In July I saw a terrific new feature on the CraftyPod blog – an image-only interview. Diane, a smart businesswoman and great creative blogger and podcaster, had done her first interview and then mentioned that she was looking for other people to interview in this new format. I immediately e-mailed her because I thought the idea was so cool. She quickly did my interview and it was fun for me and a success on the site. She continues doing these unique interviews every Monday and I always pay attention to them.
What is an image-only interview?
As the name suggests, this is an image-rich interview. Diane asks questions and instead of responding with words the interviewee finds a picture that answers the question. Now, it’s not totally image-only. The way it works is that you add a caption to the photos explaining the relationship of the image to the answer (because sometimes it’s naturally going to be a little bit abstract) and anyone who is curious about the caption can roll over the image and see it. So smart!
5 reasons I really loved doing the image-only interview:
A single image, like a single rose, can say so much!
- It’s a super unique approach to interviews. love when bloggers take something common – an interview, a review, a top ten list – and do something really creative and new with it. Diane is the first person I saw doing this type of interview and I loved that.
- I’m super wordy so this took me out of my box. I’m not a visual person at all. I think in words. It was a great exercise for me to stretch my own way of thinking to come up with an image-based response that others would be able to relate to.
- I got the chance to use my old images in new creative ways. Although I’m more wordy than visual I do take tons of photos and it was terrific to get a chance to share them.
- It offers a quick-read interview that still has substance. The web is a busy place these days. People don’t always have the time / energy/ interest/ attention span to read a lengthy author interview. This was a way that people could “read” an interview with me in a quick, impactful way.
- Images are the way of today’s web. This ties in to some of my other points, specifically point four. People want image-rich content today. As someone who is less visual, I don’t always love this myself, but it’s the way things are so it’s important to consider that and adapt to it.
As a Reader
I continue to regularly check out the image-only interviews that Diane does on the Craftypod site. It gives me a chance to quickly learn about a lot of different creative people and to really see their creativity in action!
Related Article
Are you more wordy than visual? Here’s a link to another author interview I did that’s the traditional word-based kind.
San Francisco based writer/ blogger with an interest in how words can help heal individuals and connect communities.
