work.

ongoing.

The more you work on a brand, the better you understand it. You’re not starting from scratch when a new project comes in, and can slip easily into the right frame of mind and tone of voice, which produces more sophisticated, better-positioned work. We’ve been fortunate enough to have worked directly with several household-name brands over a number of years. These include Pink, Orange, Neal’s Yard Remedies and Royal Mail.

We’ve also built strong links with several design companies, notably Aboud Creative, The Partners, Blast and NB:Studio. Again, trust, mutual respect and rapport help foster a positive working atmosphere and – ultimately – better work.

concepts/naming

Being a writer’s not always about writing. Often we’re simply asked to be another brain. To come up with ideas and provide a take that’s different from the design company’s. We’ve worked on pitches and campaign concepts, problem-solving and providing critiques of brands and other people’s writing.

We also get involved with a lot of naming projects. In the past, we’ve been asked to summon up names for shirts, phones, a music download service, a squash tournament, a perfume and a cheese. Not forgetting a couple of children. But mostly, it’s brands and companies asking for that elusive piece of nomenclature that will make them stand out and remembered.

tone of voice.

An area that’s become increasingly relevant and must-have for today’s switched-on brands. Tone of voice is all about finding the right words to communicate with your particular audience. Words that are distinctive and relevant, that sit easily with what you stand for and accurately reflect your character. This specially tailored way of writing and speaking then needs to be consistently used across all media, so people understand where you’re coming from.

We’ve helped a major international mobile phone manufacturer, national sports organisations (Sport England’s brand guidleines shown above left), and several design companies define and articulate their tone of voice, producing detailed guidelines, example copy and dos and don’ts.

promotional.

Brochures, booklets, fliers, leaflets, leave-behinds, mail-outs. Something of a house speciality. We’ve done big ones and small ones, fun ones and serious ones – even one that’s shaped like a small piece of modern architecture. A recent effort that stands out was called ‘The Yellow Book’ (shown left), a slim volume which explained the rationale for a proposed pedestrian wayfinding system for the whole of London. The plan had been painstakingly conceived and researched by information specialists AIG, and was pretty technical stuff, but we managed to convey the ideas in an friendly, informative way. This was reflected in the scheme winning a Gold at the DBA’s Design Effectiveness Awards in 2008.

advertising.

A good ad gets ‘mental rental’. That is, it occupies a small space in someone’s head for a short space of time. We’ve worked on a wide variety of press ads, in-store posters, direct mail and web banners, all of which – we hope – make people pause, be it for a play on words, a neat turn of phrase, a captivating idea or a smart interplay of word and image. Our clients have included American Airlines, Waterstone’s, Hitachi, RIBA and VW. But the highest-profile campaign we’ve worked on to date was undoubtedly the hugely successful National Gallery Grand Tour (left), which scooped a Design Week Award, Guardian Media Award and a coveted D&AD Gold in 2008.

annual reviews.

Hardcore business writing isn’t particularly our thing, but we are very interested in contributing to reports and reviews where clients and agencies want to communicate in a lateral, imaginative way. All kinds of organisations need annual reviews, some with an easier, more engaging style. For example, Jim wrote the Lawn Tennis Association’s annual review for three years running, which needed to appeal to everyone from potential sponsors to members of the public. The award-winning 2004 Oskar Mobil annual report (above, left) reflected the energy and eccentricity of the Czech mobile operator, while articulating a serious business message.

We’ve also worked on reviews for the likes of the Design Council, the law firm Bedell Group, and mobile phone software developer Symbian. And drafted plenty of director’s letters, from lawyers and accountants, to media organisations and sports governing bodies.

online.

There’s no great secret to good online writing. Yes, we know about keywords, SEO and metatags. We’ve even read some Jacob Nielsen. But the same basic rules apply as any other writing. Only – more than ever – don’t waste words. Keep it short and tight. Get your message across as succinctly as possible. Don’t repeat yourself as we’re doing here. We have created online content for among others, Paul Smith Story (above left), 26, navyblue, BDO Stoy Hayward, Philips, Volkswagen, AXA, Nationwide, Orange and Hitachi.

internal comms.

For around six years, Jim supported Orange with their internal communications. This mainly consisted of developing ‘reference guides’, which demonstrate how you should write about a particular product or service. Every phone, tariff or promotion gets one of these two-pagers. They’re circulated not only to Orange employees, but also people at relevant agencies and suppliers so that messages and tone of voice are consistent.

In addition, he helped to develop ‘The Pickles’, a fictional pan-generational family used to help call-centre staff deal with common queries and situations. These cartoon-style characters were undercut with humour to side-step any authoritarian overtones, and have appeared as posters, stand-ups, mouse-mats, playing cards, screen-savers and calendars.

Elsewhere, we’ve written a series of intranet sites for the Nationwide Building Society and internal guidelines for Shell forecourt shops.

brand books.

Brand books are as much about evoking the right overall atmosphere as setting down draconian rules for the application of colour and type, the nuances of photography and where the logo should go. Working in tandem with design agencies, we’ve helped create a wide variety of different flavours – covering traditional Britishness for Yardley, classic style for Vidal Sassoon, a crisp, persuasive outlook for Sport England. Once we’d figured out how to write in appropriate way for each of them, we could get down to the nitty-gritty business of laying down draconian rules for the application of colour and type, the nuances of photography and where the logo should go.

editorial features.

Since 1992, Jim’s work has appeared in most of the British national broadsheets (not that they’re broadsheets any more) and mainstream magazines like GQ and the Sunday Times. He’s written on subjects as diverse as fashion, pop music, computer games, interiors and new media, but has tended to concentrate on design and the visual arts, bringing now-familiar names like David Carson, Designers Republic and Ross Lovegrove to a broader audience. At one point, he wrote a regular column on advertising for the Guardian.

Jim has also contributed to many international design magazines and journals. From Domus in Italy, IDEA in Japan and Print and Ray Gun magazines in the US, to titles in Holland, France and Iceland. In the UK, he has written articles for, among others, Eye, Graphics International, Design Week, Baseline, Design, Creative Technology and Circular. And has interviewed and profiled many leading creative types, including Gert Dumbar, Neville Brody, Richard Seymour, David Carson and Annie Leibovitz. He currently writes a monthly Private View column in Design Week, which appears on the third Thursday of each month – thanks for asking.

press releases.

Deborah was acknowledged as the ‘Press Release Queen’ in her years spent grafting at the PR coalface, and these days is responsible for penning totalcontent’s growing news release output. She’s written words for some of Britain’s biggest brands, including Woolworths, Somerfield supermarkets, Blockbuster Video, Mars confectionery, too many Bass beers to mention (or remember), Thomas Cook and Little Chef.