A Few Words About Word

May I say something about Word? It is not a layout program; it has no connection with graphic design. No designer wants to produce collateral in Word. It may be in their tool kit, but it’s located at the very bottom, among the dusty dregs.

Yet companies frequently ask us to design their product sheets in Word, newsletters and brochures in Word, even signs in Word. They think they’ll be able to easily do updates themselves, because hey, they know Word!

4 Reasons Not to “Design” in Word

1. To a designer, the limits of Word are endless. Please re-read that sentence. Yes, you can place a logo, a photo, a graphic and text into a Word document. But the fine-tuning required for an actual designed piece is impossible (again, because Word is not a layout program). The effort can drive the most talented designer all the way over into another profession.

2. The client may be able to update a Word document, but it only takes one or two updates before the template looks even worse: Text is crammed in, margins are ignored, or a random font is tossed into the mix. The client doesn’t recognize the difference, the piece drifts into a patchwork of styles and revisions, and any hard-won quality branding is lost.

3. Is your company willing to sacrifice credibility and branding for some savings in updates? It’s not logical to sacrifice the long-term for the short. Every business should be raising its brand standards, not lowering them.

4. Trust your designer; they’re keeping an eye out for your brand quality. They know which application to use for which collateral.

And it’s not Word.