Copywriting: Designer-Friendly Copywriters
By: Grant Pasay
Copywriters and designers are different animals. That's why I asked some designers I know how us writers can be designer-friendly copywriters. Here's what they came up with.
THE MAIN DIFFERENCE
"I think the main difference between copywriters and designers is that writers feel the need to cover a subject at great length being sure to touch upon every point and detail, whereas most designers secretly would prefer no copy cluttering up their designs at all."
No, that's not a quote from "Copywriters are from Mars, Designers are from Venus." That's how seasoned Vancouver designer, Brian Ritchie, of Detour Creative sees things (http://www.detourcreative.com).
So, what can we learn from these sage words? "Less is more" sounds good.
SKIMMING TIPS
The rest of our designer-friendly tips are courtesy of the talented Brenda Wilson and Tamara Brooks, of Vancouver's Syntric Design (http://www.syntricdesign.com).
"We prefer it when copywriters actively highlight the text, i.e.: provide the header, the sub-header, and bold and italicize the text that needs to be bolded. Website users like to skim text, and as a design firm, we often wish the text was already treated with skimming in mind."
Okay, ladies. We'll keep skimming in mind. Anything else on the subject?
"We love it when copywriters use point form (though not excessively, i.e. no 10 bullet points!). For example, 'The top three things: 1, 2, 3...' On websites, people are much more likely to read bullet points than long paragraphs!"
ANOTHER WEB TIP
"We prefer when copywriters write text that is short, sweet and to the point. Start getting too long, and as a website design firm, we have to make a lot of anchors for people to navigate the text."
Okay, okay. We get the point. Less is more! (Of course, if you're trying to persuade someone to buy a $1,000 item, less is probably less...conversions, that is.) FINAL GOODIE "It's fantastic when copywriters provide 'tidbits' or little sayings that can be used throughout a design as quotes."
Hey, no problem. If you want quotes, just take anything from our brilliant copy. (Hmmm, maybe I should read that first quote from Brian Ritchie again.)
Copyright (c) Grant Pasay 2006. All rights reserved.
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About The Author:
Grant Pasay is a professional website copywriter, advertising copywriter, and SEO copywriter serving clients in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the U.S., and Europe.
For copy that captures your business message without any of the hassle, go to http://grantpasay.com/
Check out Grant's FREE online copywriting articles, including "Copywriting for Non-Copywriters" at http://grantpasay.com/copywriter_articles.asp