The best visual stories of 2025:
16 categories, 16 impossible-to-ignore digital gems
Be inspired by this curated celebration of outstanding digital storytelling that pushed boundaries, engaged audiences, and redefined what's possible, in 2025.
In a world saturated with content, exceptional storytelling has never been more vital — or more challenging to achieve. While audiences scroll past countless posts and articles, certain stories stop them in their tracks, demand their attention, and leave lasting impressions.
This year, we've seen exceptional owned media that proves the power of taking control of your own storytelling. With algorithms constantly shifting and AI-generated search results taking over discovery, smart organisations invest in their own storytelling capabilities — creating experiences that deliver real impact.
Discover these stories in this video with Shorthand CEO Rick Robinson, or scroll through at your own pace below.
The categories
The Best Corporate Communications Story of 2025
Amazon: Inside the delivery station putting dozens of sustainability strategies to the test
Corporate communications is about showing your work, not just talking about it. Amazon's piece on its new sustainable delivery station takes readers behind the scenes of its construction and carbon reduction — topics that could easily feel dry.
The standout moment is a Reveal section that shows the building's layers as you scroll. Gallery sections provide multiple angles of the space, while grids and illustrations make technical details accessible.
The Best Corporate Communications Story of 2025
Amazon: Inside the delivery station putting dozens of sustainability strategies to the test
Corporate communications is about showing your work, not just talking about it. Amazon's piece on its new sustainable delivery station takes readers behind the scenes of its construction and carbon reduction — topics that could easily feel dry.
The standout moment is a Reveal section that shows the building's layers as you scroll. Gallery sections provide multiple angles of the space, while grids and illustrations make technical details accessible.
The Best Timeline Story of 2025
Kleine Zeitung: Die letzten Kriegstage und die Befreiung des Lagers Mauthausen
Timelines give structure to complex narratives, helping readers follow events as they unfold. Kleine Zeitung's piece on the final days of World War II and the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp demonstrates how this format can honour difficult historical material while making it comprehensible for readers.
The story sets context with maps and chronological archive images. The aerial view of Mauthausen is particularly powerful — scroll-triggered highlights reveal each building with information about the camp's layout.
The Best Data Storytelling Story of 2025
RELX: Corporate responsibility 2024
The best data storytelling doesn't dump statistics on readers, it makes them care about what the numbers mean. RELX's Corporate Responsibility report structures complex information around the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, balancing data with genuine context.
When you see 1.3 million research downloads through its Research4Life programme, you understand the real-world impact: researchers in lower-income countries accessing scientific information they couldn't otherwise afford.
The Best Data Storytelling Story of 2025
RELX: Corporate responsibility 2024
The best data storytelling doesn't dump statistics on readers, it makes them care about what the numbers mean. RELX's Corporate Responsibility report structures complex information around the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, balancing data with genuine context.
When you see 1.3 million research downloads through its Research4Life programme, you understand the real-world impact: researchers in lower-income countries accessing scientific information they couldn't otherwise afford.
The Best Higher Education Story of 2025
University of Queensland: Chasing History: Celebrating 40 years of the Great Court Race
The University of Queensland's 40th anniversary piece for its Great Court Race stands out for its clear reader-first strategy and restrained, intelligent design.
White and purple throughout, it stays completely on brand with colour-graded images and polaroid-style borders that create an archival feel. The centrepiece timeline doesn't just list dates and names — it tells stories about athletes who reached the Olympics, records that still stand, and traditions that evolved.
The Best News and Media Story of 2025
Sky News: How Elon Musk's mission to cut government spending fell flat
Visualising complex investigations takes smart design and great editorial judgment. Sky News' piece on Elon Musk's DOGE exemplifies this, tracking billions in spending cuts and thousands of job losses.
Animated charts move as you scroll, making departmental cuts feel immediate rather than abstract. Interviews come alive through pull quotes and auto-playing videos timed to your reading speed. It's investigative journalism that understands how people actually consume news online.
The Best News and Media Story of 2025
Sky News: How Elon Musk's mission to cut government spending fell flat
Visualising complex investigations takes smart design and great editorial judgment. Sky News' piece on Elon Musk's DOGE exemplifies this, tracking billions in spending cuts and thousands of job losses.
Animated charts move as you scroll, making departmental cuts feel immediate rather than abstract. Interviews come alive through pull quotes and auto-playing videos timed to your reading speed. It's investigative journalism that understands how people actually consume news online.
The Best Government Communications Story of 2025
EU Commission: How EU law is made
Government communications can be dry; too many institutions throw information at audiences and expect them to figure it out. The EU Commission's explainer on how laws are made takes a different approach, using format and design to make bureaucratic processes genuinely understandable.
Shorthand's Scrollpoints feature creates gliding motion through each legislative step, mirroring how laws actually move through the system. It's proof that even the driest subject matter becomes engaging when you consider how people want to consume information.
The Best Annual Report of 2025
RUSI: Annual Report 2024-25
Annual reports represent a significant opportunity to showcase achievements, yet too often they end up as boring PDFs that limit impact. RUSI demonstrates what's possible when institutions understand the power of digital reporting.
Background media carries the narrative: images of people, events, and work. You're not reading about conferences and research projects — you're seeing them.
The Best Annual Report of 2025
RUSI: Annual Report 2024-25
Annual reports represent a significant opportunity to showcase achievements, yet too often they end up as boring PDFs that limit impact. RUSI demonstrates what's possible when institutions understand the power of digital reporting.
Background media carries the narrative: images of people, events, and work. You're not reading about conferences and research projects — you're seeing them.
The Best Non-profit Story of 2025
Save the Children: World Humanitarian Day
Non-profit storytelling creates emotional connections that drive action: donations, volunteering, advocacy. Save the Children's World Humanitarian Day piece shows the reality of humanitarian work in dangerous places.
Background media takes you to Sudan, Indonesia, and Ukraine, mixing video and statics that blend and overlay as you scroll. The focus remains personal: Asma's health clinic, Roby and drought resilience, Olha providing emergency cash after attacks. These individual stories show what humanitarian work actually looks like.
The Best Arts and Culture Story of 2025
The Conversation: The science of beautiful buildings
Arts and culture content walks a fine line between intellectual depth and accessibility. The Conversation's piece on why we find certain buildings beautiful draws on psychology, neuroscience, and architectural theory while remaining effortlessly engaging.
3D renders with 360-degree scroll effects let you rotate buildings as you read. An animated bell curve places famous buildings along Berlyne's aesthetic model. By the end, you're looking at buildings differently.
The Best Arts and Culture Story of 2025
The Conversation: The science of beautiful buildings
Arts and culture content walks a fine line between intellectual depth and accessibility. The Conversation's piece on why we find certain buildings beautiful draws on psychology, neuroscience, and architectural theory while remaining effortlessly engaging.
3D renders with 360-degree scroll effects let you rotate buildings as you read. An animated bell curve places famous buildings along Berlyne's aesthetic model. By the end, you're looking at buildings differently.
The Best Product and Brand Story of 2025
Arsenal: Arsenal Launch New Adidas 2025/26 Away Kit
Product storytelling is about more than showing what you're selling — it's telling the story behind it. Arsenal's kit launch builds a narrative around where the kit will be worn and who'll be wearing it.
Purchase options appear but never dominate. The smart move is showing where the kit debuts (Singapore's National Stadium, Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium) and the matches that matter (AC Milan, Newcastle, the first overseas North London derby against Tottenham). A Media Gallery closes with the kit in real situations: actual players, actual moments.
The Best Tourism and Travel Story of 2025
TripAdvisor: Newcastle
Great tourism content makes you feel a place before you arrive. TripAdvisor's Newcastle guide achieves this through background media that immediately transports you.
GIFs showing city scenes mix with compelling copy and TripAdvisor experiences you can book. The structure curates the experience across distinct sections — beaches, nature, food, nightlife, culture. It's destination marketing that understands the balance between inspiration and action.
The Best Tourism and Travel Story of 2025
TripAdvisor: Newcastle
Great tourism content makes you feel a place before you arrive. TripAdvisor's Newcastle guide achieves this through background media that immediately transports you.
GIFs showing city scenes mix with compelling copy and TripAdvisor experiences you can book. The structure curates the experience across distinct sections — beaches, nature, food, nightlife, culture. It's destination marketing that understands the balance between inspiration and action.
The Best Medical Research Story of 2025
University of Utah Health: PTF transformative technologies for a healthier world
Communicating groundbreaking research without losing readers in technical complexity is challenging. University of Utah Health's showcase of three major innovations makes dense material approachable.
Visual clarity drives the story. Researchers appear with clean illustrated outlines that signal innovation without clinical coldness. Connecting lines guide you between sections. Each innovation is explained clearly without overwhelming detail. The science stays intact but accessible.
The Best Events and Awards Story of 2025
The Economist Foundation: Leadership Prize 2024 Digital Showcase
Events and awards content works best when it shows the work rather than just announcing winners. The Economist Foundation's Leadership Prize showcase follows three student teams through their projects: girls learning karate, an aquaponics system, and a health station tackling period poverty.
Each project gets its own colour identity. Scrollpoints guide you through image collages with embedded video, showing pitches, mentors, and three tracking sessions of actual progress. Then it shows what happens next: classes for 150 students, applications for major funding, operational health stations with alumni support.
The Best Events and Awards Story of 2025
The Economist Foundation: Leadership Prize 2024 Digital Showcase
Events and awards content works best when it shows the work rather than just announcing winners. The Economist Foundation's Leadership Prize showcase follows three student teams through their projects: girls learning karate, an aquaponics system, and a health station tackling period poverty.
Each project gets its own colour identity. Scrollpoints guide you through image collages with embedded video, showing pitches, mentors, and three tracking sessions of actual progress. Then it shows what happens next: classes for 150 students, applications for major funding, operational health stations with alumni support.
The Best Sponsored Content Story of 2025
Adweek: Turning up the volume on sports fandom
Sponsored content succeeds when storytelling creates an integrated experience that elevates rather than disrupts. Adweek's piece for SiriusXM Media about sports audio advertising demonstrates this approach through illustrations integrated with scrolling storytelling techniques.
An illustrated sports field uses Scrollpoints to zoom into different audience segments: women, multicultural audiences, Gen Z, fantasy leaguers, sports bettors. Each section explains why these groups matter and how they engage with sports content. You're absorbing insights about SiriusXM without it feeling like a pitch. Two-thirds of the piece delivers pure insight about sports fandom before clear signposting discloses the collaboration and advertising opportunities. By then, the value has been delivered.
The Best Digital Magazine Story of 2025
Marine Conservation Society: Ocean Magazine Summer 2025
We analysed more than 50,000 Shorthand stories earlier this year and found that digital magazines consistently achieve the highest scroll depths compared to other content formats. The Marine Conservation Society's Ocean Magazine summer issue demonstrates why this format performs so well.
Video and animation work throughout. You're not just reading about sea pens or rockpools — you're watching them. It's structured like a classic magazine, while taking advantage of what digital enables: movement, interactivity, and media that enhances rather than decorates.
The Best Digital Magazine Story of 2025
Marine Conservation Society: Ocean Magazine Summer 2025
We analysed more than 50,000 Shorthand stories earlier this year and found that digital magazines consistently achieve the highest scroll depths compared to other content formats. The Marine Conservation Society's Ocean Magazine summer issue demonstrates why this format performs so well.
Video and animation work throughout. You're not just reading about sea pens or rockpools — you're watching them. It's structured like a classic magazine, while taking advantage of what digital enables: movement, interactivity, and media that enhances rather than decorates.
The Best Sports Journalism Story of 2025
The FA: How England won EURO 2025
The best sports coverage captures the emotion of live events. The FA's wrap of England's triumphant Euro 2025 campaign helps you relive the journey.
The structure layers formats: a scrolling timeline for overview, individual match breakdowns, text overlays on video creating cinematic introductions. Reveal sections make it special: memorable moments unfold as you scroll. Social posts and YouTube clips embed naturally throughout.
The stories featured here prove that when powerful tools meet creative vision, the results can be transformative — not just for audiences, but for the organisations brave enough to think beyond traditional formats.
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