When you’re in the process of starting a business or rebranding, it feels like there’s a thousand and one things to do all at once.
You’re looking for graphic designers, web developers, printing services, branding experts, PR – and, of course, copy.
Who to hire first – copywriter or designer?
While it might seem more important (or fun) to focus on your shiny new logo and printing 500 beautiful business cards, copy should always be your first port of call.
Copy comes before design, because design is led by copy
Copy comes before design, because design is led by copy
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When your designer/developer has spent hours working on a webpage they do not want to have to rejig everything trying to cram in copy they didn’t anticipate.
And your copywriter, who’s spent hours working on the perfect paragraph for your About page, does not want to find a key sentence has been cut because the designer needed the text to fit in a box at a certain font size.
Starting with the copy keeps the project running smoothly
If your designer knows exactly what they’re working with right from the start they can work the design around it – a 3000 word long form blog post with text boxes, graphs, images and subheadings needs very different treatment than a home page with one 3 line paragraph.
Even if you have a fairly good idea of how you want your site layout to be, working with the copywriter to firm up plans before handing them to the designer is sensible because a part of a copywriter’s job is cherrypicking the relevant info and discarding the waffle.
And you will have waffle.
Getting the copy well into the finishing stages before the designers get started is the best way to ensure your project runs smoothly and efficiently.
But you didn’t read this post until your website was pretty much done…
Or your site has been great from Day 1 but your copy is outdated. Or you’ve only just realised that copywriters exist and you didn’t actually have to do it all yourself!
That’s cool.
Don’t panic.
Getting the copywriter on board midway through the project, or even right at the end could potentially hold things up but it’s always worth it.
Copy and design – a match made in heaven
Your web developer and/or designer should be happy to speak directly with your copywriter so that everyone’s on the same page to reach your goals. In fact, having everyone work together makes any project run more smoothly and makes for more cohesive results.
Team work makes the dream work.
To get started on your next project, just…