Why designers work better with copywriters

The twist we all saw coming anyway

There’s one sentence every designer has heard so often it might as well be the unofficial motto of our industry.

“No, we don’t have copy yet. We’ll add it in later.”

You can almost hear it coming before the words land. It’s become such a normal part of the process that most designers don’t even blink anymore. We get a brief, a loose direction, a few points from a workshop, and we’re told to jump straight in.

And that’s where I think things starts to wobble.

Websites are here to tell a story. A story only works when it has pacing, intention, and a thread the reader can follow. Without that, designers end up guessing the message, the tone, the priority, and the depth of each section.

The second the real content arrives, all those guesses collide with reality. The layout no longer fits. The balance shifts. Headlines don’t match the structure. Buttons point to ideas that aren’t actually there anymore. And suddenly you’re redesigning chunks of a page that were never built on solid ground in the first place.

I’ve learned that the moment you pair designers and copywriters early, everything feels different. The project has more direction. The decisions feel grounded. And the result feels way more cohesive.

This article is basically a point-of-view chat about why I think designers work better with copywriters beside them, not behind them!!

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The process shouldn't be perfectly linear

When design happens before copy, a few things almost always go sideways:

• No clear content architecture
• Guessing what should be long or short
• A layout built on assumptions
• Pages fall into generic pain point/benefit patterns that don’t always match positioning

These are small things on their own, but together they create delays and cause design work to lose clarity.

But the real issue is simple. Designers are rarely given the chance to work with copywriters, because everything is scheduled in a straight line. Design first, then content. No collaboration (sometimes, we even see dev happen before content...) :(.

The moment those two roles work together, the picture changes completely. The project has direction. Everyone follows the same narrative. And decisions feel rooted in something real instead of made up on the spot.

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Why collaboration gives designers more confidence

1. It gives designers more creative freedom

This still surprises people.

The idea that copywriters limit creativity is so far from the truth.

When the copywriter gives you the real story and positioning, you’re no longer designing “around nothing”. You know what matters most. You know what the product sounds like. You understand the priority order. And that clarity gives you more freedom to push, explore, and create without worrying that everything will be rewritten or resized at the last second.

Design becomes way more fun when you’re not working on shifting sand!!

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2. It creates a natural feedback loop

This is my favourite part!!

When designers and copywriters work together, ideas flow so easily.

You think a specific layout could work for a feature but need bullet points to make it land? You know exactly who to ask.

You want a shorter headline because the current one breaks the grid? You can brainstorm it together on a call.

Suddenly you’re not waiting on clients to write things that may not fit.

You’re shaping the website as a team, with a shared goal and shared positioning.

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3. Positioning becomes the backbone

Positioning shapes everything. What the product does. Who it speaks to. What tone it uses. What it promises.

Copywriters bring all of that knowledge into the project. Designers bring it to life visually.

When the two come together at the same time, the website’s structure feels intentional from the first headline to the final CTA.

And that clarity makes design ten times easier!!

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My own “ohhh… right” moment

Most of my early agency projects followed the same pattern. Design first, content later. And I’d end up rebuilding huge parts of the page the moment the real words finally arrived. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, it was just the process everyone defaulted to.

But recently, I’ve been working on projects where copywriters join from the start, and it’s changed everything. Designers and copywriters share calls, talk through ideas, build the positioning together, and shape the direction at the same time. The whole process feels lighter and clearer.

I’ve been working closely with Nata from ++addmore and honestly, it’s been one of the nicest collaborations I’ve had in a long time!! We bounce ideas back and forth, refine each section, figure out the story, and then create the visual structure around it. The work gets stronger. The revisions drop. And the whole thing just makes more sense.

That experience is what made me want to write this article. I don’t think enough people talk about how much better the process gets when you stop separating design and copy!!

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The part worth remembering

The lesson I learnt is this :

If you want your projects to feel clearer, smoother, and more intentional, loop your copywriters in early. Build the positioning and structure together. Have open conversations.

Let the story shape the design and let the design shape the story!!