The Stories of Storytellers

One of the things that we really enjoy about working with education clients is the people. Creative, intelligent, and curious, they are teeming with interesting stories and experiences to share. And surprisingly, many don’t even realize how they inspire others with what they’re doing.

In 2021, creative director, Kelly McMurray, launched the monthly Instagram Live conversation, 2Chat. Over 2 years, she spoke with creatives in the industry about their work, experience, and insights. Guests included art directors, editors, photographers, illustrators, designers, and consultants. Each one brought a unique perspective to the conversation about editorial communications. These conversations became the inspiration for blog posts and insights shared on our website and social media.

After the second conversation and post, it became clear that there was a potential to build on this content by creating an annual publication. Having produced numerous print publications, we knew that we didn’t have the budget for print. Instead, we wanted to allocate our budget exclusively to writing and photography in order to have a visually rich, content-driven editorial experience. The digital format allowed us to expand on the conversations in unique ways. 

The first volume, “Intersection,” included stories that focused on the connected world of storytelling. The second volume, “Boundaries,” dove into what it means to break boundaries in the 21st century. Volume three, “Origins,” looked into the origin of language, ideas, stories, and images. The newest volume, “Elements,” focuses on something the studio is particularly passionate about, custom storytelling.

As we published each volume we also explored how to engage readers in a digital format through social media and print. Each volume was complemented by a one-color print piece showcasing the cover story for the volume. We could envision this model of robust digital and budget-conscious print working as a model for schools as they look to rescue their print budgets. 

The collection of stories became The Issue: a publication to inform, inspire, and celebrate the work being created at—and for—member publications.