekly “marketoon” is a must-read.
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