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I am aging myself when I say that, when I was getting my formal design education in college, digital design was a relatively new discipline. Those focusing on digital design also obtained a completely different degree than those of us studying print. While I’m told that most schools now offer a more integrated approach, I…
As you prepare to write a case study, white paper or data sheet, you’ll gather as much information and background material as you can. Next, you’ll probably record an interview with one or more of the stakeholders. It’s always useful, too, to have transcripts of your interviews, especially if you plan to quote people directly.…
You’ve worked hard to find the perfect voice for reaching your American clients with beautifully crafted content. But what about your overseas prospects? English may be widely spoken in international business, but your English-language content will always fall short. Nelson Mandela, a native Xhosa speaker who rose to the presidency of post-apartheid South Africa, explained,…
Smart Prep is Key! Many of us manage projects, clients and connections on a daily basis. Whether you’re pitching proposals (Please send your project scope by Friday EOD), moving through deliverables (Can you explain Phase 2 to our team?) or making referrals (Hey, Eve! Do you know any great graphic designers?), you probably need to…
Back in 1998, when the Internet was all shiny and new (and referred to with awe as “the information superhighway”), I was hired by a search engine company to write web copy. Our department of brave new online writers was known as “Editorial,” based on the newspaper model. The word “content” hadn’t crept into our…
Design apps can be great for working on the fly, collaborating with a client or just getting the creative ball rolling. We’ll focus on iOS applications here, as the the iPhone is the smartphone of choice in the design world, but many of these apps are available on Android as well. And while design apps…
Wordsmithing is both an art and a craft. Copy that engages audiences is built on the nuts ‘n’ bolts basics of good writing: correct grammar, spelling and punctuation; proper word usage; and consistent style. In our digital age of LOL text-speak and 140-character microblogging, precise writing still matters. Most seasoned writers have at least a…
I’ve been looking back over various lists of copywriting tips published online over the past several years. They provide lots of good advice. Write a great headline Gail Goodwin advised in Entrepreneur Focus on “you,” not “we” Susan Gunelius wrote in 2009, also for Entrepreneur Pick one message and one message only Kimberly McCall recommended…
Articles upon articles have been written about the “gig economy.” If you’re not au fait with the term, don’t worry- its been slow to catch on, but soon it’ll be ubiquitous. What is the gig economy? It used to be that only musicians and artists looked for gigs. The rest of us had full-time jobs that…
We often get people coming to us asking whether they should retain an agency or stay in house with their projects. There are certainly benefits to keeping your resources in house; often we get questions about the value of the time and energy spent explaining business practices, projects, client relationships, and responsibilities to a new…