Hello!

The Storythings team got together in London this week for a two-day creative challenge – make a story about something or someone that is usually hidden. The results were great, covering the life stories of everyday bags, Soho’s hidden noses, the invisible workers behind every art gallery, and the world of fake art. A lot of our work at Storythings is about telling the story of parts of businesses that are hidden, but essential – like payroll, finance and HR – so if you’d like our help bringing your hidden stories to light, we’d love to talk!

Our creative show-and-tell session Proper Fancy is back on Thursday 25th July. It’s online and open to everyone. Bring a link or join on mute/no camera. You are all welcome!

We might finally have a bit of sun in the UK this weekend. If the weather is good where you are, go out in the sun, go for a walk, and try to find a hidden story yourself. We’d love you to share them with us if you do!

Matt

Every Story Framework in One Big Chart (large image)

How We Made Eno, the First Generative Film (5-min read)

We Are Now Entering the Age of Slop (8-minute read)

Steve Jobs’s talk at the 1983 International Design Conference (10-min read, 54min talk)

The Four Quadrants of Newsletter Growth (5-min read plus useful worksheet)

A 2×2 for How to Use AI (5-min read)

Milk (2-min trailer)

The New Golden Age of Wrestling (8-min read)

How the Broccoli Perm Became the Definitive Gen Z Haircut (10-min read)

A Story Told Through Snow & Ice (40-sec watch)

How we can help you

Storythings is the content marketing agency of choice for some of the world’s most forward-thinking B2B brands and organisations. Here are 2 reasons to get in touch. 

1. “I don’t know what to do” – You’ve been creating content but it’s not having the impact you need. Talk to us about our Content Audit Workshop.

2. “I need something making” – You know what you want to make but need an agency to make it. We can help make your podcast, video, publication, animation and newsletter. We do other things too. Get in touch for a FREE 30 minute consultation. 

Every Story Framework in One Big Chart (large image)
This is an incredible act of curation and design that will be like catnip for all our subscribers. In one image it maps out the similarities between pretty much every model for story structure you could name, from the Hero’s Journey to Dan Harmon’s Story Circle (a Storythings favourite) and even the Scientific Method.

How We Made Eno, the First Generative Film (5-min read)
Director Gary Hustwit and generative artist Brendan Dawes have collaborated to make a documentary about Brian Eno, using a new system they designed called Brain One (get the anagram?). It’s not just a new film, but a new way of thinking about film structure, and a new way of thinking about generative AI and art: “So, I think that a lot of times now, AI, it’s like a land grab. Everybody’s just out there just grabbing any kind of thing they can, and people sort of feel powerless. I think of Brain One and what we created for Eno as more like gardening.”

We Are Now Entering the Age of Slop (8-minute read)
The flip side of Eno’s smart take on generative creativity is what Ryan Broderick brilliantly identifies as ‘the Age of Slop’, where the feedback loop of harvesting training data for AI and creating content optimised for algorithmic feeds descends into a spiral towards nothingness: “And now everything has to meet these two contradictory requirements. It must fill the void and also be the most popular thing ever. It must reach the scale of MrBeast or it can’t exist. Ironically enough, though, when something does reach that scale now, it’s so watered down and forgettable it doesn’t actually feel like it exists.”

Steve Jobs’s talk at the 1983 International Design Conference (10-min read, 54min talk)
To restore your faith in creativity after the world of slop, go to the Steve Jobs Archive for this brilliant presentation of his talk from 1983 about how computers will change society. There's so many great predictions here, but the most important thing is that, for Jobs, our computer world must be one thing above all else: beautiful.

The Four Quadrants of Newsletter Growth (5-min read plus useful worksheet)
We’ve written a lot lately in our Attention Matters newsletter about how to build great value propositions and drive audience growth, and we love this short and practical framework from newsletter guru Dan Oshinsky. Bookmark this, and use it – we definitely will!

A 2×2 for how to use AI (5-min read)
And here’s another great, useful framework from Noah Brier from Brxnd AI on how to think about the kinds of problems AI can solve. And as a bonus, a smart comment about why AI can’t deliver world-class creative work by itself. Amen, Noah!

Milk (2-min trailer)
I was lucky enough recently to see the full version of NFTS graduate Miranda Stern’s documentary Milk. it’s a beautiful and technically innovative film about uncovering her mother’s life story through boxes of photos, films, slides and other creative ephemera. It’s a deeply personal, brutally raw and moving short documentary. This is a link to the trailer, but try to track down a screening of the full doc if you can.

The New Golden Age of Wrestling (8-min read)
I’ve long been fascinated by the role of storytelling and world-building in professional wrestling. When we ran The Story conference, I spent a couple of years trying to get a writer from pro wrestling to come along and talk, to no avail. So I loved this essay about why wrestling is entering a new golden age, and why it’s all down to characters with great stories, like the brilliant “Timeless” Toni Storm, who performs as a perfectly coiffured 1920s film goddess.

How the Broccoli Perm Became the Definitive Gen Z Haircut (10-min read)
I first jumped on this because it answered something I’ve been wondering for years – why did all my daughters’ male schoolfriends have really dodgy perms? The answer is a brilliant illustration of how culture spreads now – from K Pop pioneers, professional footballers and TikTok influencers, to every other kid you see on the street.

A Story Told Through Snow & Ice (40-sec watch)
With the Paris Olympics just around the corner, I’m looking forward to more examples of one of the great storytelling formats – the TV sports trailer. This is one of my favourites, from the BBC’s coverage of the 2020 Winter Olympics. It’s a simple idea, beautifully executed.

We hope you've enjoyed this week’s newsletter. I’m sure some of your friends would love to read it. Sharing it would be really appreciated. If you’ve received this from a friend, you can subscribe below and get it direct to your inbox every Friday.

Thanks for reading. We’ll see you all next week.

Hugh, Matt, Anjali and the whole team at Storythings.