STOPGAP thinks designers are full of hot air

Know your brand equity from its essence, values, identity or personality? According to STOPGAP recruitment, which has issued a Rogue’s Gallery of marketing and advertising cliches such as ‘get on the front foot’ and ‘thinking outside the box’, the design industry is just as guilty of resorting to puff.

‘It’s general agency speak turning people off, and that includes designers,’ says founder Claire Owen.

But if your clients insist on brand speak, Landor has helpfully included a Lexicon of Landor Language on its website to help you distinguish between enhanced and generic descriptors.

At the end of the day, to ensure that you’re all singing from the same hymn sheet, you could steer clear of a few Design Week no-nos: brandscape, unique, niche, matrix…