If you haven’t figured it out by now, my theory is that we’ve been deluged with poor quality photos, low-res graphics and “haven’t got a budget” copy writing, which we’ve come to accept as a permanent change, however needlessly. It’s understandable how all this has come about. The advent of digital cameras made everyone a photographer. Tightening budgets put pressure on marketing people to do more with less, so they started pushing low-res graphics, and writing their own copy. Since we’re just starting to climb out of a recession (we are, aren’t we?) this situation isn’t likely to change soon, but I’d like to propose that it could start to change, if we help it along. This benefits everyone, especially our clients, and as a designer, I believe I have a vested interest in seeing my clients succeed. So raise the question – “could we get some better shots” or “are you okay with soft graphics”, and “could we explore some options?” There’s a case to be made for higher quality, if we’ll just stand up and make it.
Tag: copy
Lowering Our Standards – Part 3
If we improve the photography and the graphic illustration by asserting that the designed piece will be more effective with better art, is there anything else we could do to improve the piece even more? Yes, of course! The copy writing can be improved. Bringing this up at the beginning of a project is ideal. All too often though, the answer is that there isn’t enough money in the budget, or that so-and-so will be handling copy – they’re really good.
I don’t know, but I’d be willing to guess that your experience is a lot like mine, in that most of my clients supply copy and most of that copy could be improved. Unless you’re working for a larger company, who has the luxury of being able to afford copy writing or technical writing in-house, you will probably have to use copy written by someone whose primary job is something other than writing. Some of those people will be able to write some pretty good copy, but many won’t, so what do you do and how do you do it without offending anyone? (Feel free to chime in here anytime.)
My first step is usually to jump in as the copy editor, unofficially of course. Suggesting a change here, punctuation there, a word, a phrase, even a question like, “is that really what you mean?” can lead to improvements. But since this is acting in an unofficial capacity (and taking away from design time), naturally, I’m not getting paid for it. In the interest of helping my client and improving the effectiveness of the design, I do this and many of you probably do too. But I’d like to discover a better way. Particularly about ways to bring in professional copy writing. Any thoughts?
