The Value of Storytelling with the Campus Signage Project

As we’ve discussed in class, creating a project or writing an essay involves more than simply imagining the final draft as the most important component. The process can be just as important, if not more so. With storytelling, a reader or listener usually doesn’t want to simply know the ending of a story. People who hear or read stories want to know about the journey, the rising action, the climax, the characters’ thoughts and actions, and the events that occur along the way. If someone were to only read the last chapter of a book or only pay attention to the ending of the story, he or she would lose valuable insight, information, and even emotional experiences that the process, or journey, of a story holds; the same concept remains true for creating projects.

            When someone considers the content that occurs in between a story, he or she would realize much thought, planning, creativity, focus, and passion goes into the content that happens between a story’s beginning and end. I think the same relates to essays and projects. Creating a successful document involves a detailed process of drafting, research, and analyzation of the materials, evidence, or tools provided. With the signage project in particular, the class learned about what makes a successful sign, and what does not. By using a storytelling method when presenting our signs, we are able to recognize both the essential steps that need to be taken to produce a successful document and what exactly constitutes those steps.  

            Telling the process of redesigning in a storytelling method allows a writer or creator to utilize critical-thinking skills. He or she must carefully consider what design strategies work, which ones do not, and why. This method also provides opportunity for creativeness and reflection; both practices force the one implementing them to connect themselves to their work. Using a storytelling method to explain the redesign causes the creator’s attention to become focused on the importance of the process. Reflecting back on this journey of creation allows one to see just how much effort he or she contributed to making a successful redesign. Storytelling can also serve as a creative outlet from the standard, professional forms of communicating ideas by means of standard essay writing. The creativity embellished within storytelling can allow a designer/reader/creator to examine material differently than he or she would with regular academic assignments; this allows that person to take different approaches to their work and to form unique conclusions and observations that he or she may not have had when thinking about this project in an academic, expository manner.