A triumphal arch for Lowlands, an outdoor music festival.
An artwork made of metal on a roundabout, with rails and clouds.
A colorful tree made of steel, in the Bijlmer, a neighborhood in Amsterdam.
My friend Yasser Ballemans creates enormous sculptures. Most are several meters high.
Yasser regularly has to convince people to get a new commission. People want to get an impression of the artwork they consider paying for.
Yasser can’t really bring a four-meter-high prototype to a meeting.
So, sometimes, he makes a sketch in a 3D program. He brings VR-glasses. So people can virtually walk around the artwork.
Still, there is one thing that works even better, Yasser confided to me while sitting by the campfire.
A small mockup.
Mockups can be touched, held, turned around. People can take them home and show them to their partner and children.
At Analytic Storytelling, we often encourage people to appeal to the senses when they communicate. Usually, this is about sight.
Yasser’s story illustrates that appealing to other senses also works well. Touch, in his case.
At the bakery that sells fresh croissants, it’s smell.
And with you?
Regards,
Arnaud