what is JellStories?

It’s an interactive photo project by Jell Creative, a Chicago–headquartered branding and marketing firm. We love to choose evocative words, tell stories, and make brands come alive.

now what should you do?

Use this site to quickly assemble short stories, poems, novels, manifestos, haiku, love letters, and unenforceable legal contracts. Just drag photos from the bottom palette into the workspace, then rearrange the photos using drag–and–drop to make sense — or nonsense — of the words. When you’re done, click Save & Share to email, tweet, or Facebook your creation to friends and family. Once they receive your link, they can revel in your literary prowess by scanning a thumbnail version of your creation or watching a mindblowing full–window slideshow.

how did JellStories happen?

Over the weekend of October 2–3, 2010, during the annual Ravenswood ArtWalk, nearly 500 visitors passed through Jell Creative’s loft studio to see paintings by Nico Carmago and photography by Timmy Samuel. Jell team members lured ArtWalk visitors into our photo studio and asked them to participate in an interactive online happening: each visitor was to choose up to three printed words, hop onto a barstool, and bring those words to life in front of the camera. We immediately uploaded their best shots to JellStories.com, a site we built in approximately two days, just before the ArtWalk.

any fun facts?

We originally thought that 200 printed words would be plenty for the weekend, but those ran out by midday Sunday, as more and more people heard about the project and flocked to our studio. We printed another 200 words that afternoon. In the 12 hours of our open house, we snapped approximately 800 photos of roughly 250 visitors and uploaded nearly 500.

what will happen to JellStories.com?

Because this site faithfully documents two giddy days spent with several hundred strangers and more than a few friends of Jell, we don’t plan on adding new word photos. But we hope to continually upgrade the site to make it faster, cooler, and more likely to solve all the world’s problems. Visit frequently to see new features and new stories, and to contribute to the madness.

A story by Robert Akers