Posted by Amanda Huber on March 12 at 10:45 AM
Justin: You designers hate using real copy.
Me: Not true... Unless it is uber-long and want-to-kill-yourself boring.
Justin: Exactly!! Designers love dummy copy because it will always fit into their designs. The rampant use of Lorem Ipsum is destroying sacred relationship between design and content.
Me: We would rather use real copy, but are forced to use Lorem Ipsem because client and copywriters (ahem) don’t give us copy until the last possible second!
Justin: Whatever. Just admit it. You hate words.
Me: (Incredulous) but.. I love words... I need words.
Justin unwittingly hit upon a key frustration of mine as a graphic designer and it is exactly the opposite of what he assumed I was frustrated by. For the record, designers do not dislike copy. It is true that we frequently complain about the length of copy and whine about quality of the writing, but in my mind any copy is better than dummy copy. It is challenging and, dare I say, fun to figure out how to make a lot of copy legible in a tiny amount of space or to come up with fabulous graphics to distract from the dullest prose. Designers are problem solvers. They thrive on figuring out how to make something work both functionally and aesthetically despite limitations. Without copy, designers are stripped of the opportunity to enhance people’s understanding of the subject matter through the design. Without copy, designers are reduced to decorators and designs are reduced to generic templates.
This unfortunate phenomenon, which I call
designing dumb, is more prevalent when designing for web than print. I would argue that the faltering relationship between design and content does not reflect a designers desire to design without the limitations that real copy impose but rather, it is due a flaw in the process we use for developing websites.
How can we change this process to ensure that designers have copy to work with when designing? Is there any reason that content can’t be determined, at least roughly, before the design process starts? Justin, I challenge you to find a designer who would rather work with Lorem Ipsum than the real thing.
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2 Comments so far...
As a graphic designer who was initially trained in comparative literature and writing, I'm certain I place far more emphasis on a design's copy than most of my fellow designers would. However, as designers I think most of us realize that we inhabit a very special place at the point where words and images meet. Whereas traditional visual art conveys messages visually and traditional writing conveys messages textually, graphic design is that creative medium whose sole responsibility is the communication of messages utilizing BOTH images and words. So I think that most designers would, as you assert, prefer something at least resembling a facsimile of final copy rather than our far more trustworthy "Lorem ipsum dolor".
But unfortunately I've no solution as to helping the copywriters get the text to us designers more quickly in the design process. Ha.
Posted by Atherton Bartelby on March 12 at 3:15 PMAcorn or oak tree? The question runs eternally. Best regards to an always leading edge bunch, Richard Kadzis CoreNet Global
Posted by Richard on March 20 at 4:35 PM