Should designers try to write? Should writers try to design?

Richard gets the conversation off to a good start:

"Over the last few years there's been a fair about of chat about how great it is if designers can write. Only the other week, in Belfast, we heard Adrian Shaughnessy reiterate this idea. I like the idea. I'm a designer and enjoy messing about with words. I'm often heard to say, "I'm no writer, but what about this..." and confidently string words together for projects I'm working on. Problem is, when someone comes along and says, "I'm no designer but what about this..." us designers get seriously pissed off."

That last point is fascinating, and I'm sure it applies to many writers, too. But if you're any good in either capacity, why would you feel threatened by ideas from others?

Equally, I don't think we should let a lack of confidence in other disciplines stop us speaking up. My design ideas are always improved by the designers I work with - but that doesn't mean the original ideas are bad. (Not all of them, anyway.)

For example, I recently worked on a naming project, and I happened to have an idea for the logo, too. The designer liked it, and tweaked it in a way I hadn't expected, making the idea much clearer and more effective. Now it's going ahead, and it looks great.

Exactly the same happens with copy. Many times a designer or art director has said, as Richard does, 'I'm no writer, but what about...' Or, 'I know this isn't quite right, but what about...' As often as not, they're spot on. The copy itself might need a tweak, just as my logo did, but the ideas are bang on.

For me, this is one of the best bits of the job: sitting down with someone and bouncing ideas around. If they're any good, they'll come up with loads of things you'd never have thought of on your own. Some are verbal ideas, some visual. The best ones are usually a marriage of both. But they can come from either side. You can't stop people having ideas, and why on earth would you want to?

Ultimately, It's ideas that grab and persuade people - not typography and colour, or grammar and wordplay. Craft skills, used well, are the tools we use to make that idea sing. (Poor craft skills, of course, can bury an idea, often because they try too hard to be clever in themselves.) But the idea should come first. And anyone can have an idea.

Even account managers.

Comments

[Richard Madeley]

Good to read somebody talking about craft. It's a rare thing these days. Excellent post.