Copy Cat: Writing for Collaborative Storytelling

In our small agency, we’re lucky to have a bombdotcom graphic designer working alongside us everyday. Well, we don’t call her a graphic designer. She’s a visual storyteller. And we have a reason for calling her that.

You see, designers and writers have a similar goal: We want to tell the story of our clients in the clearest and most appealing way. As writers, we assemble words and shape messages to tell a story. Designers work with the words we masterfully craft — adding color, shape, texture, size and branding. They take our writing and bring it to life, and help communicate to those visual learners out there.

That’s a pretty hefty task, y’all.

But Jo, and a ton of other killer visual storytellers, can handle it if we, the writers, know what the heck we’re doing. Most of you have had some experience writing for design. But, a refresher course never hurt anyone (especially if you’re a PR or agency newbie).

Here is what you can do to give designers what they NEED. Before you say yes to that new set of press kit collateral. Before you send that poster copy you threw together. And before you finish the “last” round of edits for that brochure you’ve been struggling to complete for weeks. Just follow this list of tips to keep everything moving smoothly.

Sometimes, you have to say, “no.” Sometimes clients have bad ideas. (Not our clients, of course.) Whether it’s you or your account manager, it is up to one of you to tell them no. Gently, of course. That way the designer on your team isn’t stuck spending hours making the logo bigger or “jazzing” it up.

Be aware of the designer’s checklist. If you say “yes” to developing a set of design pieces, you need to do more than just confirm you’ll work on it. Before you leave that meeting, you need a road map for the piece. Information like:

• The size of the piece
  • Whether the piece will have fronts, backs or folds (and how many)
  • The purpose for the piece
  • The content to go in the piece
  • The due date of the piece
  • The current branding standards for your client
  • Any imagery or logo files the designer will need
  • Additional information

This stuff is important to designers. They often have little to no contact with your clients. They are usually not psychic, either. If your client really wants those footprint graphics in their piece or really hates the color purple, you need to tell the designer. Don’t make them dig around for information you should already know.

Write everything out for the designer. And we mean, EVERYTHING. You’re a writer, WRITE! Include the social media addresses, website URLS and full street names in your copy document.

The designer isn’t asking you to resize photos or create a logo, so you shouldn’t be asking him or her to write. If you do your job, the designers can do his or hers more efficiently and everyone wins.

Establish hierarchy to your writing. Our brains like hierarchy. Design pieces like this:

just make your brain hurt. This designer was obviously told, “Everything is important. Highlight it ALL.” But guess what? You won’t absorb any of this information, except for an impression that a fifth-grader using Microsoft Word is on the loose, professionally designing posters. Don’t let your story get lost. Tell the designer what is important so that they can tell your audiences what is important. That way, unless your designer is in fact a fifth-grader using Microsoft Word, your work comes out looking more like this:

Preeeetyyy, huh?

Organize your edits. Making mistakes is okay (sometimes). Not correcting them or making the same ones over and over is NOT OKAY.

When you make a change to your copy document, you need to tell the designer. Highlight the change. Bold the change. Do SOMETHING that the designer can see. They have to do A LOT to make your copy look pretty. They’re not just going to copy + paste over all that hard work when you just changed an apostrophe.

More importantly, make sure your edits are solidified before you send them to the designer. Get everyone working on the project to make his or her edits at one time. Edit for clarity. Edit for consistency. Edit for punctuation and accents and spelling. Don’t leave hanging questions on your edited document. Designers are most likely just as confused about that comma placement as you are.

The visual is a necessary component to communicating the message. It helps draws viewers in. It makes them want to know more. It creates a feeling and an interest mere Times New Roman font on matte paper just can’t achieve. For you and the designer to create an eye-catching, on-brand and witty piece takes a whole lot of time and collaboration. If you’re lucky enough to work with a meticulous and intelligent visual storyteller, you should be just as meticulous and intelligent in your writing. That takes time, too. But in the end, it’s worth it. Once you’ve ensured your internal design checklist boxes are all crossed off, the process will speed up. And, we can assure you that designers will love you forever and ever. It’s as simple as knowing your client, knowing the designer and knowing your purpose. Do your job. Then, designers can do theirs.