The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:
1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning – and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.
I’ve had a post rattling around in my head for a while with the working title of “Beauty is More Than Skin Deep”. The general sentiment being that I’m a bit turned off by the current state of the design discussion I see going on in startupland.
We oogle over design tricks and call them beautiful, until their novelty wears off. We obsess over optimizing design and user engagement through algorithmic A/B testing pivoting from this interface to that one in order to optimize for the click. We celebrate services as “addictive” and aspire to become, ourselves, digital drug dealers.
But I’ve never written that post. And I’ve never really thought I could capture or articulate all of the nuances that go into being a digital designer. There are just so many competing agendas, so many yardsticks for measuring success that I don’t fully appreciate working outside of the field.
But I know how I feel about design. And I know how I want design to feel to me. But feelings are funny things. Tough to gather and even tougher to articulate. I find, when trying to describe a service that moves me or that I connect with, words fall short. It’s rarely about the fonts used, the color palette, the number of clicks or the page layout. Each of those likely play a role but there’s something more to “it”.
This talk, from Wilson Miner, comes about as close as I’ve found to describing “it”.
So, rather than write the post I’ve wanted to write or rehash my takeways from Wilson’s talk, I’d encourage you to watch for yourselves and see what parts of it connect with you.
The role that digital tools play in our lives is changing. And changing at such a rate that we can often take our role in shaping those tools for granted. Yet, the courses we choose to chart and the values we choose to embrace now will largely dictate the relationships we have with each other and emergent technologies in our and our children’s lifetimes.
Wilson’s talk captures the nuances of the role design plays in this transformation beautifully which is why it’s required weekend viewing on BRYCE DOT VC.
Loved the idea of repercussions of our design ideas. Ex. cars begat a grid based environment that dominates our landscape. What will world look like if your idea is wildly successful?
