I wish someone had told me about Vox…

“I wish someone had told me” is a series of posts that feed into our inquisitive nature at CN&CO. Each week we hear from someone in our network about something interesting or surprising that’s recently happened or occurred to them – or lessons they learnt. These blogs are a way to pay it forward and form part of CN&CO’s belief that the world can be a better place – and we all have a responsibility to make it so. This week’s post is by Francois Joubert”

If you are a regular reader of the CN&CO blogs, by now you should know that one of the popular one of these are the TED-talks blogs. Now, I know you’re probably thinking: “Francois, why you writing about the Ted-talk blog in the ‘I wish someone had told me’ blog?”… Well, dear reader, I bring this up because TED-talks and me… Well, let’s just say the relationship with Mr. TED is a little rocky. And, honestly, I only ever really engage with TED when it’s my turn to write a blog. And, listen, no tea no shade against my other CN&CO compadres who LOVES TED’dy- but he’s just not my vibe neccesarilly.  BUT, that said, since the whole world was plummeted into hard lockdown not so long ago, I was introduced to Vox… on the Netflix. And my-oh-my, I wish someone had told be about this sooner.

Now, again, no shade against TED, he has on occasion motivated me with inspirational talks from inspirational people. But, let me tell you this, sis: Ms. Vox is one smarty pants and she has BEEN enlightening me on various levels and sparked so many conversations I’ve had with myself and others. Also, as a graphic designer, the aesthetics and clever ways the producers present the information inspires me on the daily.

So, if your not familiar with Ms. Vox, here’s what it’s all about. Vox Media produces short videos (released weekly on YouTube) where they take various topics, disect it and present the information in a visually stimulating way. Even topics that look way too intimidating in the description line, these are always presented in such a way that makes it easy for you as the viewer to follow, digest and understand. And when it comes to the topics, they are super random. Everything from “Harry Potter: a translators nightmare”, to “Why no aquarium has a great white shark”, to (my favourite) “What makes a truly great logo” and  “Why Australia’s fires are linked to floods in Africa”. The topics are vast and I think this is also what makes it so appealing.

Now, for Netflix they produced a series of similar videos called “Explained” where they have celebrities narrate whatever topic they discuss. Everyone from David Attenborough, to Kristen Bell, Chris Rock, Janelle Monáe and Morgan Freeman has lend their voices to deconstruct topics and (you guessed it) explain them. Steve Greene from IndieWire wrote a review on the Vox series and sums it up way more eloquently than this boy from Mokopane ever could. Green notes that: “[Vox’s] Explained manages to avoid patronising that unpredictable audience, presenting historical timelines and abstract concepts in a way that viewers can choose to digest however they wish. Weaving through disparate subjects like monogamy, the racial wealth gap, and K-pop, the series adopts some of the visual language of a viral social media post while adding a breadth of reporting and research that keeps each episode from becoming a primer that’s merely lovely to look at.” And the latter is true of all their content on both YouTube and Netflix… And I’m absolutely obsessed.

So, if (like me) you want to broaden your mind (and possibly sound like a smarty-pants at a dinner party after this pandemic) give Ms. Vox a go. Because, honey, she will tell you so many cool things that you wished someone told you about her long ago.

[Oh, below is an interesting Vox episode I recently watched about ‘What makes a truly great logo’. Give it a watch, and then watch another, and another, and another… Trust, once you start you can’t stop]

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