Doug Dolan is a Toronto-based communications strategist and writer who works on everything from marketing/branding programs to corporate reports, awareness campaigns to executive presentations. His wide-ranging experience takes in many sectors, including financial services, information technology, mining, transportation, loyalty marketing, luxury goods, travel and hospitality, healthcare, higher education, professional services and media/entertainment. Prior to launching a solo practice in 2008, Doug was a founding partner of Viva Dolan Communications and Design, an award-winning consultancy that built an international clientele over 16 years. His writing awards include three IABC Gold Quills and a copywriting award from British Design & Art Direction.
Sessions
There Will Be Words: How to Get Designers and Writers on the Same Page
Wednesday, May 6 • 3:00 – 3:45pm
Determining what the message is and deciding how to present it are two sides of a single process that should start at the first client meeting, if not the initial pitch. But too often the people who figure out what something looks like and those who worry about what it says operate on parallel tracks until late in the game—or never even meet at all. The result is work that doesn’t look or sound nearly as good as it should. For communications strategist Doug Dolan, there’s more to bringing design and writing together than making the copy fit (though a good writer can help with that). It’s about getting everyone, and especially clients, to see that the two disciplines share a common origin: strategic thinking.
3 Main Takeaways:
- How to get writers to think more like designers—without deluding themselves that they’ve been magically transformed into art directors.
- How to get designers to think more about what their work needs to say—even when lorem ipsum seems to do the job quite nicely.
- How to get clients to see that design and words have to work together—in mysterious ways that go beyond making the type bigger.
