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Creating brand stories through comics

I made a deal with the students enrolled at Media and Interaction Design that there will be zero PPT learnings in our classroom. Students' engagement and experiential learning was the key assessment criteria of the course. So as the media practitioner I engulfed the classroom into storyboard making sessions, where students had to write brand stories in eight paneled sequential comic mode, which is known to the Brand world as ‘brand storyboard’.

I was astounded with the creative liberties the students took and created some impeccable brand stories.

In the comics history, the use of text and space is very relevant (McCloud, 1993).

The five takeaways for you being taught by B-school professors are:

The represented visuals in the comics should be necessary for the story to unwrap, else it is a badly illustrated script. That is exactly how brand ideas are! You elevate the necessary script and erase the rest. The entire practice of making storyboards teaches how to prioritize brand storytelling in your next idea pitch.

Storyboards can enrich journey maps by adding an image of the user's context in various stages of interacting with a product. Visualizing a user’s device, office space, and group setting helps your team and stakeholders empathize with your user’s situation Rachel Krause, 2018).

Brand message should be clear and simple and clarifying it to a client can be difficult if there is no communication medium in between. Brand pitches are usually successful if creatively retold to the buyer of idea- respectfully the client.

Practices such as this storyboard sessions successfully ignites the minds and activates the out of box thinking.

Written by:
Dr.Rajeswari Saha
Professor at International School of Business & Media
ISB&M, Nande