Visual storytelling means using both words and pictures equally to tell a story or present a message. In visual story telling, both the text and the images are an essential part of what’s being said, and the readers won’t understand the meaning if one is missing. That’s different from, for instance, an illustrated book or article, in which the images are less important than the text and which readers can understand even if the illustrations aren’t there.

Visual storytelling is one of the oldest types of communication. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics contained both symbols that stood for sounds, as modern letters do, and others that illustrated entire concepts or ideas. Chinese writing works in a very similar way today.

Familiar types of visual storytelling include infographics, comics, graphic novels, cartoons, and animated videos. But the more you look around, the more you realize how much a part of modern communication visual storytelling has become. In fact, given the importance of apps like Instagram and Snapchat, and the use of emojis and gifs in texts and on Twitter, it’s not an exaggeration to say that visual storytelling is now the way people communicate with each other.

What makes visual storytelling so effective? Science shows that people understand and retain information better when visuals are included. Using text and images together gets more of the brain involved in learning and, at a time of ever-shortening attention spans, visuals and text engage audiences more efficiently than either do on their own.

At Breakthrough Visuals, we understand how visual storytelling works, no matter what medium our clients choose. We use warmth, humor and creativity to make hard concepts easy to understand and interesting ones even more interesting. Let’s talk about how we can help you tell your story today!

“ Thank you for your important contribution to the Princeton Theological Seminary Reunion. In words and images you mirrored the spirit of the three-hour session in a form that allows the participants to revisit the shared feelings, messages and commitments from that event for years to come.”

~ Frances Baldwin Ed.D., Designed Wisdom, Inc.