I help brands, apps, start-ups, tech giants,and the occasional luxury sedan say what they mean.
I'm a creative director, copywriter, and content designer who started out in journalism. Which helps when you want people to read stuff on their computers.
I take a channel-agnostic approach to solving creative problems. Which is an obnoxious way of saying I don't particularly care whether the answer is a campaign, a film, a brand manifesto, an expansive content strategy, or a really good tweet. I care that it works.
How I Work
Building voice from zero.
I've done it five times and counting. The approach is always the same: read everything the brand has ever published, find the three sentences they keep trying to write, and build the system that lets them finish those sentences out loud. It's both simpler and harder than it sounds.
Partnering with clients.
Interviewing people for a living is the best preparation for sitting across from a CMO. I get the business problem first. The writing comes second.
Working in regulated categories.
Years of working in financial services taught me the discipline. The copy that moves a Goldman or AmEx product is the copy that doesn't get cut by legal. That's a supremely underrated craft.
The fastest way to start something is dougblack1@gmail.com.
Clients