How do you find and instruct a designer for your copy?

6 replies
I'm sure not all of us do the designing by ourselves for our copy.

My question is how do you find your designer and how do you specify him to layout the design what you have in your mind.

I guess it is easier when you are working in an offline environment, standing by your designers shoulder and instructing him but how will you do the same when working with remote-online designers.
#copy #designer #find #instruct
  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Scott
    I don't really follow here.

    I do mostly online stuff... which means any WYSIWYG editor will work fine for the purposes of writing copy.

    Or are you talking about graphic design... website templates etc?

    -Dan
    Signature

    Always looking for badass direct-response copywriters. PM me if we don't know each other and you're looking for work.

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    • Profile picture of the author Rick Johansson
      I work with a designer in the UK and I simply create placeholders in the copy and try to find examples for him to follow.

      It is next to impossible (for me anyway) to describe in words what I want the design to look like. If possible, I try to find an example to show him and I'll put in the copy (Put testimonial box that looks similiar to www.otherguysite.com) in parentheses...that way I can just SHOW him what I want...not just TELL him.

      It usually comes back perfect with some minor tweaks.

      Rick
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      • Profile picture of the author geekology
        Originally Posted by Daniel Scott View Post

        I don't really follow here.

        I do mostly online stuff... which means any WYSIWYG editor will work fine for the purposes of writing copy.

        Or are you talking about graphic design... website templates etc?

        -Dan
        Yeah, I was talking about the graphic design of the copy.


        Originally Posted by Rick Johansson View Post

        I work with a designer in the UK and I simply create placeholders in the copy and try to find examples for him to follow.

        It is next to impossible (for me anyway) to describe in words what I want the design to look like. If possible, I try to find an example to show him and I'll put in the copy (Put testimonial box that looks similiar to www.otherguysite.com) in parentheses...that way I can just SHOW him what I want...not just TELL him.

        It usually comes back perfect with some minor tweaks.

        Rick
        Thanks. I wanted to hear exactly that.

        Others, do you do it any different from Rick?
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    geekology...
    I'll take a shot at a comment here.

    I think what you mean is not so much design as it is a combination of layout and design. It's interesting that this topic is on the table because I'm working with a Web designer right now and I'm having a bit of a challenge getting him to understand the importance of layout. He's a partner with me in a current project and Web design is not his main gig so this is a learning process for him.

    As a writer it's your job to sell the product with your words. But the words are not nearly enough. You also have to be clever enough to get people to actually read them, or read enough of them to make a decision. And that's where layout is critical.

    If your headline is compelling enough for someone to look further, people will skim the body of the copy. This is the moment of truth. It's usually the first glance at the rest of the piece that draws them in and read more of the actual page. That means that you have to be very clever in making sure that BENEFITS are shouting at them. They need to be set off in bold, boxes, bullets, quotes, anything that will get the reader to stop and see them.

    Features are also important but, in my opinion, do not warrant the emphasis that benefits do. So when you are fairly close to the end draft of your letter you need to start thinking this: How do I need to lay this material out to hook the buyer?

    You do that by isolating catchy phrases that will become paragraph headers. You might look for some stock photos to strategically place in you piece to help break up long stretches of text. But the most important thing of all is you need to isolate your features and benefits and showcase them remembering that benefits get the spotlight.

    Benefits are emotional appeals and will often be written to appeal to vanity. A new Mercedes might have a beautiful gold-inlayed shift knob, which is a really nice feature but the hook for that feature is how it makes the owner feel to have it.

    You might say something like, "You'll be head and shoulders above the folks at the club knowing you've invested in prestige, class and style...

    Or... Buffy will finally understand that you're a man of taste and class realizing that, for you, money is no object when it comes to the finer things. (Not trying to be a sexist pig here ladies, just illustrating the importance of pushing the vanity button every once in a while).

    If your copy doesn't have stuff like that standing out on the first pass, the reader might not go for a second.

    So getting back to your original question, it's up to you to present your material to the designer with notes about the stuff you want to stand out. It's easier if you can write using a WYSISYG editor and sort of build around the stand-out stuff as you go.

    But when I begin to write a long sale piece I'm not concerned with that up front. After I have the bulk of the copy written, then I start to collate, isolate, and seriously plan the layout for max eye appeal. And let's face it, you're the writer and should know where your hooks are. It's up to you to let the designer know how to showcase them.

    Unfortunately a lot of designers don't understand the reasoning behind what needs to be accented with a well-optimized (in the design sense) letter. The ones that do get it have probably been around a while and have learned that the layout of a page for max 'scan appeal' is as important as, if not more important than the copy itself.

    And even if they do understand, it's ultimately you who should be calling the shots in accenting the stuff you want the reader to focus on.
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  • Profile picture of the author geekology
    You said it travlinguy.

    This question dawned on me when I wrote a couple of copies for one of my products. Mind it, I'm no copywriter and at this stage I won't want to invest in the 'real-copywriters', so I thought of learning the fine art myself. As you rightly mentioned, writing your thoughts is one thing but having the 'benefits' accented at various places make a big difference. Your answer had made things clearer to me. Thanks Again.

    On another note, I would like to thank the admin of WF for the kind of atmosphere he maintains here. I am totally impressed with the quality of people we have on this forums. NO BS, no spam. I should have joined it much earlier.
    I am a long time member of another popular forum but - with due respect - I have to say that the kind of control, well-meaning educated people, I see here is hardly seen on that/ or any other forum.
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    • Profile picture of the author John_S
      You can also read the article on direct response graphic design in my sig.
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