Integrating Copy And Design by David Pascal, Pascal & Associates November 2007
Recommend this article More Articles by David Pascal

Designers and copywriters don’t always get on well.  Partly it’s a turf thing.  Rare is the agency whose art department isn’t straining to splash dazzling visuals across multi-page spreads and browser screens.  The copy department has a similar obsessive urge, a primal ache to cover every inch of white space with Times New Roman. 

Whichever side wins, the marketing materials that emerge are like their creators: heavily lopsided towards either the verbal or the visual.  And that’s too bad, since lopsided appeals appeal to only parts of the market, not the whole. 

So how to avoid that?  How you get visuals and copy to work effectively together?

Here are some tips:

What Do You Want The Target Market To Do?

I work as both a designer and a copywriter.  But when I create marketing materials for a client, the main thing that concerns me is not visual, not verbal, but behavioral.  Marketing exists to advance business goals, not to create art for art’s sake.  Marketing materials are there to foster a measurable active response from a target public.  You want to get someone to do something – to make a purchase, send a donation, vote for a candidate. 

Advertising ‘concepts’ touch on this with the notion of expressing one central idea in both words and design.  Yes, but what is the point of that concept?  What is its goal? 

Good marketing and advertising is not about making pretty pictures or memorable remarks.  The concept -- and the copy and the design that express that concept -- have to move the audience to action.  If people see your promotion and just drift away, why bother? 

So always ask yourself first:  what are the words and images intended to get people to do?  

Different Paths To The Same Goal

Once you’ve got that target action clearly in mind, ask yourself what sort of visual imagery alone would incline a person to do that thing. 

Say, for example, that you want someone to buy a car.  What visual impressions would incline someone to want to own that car?  Images of stylish exteriors, surely.  Roomy interior space, rich accessories, gleaming dashboard paraphernalia.  Images of happy campers happily camping, if the vehicle is geared to that market.  Or of James Bond at the wheel, if geared to another. 

Then do the same thing with copy.  Ask yourself, what words or statements would have the same effect? 

Often the time-hallowed ones will do it.  Great mileage.  Easy payment plan.  Quick and helpful service.

But if you’re truly aiming for the same effect, you’re likely to come up with words which parallel the images that are also working to secure that effect. 

Put it this way.  Imagine that you’re thinking of hiring a salesman.  You interview two candidates at Starbucks.  One is articulate, eloquent, and suave.  Unfortunately the mark of Satan is tattooed on his forehead, and he cuts his croissant with his personal machete.  The second candidate is grey-haired and square-jawed, wearing a silver Rolex, a Brooks Brother pinstripe, and an alumni pin from Harvard.  Sadly, his language skills are limited to Tarzan ape calls. 

Now we all know that affable eloquence and a good business suit work well for a sales interview.  And that satanic tattoos and ape calls work fine too, for the position of Death Metal lead vocalist.  And that’s the point.  People going to such interviews don’t brood about how to integrate language and visuals.   They simply talk in a way that tries to get a particular response, and they dress in a way that tries to secure that same response too.  A natural integration follows.

Ads are like that.  They make a verbal impression on us with what they say, and a non-verbal impression on us with how they look.  It isn’t that difficult to figure out what makes a good and similar impression in each area.  Or to see how similarities harmonize.

The Strip Test

Here’s a test.  Look at any given ad.  Ask yourself this.  Suppose there were no visuals at all.  Strip them out.  If all you saw was the plain text by itself, would you remember it?  Would you still be interested, and be more inclined to buy the product or take the action than if you hadn’t seen it?  If so, the copy works.

Now do the opposite.  Strip out the words.  What if you saw just the images alone?  Would you still get roughly the same idea?  Would you still be inclined to get the product?  If so, the imagery works. 

And when they both work, the marketing piece will generally work too.

Overkill Kills

Do imagery and copy need work together really tightly?  Often you want to say yes.  If your ad proclaims Leo Associates to be The Lion Of Theatrical Agencies, you generally want to couple it with an image of the Lion King and not a dead dog.

But in my experience, the only thing you must avoid when integrating copy and imagery is blatant incongruence.  Overkill kills:  it’s enough for them to be quietly complementary, so long as the core idea gets through.  Images of pleasant skies have nothing to do with pharmaceuticals, for example, but they can provide effective backdrops for pharmaceutical ad copy, and yield effective ads.    You don’t need literal one-to-one equivalence between words and pictures to create a fine piece. 

It’s true that text and imagery can comment on one another ironically, of course, and so get away with almost anything.  But that’s a path to take with reluctance.  Marketing materials fly by consumers at the speed of light, and impressions they make are instant.  To assume the public will stop and take the time to savor your ad’s urbane ambiguities can be fatal.

Which Matters Most – Copy Or Design?

Both matter, obviously.  But which element deserves the highest attention?  It really depends on the particular situation.  Pictures of fashion models sell fashion better than words, and paperbacks flash the author’s name across the cover, not their picture.  Wise marketers let the market determine the medium.

But if I absolutely had to pick?  I’d pick copy.

The fact is, there are perfectly effective ads that have no visual element at all.  From personals to classifieds to full-page ads in the New York Times, words alone will move people.  And – the critical distinction – they will move them with precision.  A picture of a tire cut in half won’t tell you that Crazy Al is selling his tires half-off this Sunday only.  Text will tell you.  And it will sell those tires too. 

Images are wonderful at conveying emotion and mood, but mood isn’t language, and more sales are closed with words than with pictures.  Design makes wonderful sauce.  But text is the meat.  Though of course a good cook will give as much attention to the one as to the other. You have to prepare both expertly if you want to bring the client to the table.

David Pascal has nearly twenty years of freelance and in-house experience in marketing, advertising, and corporate communications. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of the State of New York, and a second bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, David began his career in marketing and advertising as an illustrator, became a marketing agency copywriter, and subsequently added web design skills to the mix.  He has taught copywriting at the nationally celebrated writing center Writers & Books, published numerous articles, and spoken on marketing and other subjects at the Rochester Institute of Technology and other colleges and institutions.  Contact information and samples of his writing and design work for clients is available at his web site at www.davidpascal.com.

Email: davidpascal@gmail.com
Company Profile: Pascal & Associates
Company URL: http://www.davidpascal.com

Back to Columns page