In Which We Go Medieval on Your Cyber Awareness

I stumbled upon a genius application of mashup playfulness.

And of course, I got totally sucked in. And of course, I used my weekend to create a bunch of memes.

We think a bit of novelty and creativity is just what is needed to get employees to pay attention. While attention is fleeting (alas), it is the first step in winning over the hearts and minds of the wonderful people at your company. We like to nudge and cajole and with the right spark of creativity and the right intent (ie not fear guilt lecturing or shame) you can tickle fancy, turn on neurons, get a giggle, reinforce positive culture, and even use these nano-learning-objects as a nudge or a behavioral trigger.

Here’s the Story:

A professor of medieval studies has put together a free Meme Maker that uses the typography and characters from the Bayeux tapestry to let her students, and then the whole world, run wild.

What started as a quirky way to engage went a bit viral, to the delight of the professor and fun all around.

What is the Bayeux Tapestry?

Well, it’s not a tapestry at all!

Measuring twenty inches high and almost 230 feet in length, the Bayeux Tapestry is a masterpiece of 11th-century Romanesque art. In seventy-five scenes with Latin inscriptions (tituli), it tells the story of the conquest of England, depicting the events leading up to the Norman conquest and culminating in the Battle of Hastings in 1066- though the final scene is missing. The main narrative panel, like any good story, is supported by legend, myth, and archetypes- on the tapestry at the top and the bottom there are decorative borders with figures of animals, scenes from the fables of Aesop and Phaedrus, and scenes from husbandry and the chase. The composition and high-quality embroidery are a feat of engineering and artistry. Luckily, it has survived for nearly 1,000 years.

Typography in a museum

What’s even better than the widget she posted online was asking people to share their own creations – spurring on social reinforcement, and creative leapfrogging, and the Twitter feed is laugh-out-loud fantastic. What I enjoyed seeing most was people taking modern memes and making them medieval, using lyrics to rap songs, and re-writing them in early English.

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The sheer unexpectedness, the novelty, the ridiculousness, the surprise- all catnip for our brains (why do you think we scroll so much?!). There were a few that got my funnybone:

So how do you do this for your co-workers and organizational teammates now in your cyber awareness programs?

The first attempts may seem awkward and tough (trust me, our first videos were cringe). But with a few new tools and a little creative thinking you can create digital content that will delight surprise inform educate and able and ultimately teach your employees about cyber safety.

You can find the free maker here https://htck.github.io/bayeux/#

Getting those aha moments, brief and fleeting—now requires more than ever before. Very corporate-looking graphic design in ‘safe’ colors and ‘governance speak’ or ‘cyber jargonist’ doesn’t connect positively with staff. Not all messages have to be funny and resonate emotionally- of course, there is a range. But you have a chance to hit the high notes, so go for it!

And…. If you don’t have the skill, the staff, the time, or the will to do DIY, give us a call. From Digital Clubs that give you a subscription to the best content in town to our bespoke content and creative services- we can find an approach, theme, style, medieval or not... That will get your employees engaged, aware, and caring about cyber safety.

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