Exploring surprising ways that writing helps designers think

Writing wasn't a focus of mine when I started planning to be a graphic designer. When my professor first asked what reasons I thought I'd be writing for as a graphic designer, I came up with a long list that included: editing/revising, shortening, extending, checking tone, body text, professional communication, portfolio, design descriptions, personal notes and research. After I made that list, I read the articles “Design + Writing = Power. How I became a better designer through writing” by Rizwan Javaid and “Highlighting the Importance of Writing for a Designer” by Stella Lincoln.

Javaid’s article mentioned that writing helps us think. I agreed with this and saw it in action while I was writing my list. While making my list, I wrote down every thought that I had as bullet points, even if they were incomplete. This step helped me clearly see my thoughts. My next step was to complete unfinished thoughts, organize them in a logical order, and revise them. This allowed me to make the list more comprehensible.

My perspectives about writing in this field shifted after reading these articles. While making my list, I didn't think of blog posts, titles or tags, but the articles made me aware of the many possibilities. I've known that writing is a very important part of the designer role, but I didn't realize how many ways writing is involved.