How a Designer Can Brush Up His Writing Skills

It is a thing of creative people that they are more of a free-thinking sort than the structured ones. According to researches, people like designer and creative have a more actively functioning right brain than left brain thinking people and so they respond in the same manner and not logic-oriented and organized like left-brain thinkers. That might not be a problem for you but it can sometimes land you in a pretty sticky situation but there are only a few tweaks that you need to know and then you will be sending out impressive messages, easily comprehensible by everyone.

It is very likely that you get the feeling that some members of your team aren’t quite getting the message of your communication right. Communicating effectively with the team is a tricky process because all the different types of people think differently and would have their own meaning of the message.

Stick to the Topic:

Designer Stick to the Topic

Your communications should have a purpose. Form a message and stick to just that as long messages and lengthy emails are a little hard to digest especially where time is precious. Put together the content of your message and give it a thorough reading before sending it out. Edit it carefully, removing any extra details and information, making the message to the point. You can always save some information for the next memo.

Hierarchy in Your Message:

Hierarchy in Your Message

It is the specialty of big words and fonts that they look more important. Where you want to stress your message’s highlighting part, use big words, headings or headlines. By having a hierarchy in the message, we mean that you divide the parts of your message in the order of their importance using different sizes of fonts and headings to stress your point. Hierarchies also work well as they help easier reading by breaking the message for the reader to comprehend easily.

Use a large font for the most important message and decrease the size of the fonts according to the messages until you write the body of the message in the standard form. It will also give a neat and professional look to your message. In addition, you have to make sure that your message is not crammed with fonts of different sizes and different colors as such a message will have an equally opposite effect and will do you no good.

A Visual Speaks More Words:

Designer - A Visual Speaks More Words

It can do great if you also ‘show’ rather than just ‘tell’. When sending out a message, attach designs and examples with your communication piece telling what you have in mind and what you are looking for by detailing the design to your working group. Always remember that you are working with more than just words when you are working with your visual thinking partners so speak a language they can understand and they understand visual.

Show your idea through sending out links or images with your email or memo or report as that will help convey your message in a better way. Needless to say, you will need visual examples in your writing to explain your point or idea better. Think of a design or a designer that your received your inspiration from or whose work you found impressive. You can take help from the way he conveyed his message and how it can be incorporated in your message to make it more effective.

Keep the Message Minimal:

Keep the Message Minimal

Format of a message is an important factor if you want to make an impression. A more digestible format is to put your message in bullets and points as that is easily readable and that’s our basic purpose. You don’t have to write a manifesto. You only need to highlight the necessary information and such that will encourage feedback.

Another thing that you need to do is edit your content. Read it over and over depending upon the level of its importance and give it a careful revision. If something can be said in less words, don’t say it in a whole lot of words. Keep your sentences short and concise, keeping in view the clarity and cohesion nonetheless. Moreover, if you are trying to deliver too many messages at one time, that may also lose the concentration of the reader and importance of the message.

Avoid Assumptions and Be Specific:

Avoid Assumptions and Be Specific
Man drawing a game strategy with white chalk on a blackboard.

Don’t assume that someone knows what you are talking about. You have to take your audience as new people and explain everything to them. Make a clear outline of what you want from the project and its background.

There are some absolute elements but there are many that need to be specified through clear communication. Being accurate and making your members aware of all the aspects only helps to enhance your credibility.

Designer Think Differently:

Different Designers Think Differently

The brain of a designer has a more free-flowing style of comprehension and they all think differently. There can be a number of ways through which your message can come across so you have to keep your point simple and concise in order for every different kind of person to take it in the same way. Creative people may not write more professionally but that doesn’t mean they are dumb. In fact, plenty of them are good writers. It’s only their style that’s different.

Break the Conventional Rules of Writing:

Break the Conventional Rules of Writing

When writing to designer, it’s OK to write more casually and break the conventions of professional writing. Starting a sentence with ‘and’ can sometimes work well and can make your message look more conversational than a directive. You don’t have to use the business letter style of writing for a memo; instead you can take a more casual turn. If you feel you are being too formal, you can always edit it and make it more like how you talk.

Avoid Jargon:

Designer

There is a specific set of lingo in every industry. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be OK with the creative team as well. While you are discussing your project, don’t use too much of inside talk or phrases that are too uncommon. Most of the times, members of your creative team are not familiar with the Jargon of your industry and may find the message too overwhelming. You can keep them on the same page by using a language and words that are more simple and direct. In addition, too much of casual phrasing might also not help as that can take away the seriousness from the message. Use active words and start your message with encouraging sentences. Using phrases that engage the reader works the most effectively.

Final Thought:

Clear communication is the key to success and when you are working with a number of different types of people; you need to know how their thought processes. Designer and creative people take a written communication in a different manner than someone who thinks more analytically. Therefore, you have to deliver your message in a way that is comprehensible by these right brain thinkers. Make your message easily readable by using a bulleted format and hierarchies, along with providing visual examples. Keep the information in the message short and concise. And lastly, follow-up all your written communications.

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