The Storytelling Academy

|    VISUAL    |    STORYTELLING    |    DIGITAL    |    TRAINING    |

"Man is a storytelling animal by nature"

Umberto Eco

Storytelling is today’s buzzword. It is all-pervasive.

Now, everything is told as ‘a Story.’

As a practitioner I continuously ask myself what this might indeed mean.

Estimates for 2019 predict that 80% of global data consumption will be visual content.

It has been suggested that, each year, more images are being produced than throughout the whole history of photography prior to the introduction of smartphones.

In a sea of digital information being noticed or engaged with, even for a second, can make or break your message.

Images are gaining momentum in the communication strategies of individuals, business and governments globally.

Visual storytelling integrates images as central to multimedia communication on digital platforms.

It does so by leveraging aesthetics, composition and colour to design eloquent and effective messages.

Designing aesthetics as a sensible, practical and creative tool to change the mood, tone or direction of a message means that you can tailor your output to influence your target audience implicitly.

Visual storytelling enhances the production and analysis of your multi-stranded digital narratives: it is your tool to combine advocacy for your cause with the powerbroking potential of your digital audience.

Visual Storytelling is not content in a form.

Visual Storytelling is form fit for that content

       

Interview at the UN / ILO Geneva HQ © ILO 2018

Why Me?

My name is Massimiliano.

I’m a visual strategist, digital consultant and scholar.

My focus is the creation of effective digital and interactive visual storytelling.

I have worked as a multimedia journalist for 20+ years from Morocco to China and consulted for the Diplomatic Institute of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My client portfolio includes the UN Agencies IOM, ILO and UNESCO, private partners in the business sector, media industries and research institutions such as the British Academy.

I am fluent in Italian, English and Persian. I have a working knowledge of Arabic.

I was awarded my PhD at the University of Exeter (UK) in 2014.

Since then I have been researching, consulting, training and teaching (Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster).

And – of course – making visual stories…

Training & Consulting
The Tentmakers of Cairo

The Tentmakers of Cairo

Visual storytelling is easy to evoke, but hard to accomplish.

Interactive Storytelling recognises the centrality of visual storytelling and aims to turn digital communication into a co-creative dialogue.

Let me show you how interactive platforms can further push the possibilities of visual storytelling into new territories…

The PlatformThe Rationale

Recent Exhibitions

United Nations Intercultural Communication event – New York (USA), 2017

A retrospective of my photographs from Cairo to China.

The Streaming Museum – New York (USA), 2017

A retrospective of my photographs from Cairo to China.

The Oriental Museum of Durham (UK), 2014

Permanent exhibition – The Tentmakers of Islamic Cairo.

I have been exhibiting regularly since 2003.

BELOW – HH Sultan III bin Muhammad al-Qasimi, ruler of the Emirate of Sharjah, opening my 2012 exhibition in Durham (UK).

Tentmakers - The catalogueTentmakers - The presentation
Recent Exhibitions