They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Thanks to our digital world, images are worth even more today. We are in a visual world today.

Sure, you can use words to paint a picture, but we all see different things in our mind’s eye. The details that jump out to me, might be unimportant or barely noticeable to you.

As a professional communicator, I have had to communicate simply using words, and I’ve also been tasked with utilizing mixed media - audio, video, photographs, graphics and logos, interactive technology.

I love the unlimited possibilities that come with illustrating a story.

I enjoy writing, but the creative potential of pulling everything together using mixed media is really empowering. It opens up different parts of my brain and allows me to express myself in exciting ways. More than that, it enables me to connect with others in fresh and powerful ways.

When I first started to read, comic books were my favorite. I loved how the illustrations went beyond the written words. I found myself reading and then studying the images. I have no doubt it helped map my brain. I would save up my money and buy comic books. Superman mostly.

My son Charlie is in the 3rd grade. My wife and I want him to read more. Every night he comes home with a planner that we are to sign to verify he has completed his assigned work. His goal is to read at least 30 minutes a night.

In the ideal world, Mrs. McKenna, his teacher, would like him to read more books without illustrations. I’m with her, but I just want him to fall in love with reading no matter what the book. Pictures or not.

I get why he is drawn to books with illustrations. It is the pictures. They convey so much context and information.

One of my favorite books as a kid was Andrew Henry’s Meadow by Doris Burn. Burn wrote and illustrated the book. Talk about talent! It was beautifully done…well written and illustrated.

I must have read that book a thousand times. I read the words and I studied the illustrations. Like any great story, it transported me to a different world. You see Andrew Henry Thatcher was so creative. He was a builder. An inventor. His enthusiasm for building things was a bit of a nuisance to his family. Anyway, I won’t give it away too much other than to say that it is a good read. And the illustrations help make the story come alive.

Thanks to the digital world, illustrations are essential to good storytelling. Animation in storytelling online is all the rage today as the cost for animation is dropping rapidly.

There are several do-it-yourself software programs that enable you to do business explainers, such as whiteboard animations, easily without a lot of investment.

Below is a whiteboard animation I had created when I first established my business.

I was able to get this animation done for less than hundred and fifty dollars using Fiverr. I love Fiverr. If you haven’t checked it out Fiverr, you must. It is a creative person’s candy store. You can really do anything or, more accurately, you can find someone to help you accomplish your objectives effectively and inexpensively.

Animation is really an amazing medium to tell stories. You can take your audience to places never imagined. With animation, you can do things that are impractical or impossible in the “real” world.

I’ll be using animation to do the TV treatment for the novel I am developing. Animation is a great vehicle to capture the imagination of your audience. Part of the challenge in developing a story is creating characters.

With good storytelling, you need to give your characters enough detail and dimension so that they come to life. It is important for your audience to feel they know that character. Animation affords you the opportunity to bring that character to life quickly by showing rather than just telling.

Doris Burns did that with Andrew Henry. Quickly. It was a combination of words and pictures. Most importantly, those words and pictures combined in the readers mind thanks to their imagination and the neural story network within their brain. That is the magic of story.

All stories really take place in the mind of your audience. Your job as the storyteller is to help them along. You make them feel a part of it with your use of words, images etc.

Animation is showing rather than just telling. It is both show and tell.

In my consulting work, I’ve helped clients create animations to explain what they are doing.

St. Louis is blessed to have one of the most amazing animation firms in the country based here. Lion Forge Labsdoes fantastic work. When I was with the St. Louis Cardinals, I worked with Lion Forge Labsto develop an animated cartoon series as part of a social media-based campaign to honor Whitey Herzog called #CardsRatPack. We created 24 virtual and printed baseball cards that told the story of Whitey Herzog… from his youth in New Athens Illinois to his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

I was able to work with Lion Forge Labs again on a project I developed in 2015 called #LightMySTL. It is project to make our city safer, smarter and more beautiful using state-of-the-art smart city lighting.

An extraordinary local start-up company, Labyrinth Technologies, was born out of the project and they are in the process of deploying some technology in St. Louis that will be truly transformative.

$4.6 million in private dollars is being raised by Downtown STL to fund the project. Since we were able to secure media partners from all of the key local media outlets to support a public adopt-a-light campaign, we needed to create a simple-to-understand animation that would explain the amazing technology. Animation allows you to do just that. You can check out their great work at lightmystl.org.

I recently had an animated StorySMART Schnauzer created to help with my YouTube channel as I wanted to show my audience how easy it is to get in the game with animation. My message to you is if I can do it, you can too.

Every brand has the capacity to be their own media outlet, using direct storytelling to reach their own audience. When it comes to sharing your brand’s story, animation is great tool to consider using. You are only limited by your imagination, creativity and initiative. #getstorysmart