Zosia Swidlicka, founder of verbal branding studio Opening Line, discusses navigating the massive (and misunderstood) world of brand language, and the overnight success of her first publication dedicated to the topic, Between The Lines.
My windy road to writing.
Writing has been a part of me since forever. From a young age I wrote letters, journals, short stories, (terrible) songs. I’d break out my collection of gel pens and lie on the floor scribbling away. It was my way of connecting with my thoughts and working out how I felt about them. But I never saw it as a ‘proper’ career for myself. Instead, I spent a decade in various marketing/comms roles, and moonlighted as a freelance editorial writer in my spare time.
The in-house experience that opened my eyes to brand language.
I then landed a dream job at Moleskine in Milan as their first ever native English-speaking hire. Although my role was pretty general in scope, everyone across the company started coming to me for copy help. Not just the brand and marketing departments, but also investor relations, product design, digital partnerships… I got access to every corner of the company. It was actually incredible, looking back. And that’s where I really developed my sensibility for brand language as this glue that sticks companies together. Because it wasn’t just “fix the English”, it was, “how can we say this in the clearest, most compelling way, AND align it with our brand values?”
From freelance to “fuck it”.
It took a few more years, a couple more jobs, a pregnancy and a pandemic for the penny to finally drop on copywriting as a profession I could see myself in. Discovering the existence of brand writing (as opposed to marketing and advertising) felt like I’d finally found my place. I love the early stages of figuring it all out; asking big questions, exploring all the possibilities, then deciding what to focus on and why.
I worked on some great freelance briefs, but found the agency world’s obsession with siloing copy, strategy and design completely bonkers. Years of in-house experience taught me that the work is stronger when they’re applied in tandem, and I hated having to choose between the two. And then I thought, fuck it, I’ve birthed a human and got through the pandemic, why not start my own thing? Surely it’ll be nowhere near as intense.
Problem solving 🤝 Great writing.
I founded Opening Line to bridge strategy and copy in the branding process. Hand in hand. Internal and external minds together. With all the best writers and strategists out there, and none of the agency baggage.
Today, we’re a small nucleus with an incredible network of freelance collaborators around the world, working with clients and creative teams on all kinds of messaging challenges. Two things distinguish the brands we work with:
- They have an ambition to stand out in their space.
- They need help to clarify a new offer and bring character to their comms.
On publishing Between The Lines: an exploration of the massive (and misunderstood) world of brand language.
It remains a mystery to me that brand language is so ubiquitous and yet so misunderstood. It’s literally everywhere; in our emails, in decks, on billboards and in boardrooms. Every word a brand uses says something about them, and yet more thought (and budget) continues to go on a brand’s visual splash than its deeper meaning.
The other thing I’ve noticed is how incredibly fractured brand language is. You get one person defining the brand strategy, another developing the tone of voice, another writing web copy, then someone completely different handling your social media and yet another entity managing your advertising and comms. What often happens is that the red thread is lost along the way, which is how brands all end up sounding the same in the end. The truth is that all of these different disciplines feed into each other. The more we writers can all speak to each other and share our individual perspectives, the stronger the overall effect of brand language will be.
That’s why I wrote and published Between The Lines. I didn’t want to read another book offering a narrow view on theory or tactics. I wanted to elevate the topic of brand language by presenting it in a fresh new light, across its entire spectrum. So we’ve got four distinct chapters recalling our four pillars at Opening Line — Clarity, Character, Community and Continuity — featuring a diverse array of voices spanning various disciplines and points of view. All beautifully designed, printed and bound (shout out to Extract Studio, The Logical Choice and Fedrigoni Special Papers).
The response from the creative community has been nuts. We’ve sold out multiple times and been overwhelmed by interest from branding media (which traditionally don’t dedicate many column inches to writing), but the most rewarding part has been the many moving messages we’ve received from writers around the world telling us that they feel seen at last.
We’ve just hit go on a reprint, and are planning more in-person events in the US, UK and Europe, as the vibe in the room during our London launch was incredible. Turns out us writers are social creatures after all! Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for issue 2…
Four truths, no lie.
To finish, a few things I’ve learnt along the way that I wish more people understood about writing. What have I missed? Answers on a postcard.
- Writing is HARD. Sure, everyone can write. And for those who can’t, there’s ChatGPT. But writing well takes guts and grit. The process of moving from total abstraction to well-formulated arguments is gruelling. Writing well takes time, skill, and a superhuman ability to silence your inner critic.
- Writing is STRATEGIC. It’s not about “zhuzhing” someone else’s crappy copy. It’s about deciding what to write about, and how to write about it, in a way that brings something new and interesting to the conversation.
- Writing is COLLABORATIVE. The lone genius is a myth. Writers actually love discussing ideas, angles and semantics with other writers, strategists, designers, clients and coders. The earlier you let us into the process, the better the work will be.
- Writing is CRITICAL. We have so much tech now to help us generate all the words in the world. But those brand and business leaders who see meaning in their work as connectors, communicators, storytellers and changemakers must seize this inflection point as an opportunity to prove the power of creativity to make a genuine impact.
Between The Lines is available online and from select stockists worldwide:
Foreign Exchange, London
magCulture, London
Shreeji News, London
Rare Mags, Manchester
Newsstand, Online
Casa Magazines, New York
Heath Newsstand, San Francisco
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
Basheer Graphic Books, Singapore
To hear about upcoming Between The Lines launches near you, sign up to the mailing list and follow Opening Line on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Zosia Swidlicka, founder of verbal branding studio Opening Line, discusses navigating the massive (and misunderstood) world of brand language, and the overnight success of her first publication dedicated to the topic, Between The Lines.
My windy road to writing.
Writing has been a part of me since forever. From a young age I wrote letters, journals, short stories, (terrible) songs. I’d break out my collection of gel pens and lie on the floor scribbling away. It was my way of connecting with my thoughts and working out how I felt about them. But I never saw it as a ‘proper’ career for myself. Instead, I spent a decade in various marketing/comms roles, and moonlighted as a freelance editorial writer in my spare time.
The in-house experience that opened my eyes to brand language.
I then landed a dream job at Moleskine in Milan as their first ever native English-speaking hire. Although my role was pretty general in scope, everyone across the company started coming to me for copy help. Not just the brand and marketing departments, but also investor relations, product design, digital partnerships… I got access to every corner of the company. It was actually incredible, looking back. And that’s where I really developed my sensibility for brand language as this glue that sticks companies together. Because it wasn’t just “fix the English”, it was, “how can we say this in the clearest, most compelling way, AND align it with our brand values?”
From freelance to “fuck it”.
It took a few more years, a couple more jobs, a pregnancy and a pandemic for the penny to finally drop on copywriting as a profession I could see myself in. Discovering the existence of brand writing (as opposed to marketing and advertising) felt like I’d finally found my place. I love the early stages of figuring it all out; asking big questions, exploring all the possibilities, then deciding what to focus on and why.
I worked on some great freelance briefs, but found the agency world’s obsession with siloing copy, strategy and design completely bonkers. Years of in-house experience taught me that the work is stronger when they’re applied in tandem, and I hated having to choose between the two. And then I thought, fuck it, I’ve birthed a human and got through the pandemic, why not start my own thing? Surely it’ll be nowhere near as intense.
Problem solving 🤝 Great writing.
I founded Opening Line to bridge strategy and copy in the branding process. Hand in hand. Internal and external minds together. With all the best writers and strategists out there, and none of the agency baggage.
Today, we’re a small nucleus with an incredible network of freelance collaborators around the world, working with clients and creative teams on all kinds of messaging challenges. Two things distinguish the brands we work with:
- They have an ambition to stand out in their space.
- They need help to clarify a new offer and bring character to their comms.
On publishing Between The Lines: an exploration of the massive (and misunderstood) world of brand language.
It remains a mystery to me that brand language is so ubiquitous and yet so misunderstood. It’s literally everywhere; in our emails, in decks, on billboards and in boardrooms. Every word a brand uses says something about them, and yet more thought (and budget) continues to go on a brand’s visual splash than its deeper meaning.
The other thing I’ve noticed is how incredibly fractured brand language is. You get one person defining the brand strategy, another developing the tone of voice, another writing web copy, then someone completely different handling your social media and yet another entity managing your advertising and comms. What often happens is that the red thread is lost along the way, which is how brands all end up sounding the same in the end. The truth is that all of these different disciplines feed into each other. The more we writers can all speak to each other and share our individual perspectives, the stronger the overall effect of brand language will be.
That’s why I wrote and published Between The Lines. I didn’t want to read another book offering a narrow view on theory or tactics. I wanted to elevate the topic of brand language by presenting it in a fresh new light, across its entire spectrum. So we’ve got four distinct chapters recalling our four pillars at Opening Line — Clarity, Character, Community and Continuity — featuring a diverse array of voices spanning various disciplines and points of view. All beautifully designed, printed and bound (shout out to Extract Studio, The Logical Choice and Fedrigoni Special Papers).
The response from the creative community has been nuts. We’ve sold out multiple times and been overwhelmed by interest from branding media (which traditionally don’t dedicate many column inches to writing), but the most rewarding part has been the many moving messages we’ve received from writers around the world telling us that they feel seen at last.
We’ve just hit go on a reprint, and are planning more in-person events in the US, UK and Europe, as the vibe in the room during our London launch was incredible. Turns out us writers are social creatures after all! Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for issue 2…
Four truths, no lie.
To finish, a few things I’ve learnt along the way that I wish more people understood about writing. What have I missed? Answers on a postcard.
- Writing is HARD. Sure, everyone can write. And for those who can’t, there’s ChatGPT. But writing well takes guts and grit. The process of moving from total abstraction to well-formulated arguments is gruelling. Writing well takes time, skill, and a superhuman ability to silence your inner critic.
- Writing is STRATEGIC. It’s not about “zhuzhing” someone else’s crappy copy. It’s about deciding what to write about, and how to write about it, in a way that brings something new and interesting to the conversation.
- Writing is COLLABORATIVE. The lone genius is a myth. Writers actually love discussing ideas, angles and semantics with other writers, strategists, designers, clients and coders. The earlier you let us into the process, the better the work will be.
- Writing is CRITICAL. We have so much tech now to help us generate all the words in the world. But those brand and business leaders who see meaning in their work as connectors, communicators, storytellers and changemakers must seize this inflection point as an opportunity to prove the power of creativity to make a genuine impact.
Between The Lines is available online and from select stockists worldwide:
Foreign Exchange, London
magCulture, London
Shreeji News, London
Rare Mags, Manchester
Newsstand, Online
Casa Magazines, New York
Heath Newsstand, San Francisco
Skylight Books, Los Angeles
Basheer Graphic Books, Singapore
To hear about upcoming Between The Lines launches near you, sign up to the mailing list and follow Opening Line on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Further Reading
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