Microcopy
Blurbs under 300 words
I have a knack for making large amounts of information clear and accessible. I've condensed hundreds of pages of data science, big law briefs, and 20-page-long interviews into simple copy.
Client: Instagram
Photographer Joni Sternbach (@jstersurf) gets a lot of attention when she takes her wet-plate collodion equipment, used for the intricate photo process made famous during the U.S. Civil War, to beaches around the world. Besides the large cameras, pre-mixed chemicals and jugs of water, a dark box is required to create her tintype photos. “Once you go to a small beach with a big outfit you are very noticeable,” the native New Yorker says. Sunbathers, surfers and swimmers all wonder what’s inside, often asking her whether it’s a puppet show or cappuccino maker. “The size of the camera and the immediacy of the wet-plate collodion is what really draws people into this project,” Joni says. “That is why the process is so important to me.”
Client: Instagram
“I know my home airport better than my own courtyard,” says 28-year-old Russian photographer Max Avdeev (@maxavdeev) — who counted only 12 days at home last summer. While globe-trotting is associated with a particular kind of sparkle or elegance, for Max, traveling around the world can be far less glamorous. In Mongolia he took a 39-hour microbus trip on roadless terrain. “When we saw asphalt in the end, we wanted to kiss it,” he says. “Deer, horses and donkeys aren’t just for tourists, but very useful means of transportation when there is no road.” For Max it’s all worth it: “One day, it can be a war zone in Ukraine, and two days later it’s a picture from a fashion shoot in Paris, a Scotch whiskey distillery or a group photo of my friends.”
Vively: UX Writing
Client: Vively CRM database
TEXT:
Congratulations. You did it. You signed up for a Virtual HIIT Circuit class. As you know, High Intensity Interval Training improves heart health, increases fat loss and strengthens muscles. All you need is some WiFi.
When: April 14, 2020, 9:00 A.M.
Where: The comfort of your home
Zoom link: https://zoom.w/j/9/59791011115
Meeting ID: 519-67-952 | Password: 792995
We can’t wait to see how hard you HIIT.
Client: Instagram
It takes just the right backdrop for the subject of a photo to pop. In the case of a vintage blue car, photographer Ryan Koopmans (@ryan.koopmans) found a wall mural to be the perfect juxtaposition. “I do have a tendency to prioritize graphic backgrounds and billboards, illustrations and artwork and advertisements that already exist in the real world,” says Ryan. “And I like to play with that relationship so it all sort of becomes like a set or a stage that the characters are unfolding on.” His other priority is height. Whenever Ryan arrives in a city — either for a commissioned assignment or personal photo project — he finds the highest vantage point, like a construction crane or a rooftop restaurant that might allow him access. From these high perspectives, he tries to shoot down the middle of the slope at a 45-degree angle, often excluding the horizon line so “it becomes more like an abstract compressed pattern and repetition of the city below.” Ryan adds, “It’s constantly a focus on getting to an ideal kind of height that is lower than an airplane but higher than what most people would see their city from.”
Client: Vively
Check out the microcopy I added to the Vively calendar. I strived to make the voice playful and motivating.
Client: Instagram
For photographer Cassandra Giraldo (@cassandragiraldo), the After School Project (@afterschoolproject) began as a creative break from newspaper assignments. It helped that she lives across the street from one of New York City’s largest high schools. “I would always catch myself taking portraits of teens in the city,” she says. “I realized I had a wealth of youth right in front of me to work with.” About twice a week, she goes for “walkabouts” in her neighborhood to capture the embrace of high school lovers, the moment after a football huddle or a pair doing math homework in the park. “What’s great about teenagers is that they don’t wear masks like us adults do,” she says. “They’re completely themselves, which makes it such a fascinating subject matter.”
Magie d'Oud
Client: Luisi Parfums
At the base of this precious fragrance that recalls the East, there is the wood oil “Oud”, a woody resin derived from the Agar tree. Combined with parasitic spores, this resin develops its olfactory intensity and uniqueness, in a game of eroticism, warmth and sweetness. My declaration of love to a transfigured wood.
Client: Instagram
Agung, who was born and raised on the Indonesian island, records the experiences of his fellow Balinese. “Formerly, most Balinese were farmers and artists, dancers, painters, carpenters,” he says, pointing out how many of them have left those trades for jobs in the tourism industry, which arrived in earnest 45 years ago. Through #balineselife, Agung is shining a light on people like this porter carrying a sack of cement on a wooden cargo ship or the feet of one of the few remaining “dokar” carriage drivers in the city of Denpasar.
Balinese philosophies, like Tri Hita Karana, or the “three causes of well-being” — harmony among people, harmony with the surrounding environment and harmony with God — are what Agung says tourism is eroding. So he captures the moments he can.
“I understand that change is inevitable and lasting,” says Agung. “Sometimes I feel sad and think by documenting something that is starting to fade, someday it will be useful because, while it may not have value today, 30 years or 40 years ahead of this documentation it will be precious.”
Sweat the Workout
Client: Vively
My value proposition for Vively's CRM:
Sweat the workout, not the software!
