Jocelyn MandrykStorytelling gets tossed around like confetti, but most of it lands flat.
The good kind doesn’t announce itself. It pulls you into a world, drops a hint, leaves a question in your head you can’t stop replaying.
The thing is, we’re well past the point where “content” carries the story. The images that endure, the ones we return to in our heads - aren’t shouting for attention, they’re built with intent, emotional truth, and cultural gravity.
Our job as creative directors and photographers isn’t about feeding the machine - it’s to help brands craft worlds worth entering. Here’s where visual storytelling is moving now.
🤙 The age of the concept is back
→ Beauty without a backbone is forgettable.
The most enduring campaigns are built on ideas, not just aesthetics. One clear, precise concept gives images their staying power. It’s about semiotics, story, and subtext that reward the viewer for looking twice.
Urban Monkey’s Gully Run (2025)
It’s not just streetwear, it’s street mythology in motion. In seconds, it reveals a rebel spirit, hints at a bigger world, and leaves just enough mystery to make you want in.
😍 Emotional specificity > generic aspirations
→ People don’t want a sanitized fantasy - they want moments charged with truth.
High polish is fine, but only when the emotion shines through the gloss. People remember the shot that breathes.
Vitti Cycling – “A Day in the Dunes” (2024)
A sun-drenched reel of riders weaving across rippled dunes, gear catching golden haze. It’s not just about jerseys, it’s about grit, shared laughter, and a sunlit story caught mid-turn.
🧠 Cultural intelligence is the new luxury
→ Today’s audiences want something layered, not obvious.
Storytelling that leans into literary or heritage references adds narrative depth, especially when executed with creative finesse. It’s the difference between a look and a legacy.
Dior FW 2025 – Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” Campaign
Set in stately Hatfield House, this campaign reimagines Woolf’s gender-fluid protagonist in cinematic, heritage-laced frames. Models move through symbolic portals, blurring myth and memory, tradition and transformation - fashion as living metaphor, not just adornment.
🎥 Think in motion.
→ You’re not posting videos - you’re composing movement.
Think cinematically, even in 15 seconds. Pace, rhythm, and breath are the story.
PANGAIA - Alpine Canoe Reel, 2025
A lone paddler glides across a glassy Alpine lake; mist, reflections, and the drip of the paddle do the talking. No sell, just atmosphere and time. The motion makes the mood, and the mood makes it memorable.
💥 Exaggeration is a shortcut to a story
→ Sometimes, subtlety is overrated.
Humour, absurdity, and overstatement can spark instant emotional connection. A single exaggerated element - a stack of sunglasses that no one would realistically wear - flips a standard product shot into a narrative. The viewer’s mind starts filling in the blanks: Why so many? What’s the joke? In a world of perfectly styled minimalism, a touch of the ridiculous is what gets remembered.
Simon Miller x Mango Sunglass Collection, 2025
Playful excess as branding. It sells the product, but more importantly, it sells an attitude - one that’s irreverent, self-aware, and impossible to scroll past.
Image source: Simon Miller.
Summary
Visual storytelling in 2025 isn’t about flooding the frame, it’s about building images on intent, mood, and meaning. The campaigns that endure are anchored by story, not just style. Whether driven by concept, emotion, cultural cues, or a wink of humour, it’s the narrative thread that makes images feel campaign-worthy, and unforgettable.
Thanks for reading (or just skimming for the good stuff;) Joss, Creative Director, Haute & Hectic.