We had a Storythings awayday yesterday, and were very lucky to have Will Hudson, founder of our fave It’s Nice That, as our guest speaker. Will is incredibly smart and humble about the company and community he’s built, and the thousands of creatives it has showcased and directly supported. It was very inspiring, and I admitted to Will that I often use INT to for creative fuel - in fact, there’s two INT links in today’s newsletter!

Listening to Will reminded me of two things - firstly, always tell the people who make awesome things that you appreciate them. Will talked about how getting feedback from creatives was so important to him personally as he grew the site and company. And secondly, building a space for people to make awesome things is essential. We talk about creatives a lot, but not often enough about the people who hold spaces like INT open so that generations of talent can find their voice and get paid to make work. If you can do that, it’s an incredibly valuable and rewarding thing. I hope we do that at Storythings, even if it’s not at the scale of what Will has achieved.

💻 DATA POINT: I’ve linked to the full report below, but Anthropic’s survey of 81,000 people’s needs from AI found that 14% wanted ‘personal transformation’ from AI - “Within this category, the desires were diverse, ranging from cognitive partnership and collaboration (24%), to support with mental health (21%) or physical health (8%), and even romantic connection with AI (5%)”. I’m tapping the sign again - REMEMBER! IT’S JUST MATHS!

Don’t Mix Up Artifacts with Processes (5-min read)

The Curious 100 (100 profiles of interesting people)

The V&A’s Tiny Book Collection (4-min read)

Unbore - the creative ad school for B2B marketers (lots of resources)

Do Not Launch a New Short-form Unscripted Vertical Video Show (6-min read)

What 81,000 People Want From AI (scrollytelling report)

Why PBS is Here To Stay (57-min watch)

20 Years of Laika’s Stop Motion Films (6-min read)

Nippets - a Hand-drawn Animation Game (1-min watch)

📣 Designing For Your Audience’s Next Superpower (4-min read) 📣

Don’t Mix Up Artifacts with Processes (5-min read)
I’ve talked about how much I love Paul Ford’s tech writing before, so I’ll just encourage you to subscribe to his company’s newsletter if you want smart takes like this, a really useful definition of what AI does and doesn’t do.

The Curious 100 (100 profiles of interesting people)
Via friend of Storythings Ben Young, this is the second year that the Eames Institute have announced a list of 100 creative curious people. It’s a great intro to a very diverse group, and I like that they’ve included a category for ‘Protectors’ - people who defend spaces where curiousity and creativity can thrive. As I mentioned in today’s intro, that work is absolutely vital.

The V&A’s Tiny Book Collection (4-min read)
This is just too cute - make sure you watch the video embedded in this article to see just how tiny some of these books are. Some are smaller than a fingernail!

Unbore - the creative ad school for B2B marketers (lots of resources)
I really wish we’d made this at Storythings, as we’ve been talking to clients about breaking out from boring B2B marketing for a while. Dive in for lots of great resources and tutorials to ‘unbore’ yourself.

Do Not Launch a New Short-form Unscripted Vertical Video Show (6-min read)
Kareem Rahma, the genius creator behind Subway Takes, is not really saying that you shouldn’t make a new short-form vertical video show. He’s been a lot smarter than the headline suggests, and this a great read about creating formats with real intent, rather than copying what you think works for the platform. Originality will always stand out!

What 81,000 People Want From AI (scrollytelling report)
I saw this in the WITI slack channel via Steve Bryant, and although it’s marketing for Anthropic, its actually pretty even handed. Although, as the data point I quoted above shows, we really need to worry about people who are using AI for emotional support.

Why PBS is Here To Stay (57-min watch)
This session from the SXSW currently happening in Austin is on my to-watch list. I’ve had a couple of really good conversations recently with people in the US, EU and elsewhere about how we can make sure public media survives it’s current crisis, and this interview with Paula Kerger, CEO of PBS, looks like it will give me more hope.

20 Years of Laika’s Stop Motion Films (6-min read)
The first of two brilliant creative articles from It’s Nice That this week. I was only going to include the next one, but then they just dropped this article on the new book from Laika, the genius stop motion studio, so I had to include it. I’m very excited for their next film, based on the Wildwood book which I loved reading with my kids.

Nippets - a Hand-drawn Animation Game (1-min watch)
I saw this link from It’s Nice That when I was scrolling through their homepage yesterday on our awayday, and told Will that it was going straight in the newsletter. It’s a gorgeous hand-drawn animation game where you have to find hidden objects. But you can also pet cats - I’m sold!

📣 Designing For Your Audience’s Next Superpower (4-min read) 📣
I wrote this for the Attention Matters newsletter last week, and it’s a reflection on some of new skills that we’ve all learnt through digital technology over the last 15 years, including a prediction for what the next ‘superpower’ might be: “The most surprising and important lesson I learned is that digital technology doesn’t change industries - it changes people. It’s only when tech is adopted by users at scale, and helps us all gain new skills, that it then changes the industries we all use and rely on.”

Krishna Stott posted a teaser for the upcoming Modern Audiences Festival, including a session with the team who made the incredible film Grand Theft Hamlet. I like the core message - “don’t wait for permission to build something!”

READ HIS LINKEDIN POST HERE →

Drop us a line if you have anything you’d like us to share in a future edition of this newsletter, or of course if you have any comments or suggestions for us!

Have a great weekend!

Matt, Anjali, Hugh, and the team