Mapping Narrative – Guide

December 20 2019, 0 Comments

Create a diagram/map of your three narratives or your campaign by visualizing its structure.

Create a 16″x20″ artboard/file within which to conduct your mapping process. (Feel free to work by hand/off the computer and scan etc. in order to present this digitally.)

Map the narrative arc of each medium. Use your research (i.e. content/raw materials/imagery etc.) that you have been finding and aggregating.

+ Imagery (photographs, drawings, diagrams, charts, maps, textures, colors, etc). Please pull from your visual research (See Assignment After Break post.)

+ Textual content (could come from a text source, or be derived for transcriptions of audio interviews, surveys, contextual copy or other language found in things like artifacts such as signs, conversations, letters, menu’s, instructions, etc.)

For a narrative, think about the following:
Define the narrative arc of your story — what is it?
Does it have a conflict and resolution?
Is it linear? layered? or circuitous?

What kind of “shape” or structure does it have? Once you have created the main abstraction of your narrative, begin to break up and distribute your text/elements across it. What are the important passages? Moving moments? Indicate particular points of importance, such as shifts in tone, ideas for images from your narrative image list, as well as their form (i.e. photographic, drawn, diagrammatic, etc.) You can use post-its if you want to be able to have different things to move around and try in different locations.

For a campaign, think about the following:
What is the goal of your campaign?
What are its potential components or “parts”?
What venues/mediums might it use, and why? (based on your target audience, objective, etc.) How might these components work together as a “whole”?

What are the relevant aspects of your target audience to take into account in terms of venue/medium, formal qualities (visual language), tone, etc? What kind of strategy can you take to reach your target audience through the campaign as a whole, and its component parts to make it most effective?

 

NarrativeMapping_Guide

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