Site picks
- Once we hated business jargon… Back in the day, Plain Text railed against corporatese like everyone else…
- …but now we've changed our minds. It’s quite useful really, in its proper place. Why resist?
Great writing picks
- The Register The godfathers of gonzo tech journalism.
- John Naughton When he comments, you know it matters.
Our work
On this page we feature samples of some of the recent work we have done for our clients.
Wherry Housing Association report
An upcoming conference offered Wherry the perfect opportunity to promote a new way to finance the ‘greening’ of social housing. With a radical, recently completed ‘eco-upgrade’ to help make its case, what Wherry needed was a high-impact report and summary, quickly. Working with design partner Brave, we turned technical background data into a bright and compelling 16-page printed report, which was “very well received at the conference and generated a great deal of interest” according to our client Mark Jones. We followed the report with a 4-page summary designed for online distribution.
Take a look at the full report here.
Hay Group Transforming Learning website
This is the place where this global management consulting firm sells its training tools and programs direct to businesses. The writing challenge was to create compelling, benefit-led copy that matched a refreshed site design – and fitted the firm’s new brand voice. We helped Hay Group to develop templates for different types of pages and then re-wrote the words.
In commenting on the project, Hay Group product design consultant Sam Guise also illustrates one of the reasons why outsourcing writing is sometimes necessary. “In an ideal world, every company would do its own writing. But writing is always part of a bigger project – and you have to deliver the whole project, not just the words. Working with Plain Text took the pressure off. They ‘got’ what we were about really quickly and gave us a voice we were comfortable with. And they produced all the content we needed elegantly, on budget and on time. Plain Text were easy to work with, relaxed about changes, happy to give advice and always reliable.”
Take a look at the finished website.
Energy Saving Trust 100-word email challenge
We love writing longer, more involved pieces, like this white paper for client LexisNexis. But we like a brevity challenge too. So a recent email from the Energy Saving Trust’s transport division was just the ticket: promote and prove the benefits of ’smart driving’ to local authorities in 100 words. We were proud to have the final email – which packs costs, savings, benefits, proof points, a headline, two subheads and a call to action into precisely 106 words – called ‘brilliant‘ by our client. Read the email