CREATIVE EDGE · GRAPHIC DESIGN

A few things that tend to get edited out of the email before we hit Send.

1. “Just start with placeholder copy” is how we end up designing it twice.

Sure, I can make a beautiful layout with three lines of Lorem Ipsum. Then the real copy arrives with six paragraphs, a chart, and a quote from the CEO that has to stay in its entirety.

If the copy’s still in progress, send me the ugly draft. The ugly draft can tell me how much room the story needs. Lorem Ipsum has been suspiciously agreeable on that point for centuries.

2. The empty space is there on purpose.

I know there’s room for another logo in the lower right. There’s also room for a small photograph of a horse. We should have a reason for putting either one there.

That space around the headline is part of why you saw the headline first. Fill it with three badges and a QR code and now the reader has to decide where to look. Most will make that decision by scrolling.

3. “One quick change” has a surprisingly large family.

“Can we add one word to the headline?” Of course. Now it wraps, the subhead moves down, the photo needs a new crop, and I get to reopen all six sizes we exported yesterday.

Sometimes a quick change really is quick. You’ll know because I’ll have done it in less time than it took to write this paragraph.

4. Bring me in while there’s still something to decide.

By the time the template is approved, the stock photos are purchased, and someone has promised a two-page sell sheet for twelve pages of copy, we’re going to spend a lot of our first meeting discussing physics.

Give me fifteen minutes before those decisions are made. I can tell you which photo will actually crop to a banner, whether the template fits the content, and which nine pages of that sell sheet nobody was going to read anyway.

5. “Make it pop” gets us about halfway through the first sentence.

What should pop? The number? The offer? The button? The CEO’s quote, which I’m told must stay in its entirety?

Tell me what you want someone to understand or do after they see the piece. That gives me something to design around. Otherwise, yes, I can make the button orange. We’ll still have to figure out why anyone would click it.

I hope this gave you something to think about. More from the Steve Blender soon. To be continued.