I love writing and design. To me, writing and design are deeply entwined. We live in narrative—verbal and visual—and we learn through stories. As designer and writer, understanding people’s needs, desires, and cares is rooted in storytelling. Just as communication is at the heart of design, narrative is at the heart of communication.
Written 2010 © Jeanette Leagh
Even as a designer who valued writing as a powerful tool for communication and expression long before design ever surfaced as a career path, I feel a nagging hesitancy to proclaim it as a necessary skill for all designers. It’s largely because the some of the most compelling design I’ve encountered required no written explanation. Why would we need to write if we are effective designers? Perhaps writing is a crutch inept designers employ to disguise their creative shortcomings. Moreover, the field of design is evolving so rapidly, who can be sure of where design stands today, let alone the skills the supposed able designer needs?
Traditionally, designers are visual people. In fact, designers are notoriously bad spellers. And yet, we’re fastidious in our work. We agonize over the minute details in creating impact and clarity. We weave in subtleties that delight the senses and engage the intellect. We commend ourselves on having style—cleansing the world of bad taste one project at a time (did I mention we’re elitist?).
But visual and written communication are closely woven—perhaps even from the same thread. Writers and designers exhaustively explore , plan, develop, and refine a concept to achieve some intended outcome, to address some pressing social need. If we’re lucky, we happen upon happy accidents that surprise and enrich our conceptual direction. These similarities in writing and design processes make me wonder: why don’t more designers write?
We already work with the written word. And I know writing isn’t a skill foreign to the field of design. Paul Rand wrote. Jon Kolko writes. Ellen Lupton. Edward Tufte. Jessica Helfand. John Maeda. Such designers communicate in a medium that we often think we can’t (or don’t care to) command. If the written work of these designers—and others—proves anything, it’s that writing elevates a designer’s dexterity and contribution. Not only do we read written work by designers for guidance and inspiration, we can’t deny that designer-writers are the individuals who actively define what design is and could be.
Developing our abilities as both designer and writer requires a simple but significant shift in perspective. A designer who can’t (or refuses to) write is a handicapped one. Good writers and designers are imaginative and effective communicators—we comprehend and satisfy a fundamental human need for storytelling. We endeavor to impart meaning and understanding through our work. So, seize control! Write. You will be a better designer for it. After all, should any of the designer stereotypes hold true, then the one about designers being control-mongers must warrant some credibility as well.