Empowering creative people like architects to tell their stories

One of the first architects that Nic and I helped out with getting published sat on her project for almost 12 months before putting it out to the world. The moment the project was shared with just a couple of journalists it went completely viral. The house has now been published over 1000 times, from websites and magazines to books, newspapers and even television.

That’s because the story is a fantastic one. But it languished for so many months with little more than a tweet and the architect’s web page to show for it. It’s amazing untold stories like this one that we’re trying to uncover through BowerBird – and we know there a literally thousands of them out there.

We want to empower creative people to tell their stories.

In simple terms, we’re talking about two groups: those with stories to share (architects and other creatives) and those with the means to share them (journalists and editors).

At the end of the day we want more stories – and better stories – to be told. Our approach can be summed up in three words ‘connect’, ‘collaborate’, and ‘communicate’.

Connect

Journalists can often find it difficult to find new and exciting ideas for stories. The burden is on them to hunt out stories for their publications. When you consider the number of projects that are completed each year, they should be like pigs in mud, but actually connecting with architects can be difficult.

We’re trying to make those connections easier by providing a place for journalists and creatives to connect with each other, so when a good project comes up, you can develop stories together.

Collaborate

No project is created in isolation. There are sometimes literally thousands of different interactions with hundreds of different people before a project is completed, and even more before it finally gets published. We believe that, to tell better stories, journalists need to know all the relevant people involved in the project. This could be anything from the builder to the product suppliers, the design team to the photographer.

We allow all these people to become part of the community, to help link them into the story – also ensuring everyone is singing from the same hymnbook when telling the project’s story.

Communicate

Lastly, in order for the deeper stories to be told, journalists need the ability to communicate with creatives. Our aim is to move away from a formal email setting, to improve communication between everyone on BowerBird. To do this, we’ve created a quick messaging system that ties conversations to projects, ensuring communication is relevant and beneficial to journalists and creatives alike.

To tell great stories there needs to be a genuine connection between journalists and the creative work they crave. By helping architects to connect directly with journalists, we’re removing the seemingly ‘dark art’ of getting published. More importantly, we’re empowering creatives and independent journalists to tell creative stories, and share big ideas.

If you’ve got a project story you’d like to share with journalists, send us a link to your website project page and we’ll set you up with a starter BowerKit.