In an excellent example of brand narrative, the release of the M6 line from Nike/Jordan is accompanied by the launch of an interactive site full of behind-the-scenes storytelling content as told by the shoe’s designers.

While pondering how to help tell stories using the sense of smell, We Love You So came across some interesting finds – two perfumers who offer evocative scents that have very little relation to their traditional counterparts.

Over the summer Vancouver hosted its sophomore edition of the Good Ideas Salon. The topic: Good Ideas in Storytelling featured a diverse and talented panel.

The other day, we highlighted some of the ways that magazines are diversifying their business models to remain both relevant and solvent as more and more of their audience moves online. We suspect (and hope) that print and by extension, traditional storytelling will always have its place, but there is clearly a shift towards multimedia narratives – combining video, audio and other interactive features – taking place as more publications bolster their reporting with additional content available online.
While this trend is most noticeable among print magazines that are attempting t0 adapt their product to the web, there are also a [...]

Core77’s limited-edition bicycle, the Dutch Master, combines a number of our favorite trends as of late – two-wheeled transportation, local craftsmanship and provenance – into a stunning piece of rideable design that pays homage to New York City.
They explain the thinking behind the project:
The Dutch Master is based on the beloved Worksman cruiser frame–a workhorse foundation used throughout the New York delivery community, and manufactured in Queens, New York for over 110 years. Core77 customized the frame, fitting it out with a carefully curated set of components, each with its own story.
The bike was hand-built by KT Higgins, a Brooklyn-based [...]

What adds value to the items we own? Beyond quantifiable and tangible factors like price, performance and comfort, we find slightly more vague notions that rely more on an emotional than intellectual response. Attaching meaning in this way, is a phenomenon Rob Walker calls an object’s narrative, the memories we associate with inanimate things, from their provenance to their mere existence at significant points in our lives. It helps explain why we hang on to wedding dresses when they no longer fit and refer to beat-up caps as our “lucky hats.” But what happens to value when we learn the [...]

Tickets for the PSFK Good Ideas Salon on June 25th in Vancouver are no on sale. Join hosts Brett & Matt for their panel discussion on Good Ideas in Storytelling. Panelists include Douglas Coupland (Author and Artist \\ Generation X, Hey Nostradamus, Microserfs), Leah Nelson ( Producer, Giant Ant Media) and David Allison (Unique and luxury Property Placemaker/Designer, Braun Allison)
Tickets available here.
Event home page: http://www.goodideassalons.com/vancouver/

How are we connected? Well, there’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter… you know the list. But what about something bigger, grander, that connects us on a global level? That’s the idea behind the Global Oneness Project, a special project of Kalliopeia Foundation, “a private grant making foundation committed to honoring the unity the lies at the heart of life’s rich diversity.”
More than just the warm and fuzzy, this project is an extensive online library of beautifully crafted short films and interviews about folks dedicated to social responsibility on the really big scale. The fluid and moving videos feature people such as youth [...]

Wired columnist Scott Brown informs us that the traditional model of storytelling is broken.  From Brown’s perspective, our tried and true formulas like Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” and Freytag’s Pyramid that involve a simple narrative structure – beginning, middle and end – no longer adequately convey the multidimensional complexities of our plugged-in, have it your way in an instant style world, but thankfully he has already compensated for all of that. He offers us his new dramatic model – Brown’s Ziggurat (in 4-D!)tm. And even goes so far as to test his theory on one of our generation’s seminal tales, “Die Hard.” Using [...]

Storytelling is a powerful thing. Ever since our parents read us bedtime stories, we’ve depended on narratives to help us interpret the world around us–and to escape it.