Our Process
Storytelling isn’t rocket science. It’s often harder than that
You meet a friend and want to tell him or her over a drink a fascinating but complex story, which you must first summarise in a sentence. The result will be concise, direct, designed to whet the appetite — and the basis of a good introduction.
That comes from a 1992 style guide given to staff at the Sunday Times in London and it’s advice that holds true today, especially when attention spans are shorter than ever and time is scarce.
As journalists and senior editors who have worked for Ireland and the UK’s biggest news organisations, story is everything.
Storytelling skills don’t come easy. It took us 20 years to learn how to do it well. And we’re still learning. That’s how StoryLab, our name, came about.
Where do we fit in?
We seamlessly integrate with agencies and in-house corporate teams to devise and shape stories. They trust us to become involved in the process, to advise on the different ways of telling a story that can be shared and circulated more widely.
Just like journalists, we begin all of our work with a notebook and pen and some good old-fashioned reporting. We meet all of our clients at a story workshop and report back from the sharp end with a detailed strategy.
Every client is unique — but that old idea of telling a complex story in a simple but exciting manner is key.
The mediums may be changing — the finished product may well be a video, infographic or article — but there is one constant that was the same when we began our newspaper careers: people love a good story.