After comparing Microsoft and Apple’s web sites, I was inspired to write a column on designer bias. I think I’ve always known it was there, but as an interactive copywriter and content strategist, I’ve decided to stand up and be counted.
Copywriters untie! (That would be a writer’s joke. Read it again if you don’t get it.)
The truth in advertising is that, while copy and graphics, words and pictures, text and photos can’t live without each other (except on rare occasions), Design almost always gets top billing. I’ve been in several pitches where the client liked the headline and copy but didn’t jive with that particular design. Many times they throw out the baby with the bathwater. When a design is cool but the copy sucks, the response is “rework the headline.”
Yes, of course I’m bitter grapes and sour apples, but I’m not alone. How many of you copywriters out there have been told, “We really like the design but it’s too busy. We know there’s only 25 words to explain the product but could you cut your copy in half?
Sure. I can say the name of the product, list the URL and say “buy it now.”
Great. Perfect. Thanks for being a team player.
Before I alienate every designer I’ve ever met, let me be the first to say that we writers can’t do it without you designers. Almost every piece in my portfolio has at least an adequate design. If I posted only the copy and not the design, I’d never get another job. Can you imagine a copywriter being judged solely on the copy? Designers: what I am saying is that we’d like equal billing. It’s not wrong. You guys make our copy sing, but have you ever tried to sell your work without it? Pretty wacky.
Let’s negotiate. A picture used to be worth a thousand words. That means a word is worth .001 pictures. I think the currency rate of a word would be upgraded to at least .01 pictures.
Anyone?