Why we write the copy before we draw anything
Designing around lorem ipsum produces layouts that fit no real sentence anyone will ever need to write.
/ In this article:
Placeholder text is uniform, agreeable and the right length. Real copy is none of those things, which is why layouts designed around the first tend to break on contact with the second.
What goes wrong
A headline slot sized for six words meets a product that needs eleven. A card grid assumes every case study has a one-line result. A testimonial component assumes everyone's job title is short.
Every one of those is discovered at build time, by the person with the least authority to change it.
/ TITANMATTER
Working the other way round
We draft the argument as sentences first — headline, subhead, the three things each section has to land. Then the layout is designed to carry that, at the lengths it actually is.
The side effect
Writing the copy first forces the argument to be settled first. That is the real benefit; the layouts fitting is a bonus.
