The Blog
DDD 30012 (that would be Copywriting)
One of the top three universities in Victoria, Swinburne is known for being cutting edge in creativity. Which is why it was so fitting that Swinburne should be the first uni in Australia to provide its Communication Design students with the opportunity to learn the craft of copywriting, taught by our very own Vicki.
Vicki’s fave five books
God I love a book. As if I didn’t get enough of the written word during the day!
No matter how crap/cold/frustrating/boring/suicide-invoking the day might have been – hopping into the sack with a good book and a heat snake is one of life’s sweet pleasures. Here are five literary marvels I recommend you search out.
A whole world of whiskery words
A few things that clearly say you’re a Melbourne hipster; eating organically grown freekeh, walking down Smith Street with a three-legged dog – and ensuring that there’s a massive beard attached to your face.
Las Chicas… coolest kids on the block
Balaclava icon, Las Chicas, was on the lookout for a savvy copywriting agency to help them write the words for their newly tjuzed website.
The brief was to craft some quirky copy that aligned with Las Chicas’ refreshed branding, communication goals and target audience. We kept it honest, conversational and informative – with just enough spunk to show personality without being pretentious.
tjuze
Spell it how you like friends… tjuze is a verb meaning to artfully mess with; to adjust; to “mess up” something that is too neat.
Often applied to hair, sleeves and other bits of fashion but, with imagination, nearly anything can be tjuzed. Also tjuzed, tjuzing…
Popularized by the TV show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. “Oh my God, your hair! Did you join the navy? Here, let me tjuze it for you.”
For the record we fricken LOVE this word. It’s right up there with schnorrer, but you’ll have to wait till next time for that one!
Salon Lelu web words and blog
Siblings, Bethany and Zoe, own Salon Lelu – a funky little hair salon in the heart of Ripponlea Village. The salon has been around for over five years now and just keeps growing in popularity.
Bethany and Zoe have never questioned their love of all things hair, but what they did start questioning recently were the words on their website.
Like most small businesses, Salon Lelu’s main sources of new clientele are word-of-mouth and online. Since more and more people were checking out their website, the sisters decided it was high time to take a pair of shears to the copy on their site and style up some words that were a little more them – something with a little more sparkle.
That’s where Words at Work came in, creating copy with a fresh, conversational tone of voice. We’ll continue to build on that voice when Salon Lelu’s website gets redeveloped in 2014.
Agnew Interiors elegant eBrochures
Working with a range of clients in different industries, Agnew Interiors wanted to create a suite of online marketing brochures to provide new clients with a little information about the consultancy and how they could help them.
Words at Work created an eBrochure for each of the consultancy’s three main customer groups: architects, builders and the general public.
Professionalism, trust and outstanding results are the qualities Agnew Interiors is known for – this is what we aimed to convey when crafting the words for the eBrochures, streamlining their marketing activities into a range of customer touch points.
Gifts, horses and mouths.
Our next State of Origin entry is an oldie but a goodie – ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’.
The meaning of the proverb? When receiving a gift be grateful for what it is; don’t imply you wished for more by assessing its value.
The meaning hasn’t changed too much over time and is still relevant today. What’s interesting however, is how this proverb came about.
As horses age they get more teeth and their existing teeth change shape and project forward – Bugs Bunny style if you get my drift. You can determine the age and the therefore the usefulness of a horse by the state of its teeth. Back in the day when people received horses as gifts, recipients would check the horse’s teeth to determine the age and value of the equine gift.
Rude? Perhaps not back then when items and indeed people were bought and sold with livestock.
But now it is considered a big social neigh, neigh!
