Have you ever seen those cool images on social media in which most of the frame is a still photo except one part that is moving, like the water or clouds? That's called a cinemagraph and this week I discovered that they are deceptively difficult to do well. Reading This week's chapters in Animated Storytelling… Continue reading Motion Across Media Module II: Mixing Motion
Motion Across Media Module 1: Basic Motion
Intro In my first week of Motion Across Media, I learned about basic animation using Photoshop and Animate. I also branched out from those programs to dabble in ProCreate on my iPad. Using my mouse to create layered animation was fine, but it turns out that I can't draw with my wireless mouse, and I… Continue reading Motion Across Media Module 1: Basic Motion
Building Community through Engagement
I was born and raised on the campus of a boarding school in Connecticut. I also attended that school from grades 6-12. It's probably not a huge surprise to find out that I now work at a boarding school in Connecticut (though not the same one.) This experience gives me a special understanding of the… Continue reading Building Community through Engagement
Paid advertising on social media – because there’s no such thing as a free lunch
When I first started working in non-profits, social media advertising was in its toddlerhood. I worked for a regional theatre that was an early adopter of the importance of having a social media presence, but struggled to move past more traditional forms of marketing. While they have grown with the times, those early days of… Continue reading Paid advertising on social media – because there’s no such thing as a free lunch
Creating Brand Community
This week I'm focusing on brands that go beyond having a social media presence to those who truly create a community online. The two brands that I'll focus on in this article are GoPro and Grove Collaborative. Both brands are utilizing social media to build a community around their products. GoPro GoPro, which makes the… Continue reading Creating Brand Community
Selling a dream: A social media audit of Den Outdoors
Den is a fairly new small home architecture company that sells plans, kits, and pre-fab houses. Their aesthetic is a beautiful mix between simple farmhouse or Scandinavian design and modern architecture. The company features a manifesto which states “Den began because we know that building a cabin changes who you are, having a cabin changes… Continue reading Selling a dream: A social media audit of Den Outdoors
Gatekeeping doesn’t need to be a dirty word
I left Facebook in January of 2016. I had burned out on the constant drama surrounding the election and decided that I was tired of hearing even the opinions that I agreed with. It took some time to stop automatically typing facebook.com into the search bar when I opened my browser, but eventually I retrained… Continue reading Gatekeeping doesn’t need to be a dirty word
How cognitive bias affects storytelling
Storytelling is deeply interlaced with our experience as a species. You may think of the bards of Medieval England or Viking-age Skalds, traveling the land and collecting stories. Or perhaps you think of an old grandmother recounting a fable to her grandchildren to help them learn an important lesson about fairness or honesty. But storytelling has… Continue reading How cognitive bias affects storytelling
Malicious Manipulation: The Deadliest Sin in Visual Storytelling
This is a jackalope. This image, which is on a postcard currently framed in my office, is the reason that I thought this antlered rabbit was a real species until I was 12 years old. Well... that image and the fact that my father told me about all the jackalopes that used to run around… Continue reading Malicious Manipulation: The Deadliest Sin in Visual Storytelling
For the love of Pearl
This story is for the dog people. If you aren't a dog person, you probably won't understand. Dog people connect with their pets on an almost cellular level. They become part of who we are. We love them, cherish them, forgive them. Even when they eat the remote. Even when they throw up on the… Continue reading For the love of Pearl
