How to have a great copywriter and designer relationship

We are all necessary pieces of the puzzle when it comes to successful design projects and a smooth process benefits everyone. This article aims to help marketing managers, copywriters and other designers.

As designers, we don’t generally mind how you provide your copy. It’s usually in Word, GoogleDocs format or PDF, and sometimes shorter copy or edits may be delivered via email or within project management software such as Asana.

Whether we’re working on a website or a print project, such as a brochure, there are some common elements that can help us work more efficiently. Having an agreed streamlined process from the outset means less time is spent going back-and-forth for clarification and helps deliver a faster end result.

The design brief

Let us know what the goals are for the project. This ensures we know what to highlight in the design as call-to-actions for the reader. Give us a bit of background on how this piece fits with the overall communication strategy so we can help you be cohesive across different mediums.

The timeline

Below is part of a timeline we put together for a client recently. This helps show everyone who needs to do what, when.

The content

Structure

This is the most important aspect of your content. A clear structure helps us see the hierarchy of the information.

Make it clear to us which are the headings, subheadings, corresponding paragraphs, bulleted and numbered lists, quotes and callout text suggestions.

Use consistent heading sizes in your document to show us the hierarchy. The main section heading should be the largest (Heading 1), and the remaining headings should reduce in size.

Don’t make any headings just a bold version of the main paragraph size. It’s not always clear to us if this is a heading or a phrase that has been emboldened for emphasis.

It doesn’t matter which font you use but choose a common one across different operating systems, such as Arial. Use a font that has specific bold and italic versions of it so any bold and italicised formatting doesn’t get lost when we open the document.

Use forced page breaks so it’s clear there’s a new section in longer documents.

For both web and print design projects, it’s useful to structure your text into the following:

Heading 1 – only use indicate a new page, section or topic
(web pages should only have one Heading 1)
Heading 2 (subtitle) – where relevant
Paragraphs
Bullet points and/or numbered lists
Quotes, testimonials, callout excerpts
Heading 3 – a sub heading of Heading 2
Heading 4

There is tonnes of really useful advice about structure and content heirarchy (particularly relating to the web) on the Readability Guidelines website.

Directional notes

If it’s relevant, please add directional notes, so we can determine what you might want us to prioritise in the presentation of content. For example, highlighting a phrase that may be a good callout.

Please don’t add these directional notes within the copy itself, as it makes it harder for us to copy/paste. Add these notes as comments to keep them separate from the content.

Add comments in Word by highlighting the text and right clicking ‘New comment’ (or highlighting text and going to Insert > Comment from the menu bar). In GoogleDocs, the process is identical.

If these are distracting to you while you work, you can toggle them on/off:

in Word, go to View > Markup
in GoogleDocs, go to View > Editing/Viewing (can also be toggled at the top right of the window).

Which comes first – copy or design?

We believe the copy should come first as this is where you’re consolidating your messaging. Our job is to present this so it conveys your message clearly in an attractive way. It’s a lot easier for us to do this if the content is finalised and signed off first.

Extra copy edits

Allow a phase in the timeline to review the content within the finished design and for small edits on the page. We may need support in editing the content to fit better into the design. For example, you may have a double page brochure spread that has four content boxes and one of them could benefit from a few words being edited out so the content aligns nicely at the bottom. It’s far better for this to be done by the copywriter than a designer.

The process

Designers and copywriters need to be flexible from the outset with how the content may be presented. Collaboration is key throughout the process.

On the web, we have to be aware of how the content is presented on different devices and screen sizes, as well as be aware of accessibility issues. In print, we’ll be looking at how the content works on single pages as well as across double page spreads.

We recommend including an initial design phase using some draft content, rather than waiting to do all the design work after copy has been signed off. This helps copywriters see how much space there is to play with, and how the pages could be divided up before finalising the copy and page plan (or paths through a website).

The following process works for a print brochure:

Establish the strategy and goals for the piece (marketing, in collaboration with sales)
Gather information from key stakeholders, including customers (marketing, in collaboration with sales)
Draft content (copywriter – share this with marketing, sales and the designer)
Initial design phase, using draft content (designer – share this with copywriter and marketing)
Final content (copywriter – shares this with marketing and sales for feedback and sign off)
Main design (designer – shares with with copywriter and marketing for feedback)
Extra edits (copywriter – in collaboration with designer)
Final design (designer – shares with all parties for sign off)
Ideally a ‘wash-up’ meeting is scheduled sometime after the piece has been released to the market (all parties, with feedback from key stakeholders)
This feedback is incorporated into the next version of the piece, where relevant

A slightly different version of the process above would be suitable for a website project, which would ideally include collaborating with UX teams and developers at every stage.

A note from a copywriter …

Copy and design dance together. Establishing a great copywriter/designer relationship is key to producing effective content that clients love. If possible, start this collaboration right at the beginning of a project, working together on the plan, creating your ‘wishlist’ of what you both need from the client and each other at key stages, and how your overlapping deadlines will blend together (with hope seamlessly, but at the very least relatively smoothly!).

Open creative collaboration between copywriters and designers not only produces great work for the client, it is the most enjoyable way to work too – creating a little agency hub, with independent freelancers. Talk to each other: out loud, not just on email. Have a chat, discuss ideas, show each other how ideas would work (or how they wouldn’t work) and each bring your expertise to the table. Working as a team always presents the best results for happy clients.

Need some help?

This advice is the result of 20 years of experience as a designer working with marketing teams on digital and print projects across different sectors. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss your project.

With thanks to Vicky Westmore, Marketing Communications Specialist and Copywriter, at The Little Creative Workshop, for her help with this article and the many projects we have creatively, and successfully, collaborated on together.