Over the course of six months, Debbie Millman worked with a group of Graphic Design students at the Academy of Art University, to guide them in constructing visualizations of their personal stories in a workshop entitled The Art of The Story.
Read more about Debbie’s take on visual storytelling and to see some of the personal, heartfelt and honest visualizations that arose from the workshop–
>>Click Here (automatic pdf download)
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Debbie, it makes total sense that heartfelt expressions of personal stories are so compelling. They’re integral to our culture.
American values like intimate expression, overcoming personal obstacles to achieve unique goals, and individualism are the culmination of a European culture that goes back to the Paleolithic Era.
The role of the shaman stayed important in Europe, where hunting culture persisted for a long time past the agricultural development of the Near East. In Europe, the mythological foundations of societies came from one person who related his personal, unique realizations to the group.
The shaman, psychologically ingrained within his community, but willing to embark on a personal, lonesome spiritual journey, returned to his companions with idiosyncratic pictures and sounds and essentially communal ideas. Stories about his deeply introspective venture justified community values in a cosmic sense, and he was regarded as a Holy Man.
We still value the will, drive, and determination to go out there and find our own story in the wilderness, and we celebrate it through art.