Chara Smith Interview
Chara Smith is one half of Smith & Diction, the Philly-based design studio that specializes in creating thoughtful identities for imaginative clients.
Published on
Sep 25, 2024
6
min. read
Chara Smith is Co-Founder & Copy Chief at Smith & Diction, a Philadelphia-based studio that creates thoughtful identities for imaginative clients.
Where’s your hometown?
South Philly. I grew up in Los Angeles, but I’ve been in Philadelphia since high school, so this place is absolutely home.
In a few sentences, describe what you do.
I run Smith & Diction with my partner, Mike. It’s a design studio that specializes in creating thoughtful identities for imaginative clients. I oversee the “diction” side of what we do, including brand strategy, brand messaging, and copywriting.
What was your path to becoming a writer? Who or what helped you discover this path?
I always wanted to be a writer, but always imagined I’d write the Next Great American Novel. At first I toyed with getting into publishing after college. My first job was proofreading and typesetting long academic books. And I loved it, but as soon as I discovered copywriting, I was hooked. I love how it blends creative and strategic skillsets. It’s so challenging, in all the best ways—you have to think outside the box, but also understand why the box exists in the first place, and sometimes convince other people to think outside the box that they don’t even realize they are in.
You own and operate a branding studio with your husband. What are the pros and cons of having your life partner be your business partner? Any advice for couples thinking about doing the same thing?
For us, work life and home life have absolutely melded into one. When we go out to a nice dinner, we end up talking about work the whole time. Our vacations aren’t vacations—they are S&D offsites, where we plan the future of the business. We love it, but it’s definitely not for everyone. We have friends in similar situations who take things differently: say, they’ll ban work talk during certain hours (like dinnertime). So my main advice is that if you want boundaries, set up artificial boundaries, even if they seem silly.
Is there a Smith & Diction project you feel particularly proud of? What made the project successful?
If you’d asked me this a few years ago, I’d probably fire off a bunch of taglines and headlines that really made me proud. But these days the work we’re most proud of is less about quippy headlines, and more about building really solid brands, so a lot of my work is going into foundational brand strategy, and UI terminology, and onboarding flows.
But two projects that stand out recently were Perplexity and Anterior. And both of those projects went well for one reason: we were working with a very talented Founding Designer who had the chops to take our brand and build it out effectively. Henry at Perplexity and Andy at Anterior both did such an incredible job of trusting us to do our thing, then taking the brand we gave them and running with it.
What do you enjoy most about owning and operating your own studio? What do you wish was different?
The best thing about running our own studio is that we get to go above and beyond for clients, and there’s no higher-ups telling us to cut back on creative time. We get to customize the rules to do what’s best for any specific project. For example, when we were working with Perplexity, we only came up with one brand symbol we really believed in. We deeply felt like it was The One. So after a few weeks of futile efforts trying to come up with a second option, we said forget it, and we emailed the client and said, can we just show you this one option that we really believe in? Henry and Phi over there are incredible, so luckily they immediately saw what we saw and loved the one logo we had—but at a big agency, that would never fly. You’d be pressured to keep trying, which leads to burnout, or presenting something you don’t really believe in, etc. I love that we get to make calls that are best for the creative.
Your studio has had a successful string of projects with AI companies. Given that AI is such a lightning rod topic within the creative industry, what is your take on the rise of AI and how has your work with AI companies influenced your POV?
Ooooohhh it’s a tricky topic. I could talk about this for hours, but I won’t jam up this interview with all my thoughts on AI. Instead, I’ll keep it brief.
I can look at it lots of ways. Sometimes I get really hung up on all the things there are to get hung up on (AI is blatantly stealing generations worth of creative work, the work they pull from is unavoidably biased, answers are currently error-prone and trite, etc.). But other times I think AI is just like any other tool—it’s like an autofocus camera vs. a manual focus one. It’s just a tool, doing some of the work that people used to have to do. But in the end, it’s still the person holding the camera and deciding to snap the photo. You can have a high-quality camera and still take awful photos, and a talented photographer can take amazing photos even with a mediocre camera.
What are some client green flags you look for when taking on new projects? What are some red flags you watch out for?
The client vibe check is suuuuper important for us. Our approach to branding relies heavily on trust. So we look for people who are ready to tell us everything, and then trust us to do our absolute best for them. Honestly, sometimes to get a sense of someone’s vibe, we’ll fire off a borderline unprofessional email right from the get-go, and see how it goes over. When we reply to a project inquiry with, “Yoooooooooo! This product sounds suuuuuper interesting. We’d love to hear more about...” does that make the client smile a bit? Or does that make them think we’re unprofessional? The way a client responds to an email like that tells us a lot about how the whole relationship will go.
We look for excitement. When we ask, “Why are you starting this company?” We look for folks who can hardly get the explanation out fast enough, because they cannot wait to make this thing real. That excitement is infectious, and makes us want to be a part of it. When a client is pouring all their energy into building their company, it’s easy for us to get excited about pouring our energy into building their brand. We truly believe in momentum, so we look for partners who are building momentum, because that’s the kind of thing we get really excited about.
On the flip side, anytime we can sense that a client is being withholding, we’ll be cautious.
What (or who) are your go-to’s for inspiration or trends that influence your work? Brands? Literature? Thought leaders?
Lately I’ve been reading more poetry. Poetry isn’t all that different from copywriting in some ways—it breaks all the grammar rules in order to create a feeling. Plus it’s a good kind of inspiration to sneak in when I don’t have time to dig into something lengthier. That being said, Demon Copperhead was the best book I’ve read in a good long while, so sometimes it’s nice to get lost in a good book.
I also love following brands that have strong copywriting. One of my favorites these days is Reformation—they are just so quippy and clever, and it always makes me smile.
What are some skills beyond good writing that make the biggest difference in your work?
Attention to detail. It’s a must. Any good copywriter should also be an eagle-eyed editor.
Also design sense, and having a bit of skill in some design programs, like Figma, Keynote, etc. I remember early in my career feeling so stifled by only being able to write in a word doc, and then having to entirely trust my design team to make something feel real. Now, most of our work is done in Figma, and I can just seamlessly click into a design and fix a typo, or adjust a CTA, or whatever—and that makes work flow sooooo much more smoothly.
What’s one thing you wish more people understood about our industry?
Deadlines are all made up. So much good work is compromised by racing toward a deadline invented by a mid-level marketing manager. But good ideas don’t always come on demand, so you have to leave space for creatives to just mess around, get creative, and make stuff that doesn’t specifically meet a brief—because that’s where the best ideas usually come from.
I also wish more creatives had the freedom to spend more time offline. Many of my best concepts and headlines were invented while walking through a garden, or over a glass of wine with Mike. Step away from the computer and the Slack messages and the temptation to just check Twitter real quick, and spend more time thinking creatively out in the real world.
Writers go by many names in our industry – copywriter, brand writer, verbal specialist, verbal designer, and so on – what name feels most right to you? And do you wish there was more consistency with these titles or do you like the variety?
Oh, I don’t mind that there’s variety, as long as there’s meaning behind it. I usually call myself “Copy Chief,” partly as an homage to Peggy Olson, partly just because it feels like it conveys that I’ll be in charge of all the words.
I feel like as long as your title conveys what you want it to convey and doesn’t make people go, “Huh?”—then hell yeah, be like Shakespeare and make up a word.
Where can Subtext readers keep up with you?
smith-diction.com
@smith_diction (creative work)
@charamelody (personal stuff)
Bonus Round:
Dream brief: what does it say in 1 sentence or less?
“Hi, I’m reaching out on behalf of the National Park System…” (Or swap in Patagonia…)
In one word, what is the enemy of good creative work?
Burnout.
Chara Smith is Co-Founder & Copy Chief at Smith & Diction, a Philadelphia-based studio that creates thoughtful identities for imaginative clients.
Where’s your hometown?
South Philly. I grew up in Los Angeles, but I’ve been in Philadelphia since high school, so this place is absolutely home.
In a few sentences, describe what you do.
I run Smith & Diction with my partner, Mike. It’s a design studio that specializes in creating thoughtful identities for imaginative clients. I oversee the “diction” side of what we do, including brand strategy, brand messaging, and copywriting.
What was your path to becoming a writer? Who or what helped you discover this path?
I always wanted to be a writer, but always imagined I’d write the Next Great American Novel. At first I toyed with getting into publishing after college. My first job was proofreading and typesetting long academic books. And I loved it, but as soon as I discovered copywriting, I was hooked. I love how it blends creative and strategic skillsets. It’s so challenging, in all the best ways—you have to think outside the box, but also understand why the box exists in the first place, and sometimes convince other people to think outside the box that they don’t even realize they are in.
You own and operate a branding studio with your husband. What are the pros and cons of having your life partner be your business partner? Any advice for couples thinking about doing the same thing?
For us, work life and home life have absolutely melded into one. When we go out to a nice dinner, we end up talking about work the whole time. Our vacations aren’t vacations—they are S&D offsites, where we plan the future of the business. We love it, but it’s definitely not for everyone. We have friends in similar situations who take things differently: say, they’ll ban work talk during certain hours (like dinnertime). So my main advice is that if you want boundaries, set up artificial boundaries, even if they seem silly.
Is there a Smith & Diction project you feel particularly proud of? What made the project successful?
If you’d asked me this a few years ago, I’d probably fire off a bunch of taglines and headlines that really made me proud. But these days the work we’re most proud of is less about quippy headlines, and more about building really solid brands, so a lot of my work is going into foundational brand strategy, and UI terminology, and onboarding flows.
But two projects that stand out recently were Perplexity and Anterior. And both of those projects went well for one reason: we were working with a very talented Founding Designer who had the chops to take our brand and build it out effectively. Henry at Perplexity and Andy at Anterior both did such an incredible job of trusting us to do our thing, then taking the brand we gave them and running with it.
What do you enjoy most about owning and operating your own studio? What do you wish was different?
The best thing about running our own studio is that we get to go above and beyond for clients, and there’s no higher-ups telling us to cut back on creative time. We get to customize the rules to do what’s best for any specific project. For example, when we were working with Perplexity, we only came up with one brand symbol we really believed in. We deeply felt like it was The One. So after a few weeks of futile efforts trying to come up with a second option, we said forget it, and we emailed the client and said, can we just show you this one option that we really believe in? Henry and Phi over there are incredible, so luckily they immediately saw what we saw and loved the one logo we had—but at a big agency, that would never fly. You’d be pressured to keep trying, which leads to burnout, or presenting something you don’t really believe in, etc. I love that we get to make calls that are best for the creative.
Your studio has had a successful string of projects with AI companies. Given that AI is such a lightning rod topic within the creative industry, what is your take on the rise of AI and how has your work with AI companies influenced your POV?
Ooooohhh it’s a tricky topic. I could talk about this for hours, but I won’t jam up this interview with all my thoughts on AI. Instead, I’ll keep it brief.
I can look at it lots of ways. Sometimes I get really hung up on all the things there are to get hung up on (AI is blatantly stealing generations worth of creative work, the work they pull from is unavoidably biased, answers are currently error-prone and trite, etc.). But other times I think AI is just like any other tool—it’s like an autofocus camera vs. a manual focus one. It’s just a tool, doing some of the work that people used to have to do. But in the end, it’s still the person holding the camera and deciding to snap the photo. You can have a high-quality camera and still take awful photos, and a talented photographer can take amazing photos even with a mediocre camera.
What are some client green flags you look for when taking on new projects? What are some red flags you watch out for?
The client vibe check is suuuuper important for us. Our approach to branding relies heavily on trust. So we look for people who are ready to tell us everything, and then trust us to do our absolute best for them. Honestly, sometimes to get a sense of someone’s vibe, we’ll fire off a borderline unprofessional email right from the get-go, and see how it goes over. When we reply to a project inquiry with, “Yoooooooooo! This product sounds suuuuuper interesting. We’d love to hear more about...” does that make the client smile a bit? Or does that make them think we’re unprofessional? The way a client responds to an email like that tells us a lot about how the whole relationship will go.
We look for excitement. When we ask, “Why are you starting this company?” We look for folks who can hardly get the explanation out fast enough, because they cannot wait to make this thing real. That excitement is infectious, and makes us want to be a part of it. When a client is pouring all their energy into building their company, it’s easy for us to get excited about pouring our energy into building their brand. We truly believe in momentum, so we look for partners who are building momentum, because that’s the kind of thing we get really excited about.
On the flip side, anytime we can sense that a client is being withholding, we’ll be cautious.
What (or who) are your go-to’s for inspiration or trends that influence your work? Brands? Literature? Thought leaders?
Lately I’ve been reading more poetry. Poetry isn’t all that different from copywriting in some ways—it breaks all the grammar rules in order to create a feeling. Plus it’s a good kind of inspiration to sneak in when I don’t have time to dig into something lengthier. That being said, Demon Copperhead was the best book I’ve read in a good long while, so sometimes it’s nice to get lost in a good book.
I also love following brands that have strong copywriting. One of my favorites these days is Reformation—they are just so quippy and clever, and it always makes me smile.
What are some skills beyond good writing that make the biggest difference in your work?
Attention to detail. It’s a must. Any good copywriter should also be an eagle-eyed editor.
Also design sense, and having a bit of skill in some design programs, like Figma, Keynote, etc. I remember early in my career feeling so stifled by only being able to write in a word doc, and then having to entirely trust my design team to make something feel real. Now, most of our work is done in Figma, and I can just seamlessly click into a design and fix a typo, or adjust a CTA, or whatever—and that makes work flow sooooo much more smoothly.
What’s one thing you wish more people understood about our industry?
Deadlines are all made up. So much good work is compromised by racing toward a deadline invented by a mid-level marketing manager. But good ideas don’t always come on demand, so you have to leave space for creatives to just mess around, get creative, and make stuff that doesn’t specifically meet a brief—because that’s where the best ideas usually come from.
I also wish more creatives had the freedom to spend more time offline. Many of my best concepts and headlines were invented while walking through a garden, or over a glass of wine with Mike. Step away from the computer and the Slack messages and the temptation to just check Twitter real quick, and spend more time thinking creatively out in the real world.
Writers go by many names in our industry – copywriter, brand writer, verbal specialist, verbal designer, and so on – what name feels most right to you? And do you wish there was more consistency with these titles or do you like the variety?
Oh, I don’t mind that there’s variety, as long as there’s meaning behind it. I usually call myself “Copy Chief,” partly as an homage to Peggy Olson, partly just because it feels like it conveys that I’ll be in charge of all the words.
I feel like as long as your title conveys what you want it to convey and doesn’t make people go, “Huh?”—then hell yeah, be like Shakespeare and make up a word.
Where can Subtext readers keep up with you?
smith-diction.com
@smith_diction (creative work)
@charamelody (personal stuff)
Bonus Round:
Dream brief: what does it say in 1 sentence or less?
“Hi, I’m reaching out on behalf of the National Park System…” (Or swap in Patagonia…)
In one word, what is the enemy of good creative work?
Burnout.
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