Design TED Talks

How to tell a great story, visualized

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A good story can make a campfire that much eerier. A good story can flip a conversation at a party from completely awkward to wonderful. Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story A good story can glue your nose to a book. And, on screen, a good story can rivet generation after generation.

So, uh, how do you tell one?

Andrew Stanton, the Pixar writer and director behind both Toy Story and WALL-E, has many ideas, and he shared his expertise in his TED Talk, The clues to a great story. Below, see his golden rules of storytelling visualized by Karin Hueck and Rafael Quick of the Brazilian culture and science magazine Superinteressante. Each month, the magazine’s editors take a TED Talk and give it to their graphic wizards to interpret in any way they see fit. Here, a reimagining of Stanton’s talk on stories. Via the Ugly Duckling. Just click the image to see a larger version.

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(See also the first infographic in this series, illustrating David Blaine’s experiment to hold his breath for an astonishing 17 minutes. And the great take on the talk in which “eyeborg” wearer Neil Harbisson explains how he hears color. And the hows and whys of effective altruism, in this visual interpretation of Peter Singer’s TED Talk.)