Nora McKoy (she/her): Hi, I’m Nora McKoy, and today I’m going to be talking with Siri Patterson about a Spotify wrapped story she wrote for A&E. I’m going to be talking with Patterson about what she did to create this visually interactive story and what that process looked like.

In December of 2023, Siri Patterson wrote and curated a colorful and engaging arts and entertainment story about this year’s Spotify Wrapped. It contained many different elements writing interviews, GIFs, illustrations, and embeds. So how is this complex yet fun and simple story made? To start off, Patterson had to get a feel for what she was writing.

Siri Pattison (she/her):I think I started writing it and I was kind of like found myself explaining in like what Spotify wrapped is. And then I was like, oh wait, I should just talk to people. Like, that’s what the story is about.

McKoy: After placing Spotify listeners at the heart of her story, she wanted to get out and interview some. Pattison set up her first interview ahead of time, but found that finding people in the moment was also a great way to get interviews about people. Spotify

Pattison: I interviewed three people, and only one of the people I kind of, like set up an interview beforehand. it’s like another senior, and I knew that he was really into music and listened to a lot of music. And I’d seen his Spotify wraps. I think he had, like, over 100,000 minutes. And I was like, oh my gosh well, anyone that listens to that much music would be aware the interview. For my other two interviews, I’m just kind of wandering around school, asking people about it, and I just stumbled across the people I actually never talked to before, and they were super happy to share their Spotify wrapped and was and end up working great.

McKoy: Once she interviewed three people. That’s when she could complete the writing portion of her story. Patterson informed readers of what Spotify Wrapped is, highlighted her interviewees most impressive stats, and showed how our music is a part of us.

Pattison: I feel like it’s an article where the people kind of like, spoke for themselves in a really fun way.

McKoy: Now that Patterson had the writing tide down, she can move on to the most eyecatching part of her story the multimedia elements. At this point, she let herself have fun and let her creativity take over.

Pattison: I kind of felt inspired because Spotify Wrapped is very, very much full of bells and whistles and like, little gimmicky things like that swirl in the air and neons and colors, and it’s a lot of fun

McKoy: She made gifts of each of her interviewees, Spotify wrapped overviews and added personalized borders. She also included an embed of a tweet from Spotify and a playlist of the songs of 2023. She used this story to exercise her graphic design skills and perfect her craft.

Pattison: I guess a goal of mine this year has been making my stories more engaging through multimedia,

McKoy: But just because the graphics looked all fun and games doesn’t mean making them was.

Pattison: So what the multimedia elements are, it’s like a screenshot of each person I interviewed, Spotify wrapped. So I did like go track them down and email them, be like, hey, if you send me a screenshot and then I put them into Adobe Express, I put like little frames on them and I made them like pop out and I turned them into a GIF. It took like a lot of trial and error, like I put it into SNO, the site that we used to, host our website and it didn’t look quite right. So I went back and changed it, like change the aspect ratio, change them or pixels or whatever to get it just right. Then I think I put some Spotify embeds in there, too. And that was definitely kind of a last touch. I was like, oh, I could put this in here to kind of make it more fun at the end.

McKoy: Pattison channeled skills that she had perfected over the years, as well as develop new ones while working on this story. She created a story that is a good example of a balanced blend of information, student voice, graphics, and visuals. This story was fun and readable, and showed how music taste is an almost tangible part of our identity that can connect us to our community by telling us about one another. Pattison shows us that when you combine previously learned skills with new self-taught methods and techniques, you can create something that not only develops and pushes your own expertise, but better appeals to engages others.

Thanks for tuning in to the Story Behind the Stories podcast with Siri Pattison. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode. I’m your host, Nora McKoy. If you liked what you heard, visit RubicOnline for more multimedia content. You can also follow us on social media platforms for updates, content and more. Until next time, keep listening to RubicOnline.

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