For this project, I was tasked with designing a unique and visually interesting worksheet design for Bryan McCleary's "Strategy-to-Story" class, which was presented at StartUp Cincy week. The double-sided, printed 11 x 17" worksheets were handed out to the 51+ attendees, who were encouraged to tell their own stories whilst following along with the illustrated storyboard guide.

For the process, Bryan wanted me to design it in the style of a Hollywood / Comic book storyboard, and encouraged me to be creative. When designing the artworks, I wanted to tell a story of my own.

I ended up pulling out a pen, ruler, and paper and creating a mini-storyboard of my own. I decided to change the titles of each section to "scenes" to really encompass that storyboard feel. For the first scene, which asks the audience to tell their story and "Why" they do what they do, I decided to illustrate that to tell a simple story of a girl who sees a cat stuck in a tree, figures out a solution to save the cat, and is rewarded as a hero because of it. The cat's design was inspired by my own cat, Luna.

The headline asks us why we do what we do, and what difference it makes for others. "Why" is she going to save the little cat? Because the cat is distressed and stuck in a tree, she wants to help the cat and her owner. The story asks what inspired us to do this work. And for us, we see that our hero does it because it is the right thing to do. Finally, the proof point of this section asks us to name an example of a time our work helped someone. And so this illustration shows exactly that.

For the "How" section, I wanted to show her thinking about her solution, and how she's going to save the cat. How does she do it? She brainstorms a solution, and her approach to saving the cat is different because of her courage. She is willing to get that ladder and climb up herself to make sure that cat gets down safely. The results are obvious: The cat is safe.

Finally, for Scene 3, the audience is challenged to pitch themselves and explain why their experience, their story, is what makes them the best person for the job. When asked "why me? Why CHOOSE me?" Bryan's prompts inspire and empower us to answer that question. "What makes you the right person for this work?" For our hero, she is the right person for it because she cares, because she came up with a solution, and had the courage to do it herself. The story is right there on the page, told in the scenes of the storyboard. The proof point, the recommendation and credential from others- is given when the cat's owner tearfully thanks her and she gets a ribbon that says "Hero."

In this way, a simple story can be used to show the impact that the human experience, and sharing it with others, can be a powerful tool and help you to make the best pitch, change hearts and minds, and achieve great things.

All of the illustrations and handwritten portions were hand illustrated by me on paper, and then digitized using my iPad via Procreate. I assembled the final design via Canva.