Why I design ‘and’ write
August 15th, 2010

I’ll be honest, if I met a graphic designer who said they also did the writing on their projects, I’d be a little worried. In fact, I did see a mention by a writer on twitter that they were doing some design work for a client, and my heart sunk. I’m a firm believer that the right people should do the right job in order to get the best solution.

Now I’m sure I’m not the only one that thinks this, but it does make me worry about the fact that the back of every one of my business cards says that’s what I do, ‘I design and write’. Fortunately, I have developed what I hope is a pretty compelling argument for why I do both.

I start by pointing out I don’t do creative writing and as for my creative design skills, to say they’re limited might be generous. I’m good with words and diagrams, but if it comes down to logos (or worse, being ‘trendy’) I’d rather not bother.

As it says all over this site, simplicity is my thing (or clarity, or rationalisation, or whatever else you want to call it). To achieve simplicity, words and design have to work together. After all, the simplest text in the world is useless unless it’s presented in a way that makes it easy to use. Equally, a document that’s easy to navigate is useless if all routes lead a reader to information they don’t understand.