Hate for copywriters...
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- dMullins
Don't you hate it when you are given content, design a site around that content, layout almost the entire site, submit internally, everyone on the team approves, then the copywriter decides that there are some fundamental problems with what they wrote, and when they go to re-write the copy, they don't even begin to consider the structure or layout that you have designed, thus ruining all of your progress thus far?
Dontcha?
- GetRefresh0
Not really. Especially if I am getting paid by the hour. Fuck, change the copy 100 times for I care.
But I know what you mean. It's more a matter that you think your "done" with the project, then you realize your not (cause there's a million fucking changes), and it frustrates you.
- dMullins0
You're right! I definitely don't mind being busy, but when there's a million other things waiting to be done, it just sucks having to go back and spend time on something that should have been researched and done correctly the first time.
- jruggs0
you are the designer..she/he is the copywriter...dont expect them to understand the details of your job...if they see an issue..they point it out as would you...i understand your frustration but you must take this into consideration. Agreed on the hourly comment though...more capital for your habits
- dMullins0
You're right. I should calm down.
- GetRefresh0
Changes SUCK, but if you let them get to you, you will become a negative person. Bitching and moaning at every change. This is understandable, but also develops into a bad practice/habit, imho.
However, what I have found is that "changes" usually always make the assignment MUCH better. So in the end, your finished product is all that more impressive.
- Just read your your rants in the Politics thread, you are already a negative person, bitching & moaning about everything.Blue_Balls
- bump790
My girlfriend is a copywriter, I am studying to be a designer. I don't expect us to understand each other, although I have heard her say the same about her art director at work. She will have the entire copy written and the designer will design something that does not "fit" her copy. So it works both ways, try to see it from the copy side too bro.
- vaxorcist0
is it a new copywriter, or a new medium for that copywriter?
Veteran copywriters don't have the previsualization paradox, where they can't clearly imagine what it will look like till it's in the page, so when they see it on the page they think "that's not what I was thinking" and rewrite... (sometimes over and over)
Just make sure that the account people and/or client know it's the copywriter's change request, not yours and not the clients...
One thing to make sure of:
If the client approved the copy and the layout, and then they approve the new copy, they need to understand that the layout must change, otherwise they may be confused about why there's a new layout and the business interaction may go south.....Really good copywriters are not as common as you think, lots of people call themselves copywriters.....
- dMullins0
Thanks Vax, great advice.
My personal jury is still out on this particular copywriter. She's a cool person, but she's also in her late 60's, and hates anything interactive. I sent her a YouTube video last week, and she said, "I'll look at it at home, I don't have speakers here at work." I asked her earlier this week if she had watched the clip yet, and she said that she only told me she'd watch it so I wouldn't feel bad. "I hate YouTube. There's too much stuff on the page."
Anyway, I'm over it now. The copy was unfortunately not for the best, but it was a high-up decision made by our boss, so neither of us had any say so it looks like.
- ah, culture issue.... not an age issue, my 69 year old dad has an iPhone... but you work with you you have to....vaxorcist
- uberdesigner0
aren't most working on the great american novel?
- some are thinking they're Ron Jeremy.... http://www.malecopyw…vaxorcist
- dMullins0
Haha. Touché.
- mg330
Uh, so there's not a CMS for the client to edit the site content themselves? Sounds like your fault.
- itsmitch0
I've only had these problems when the client decides to be the copywriter themselves. A few months ago I had a corporate client do this and forced us to lay everything out in Microsoft Word for a project. At the beginning we were trying so hard to make it look great, even in Word, but by the end we just wanted it done with. We had multiple people sending us changes in multiple ways. Some people would send new Word documents that were marked up with changes. Some people just send the document and expected us to sort through it and find the changes with nothing pointing out where all the edits were made. Other people would send the changes as the text of an e-mail, sometimes with page numbers that didn't actually line up to where the changes were supposed to go. They were even overwriting each others changes and we were stuck in the middle of their office politics and egos. In the end, I recreated a 100+ page document, from scratch, 3 times. On top of that, I probably had 15-20 edits that broke flow and required me to adjust all the page breaks and graphics through the entire document. And, of course, it was a rush project with a limited budget. It's the kind of thing that makes you question you career path. Feel lucky you're working with an actual professional.
- fuck, that's harsh dude. i hate clients like thatscarabin
- ..sounds like a job for an svn, or even Google wave :)mikotondria3
- With these clients, we have no say how they get us the copy. They're too "special" (big corporate)itsmitch