Publish and print what needs to be said, and remembered.
Whether it's an article, a report, or a book, it's hard finding people who 'just get it'.
We get it.
Because we were first trained as social workers, to understand people, before we helped them.
Tell us how we can help.
You might want to create
Annual Reports
Annual reports are the perfect way to sum up the achievements of the year to your stakeholders, so that they know you're working hard, and not slacking. Making them though, needs great research, writing, and design.
Custom Published Books
Don't get us started on books. Write one, and you might possibly lose half of the hair on your head (at least I did). But writing one can position you above and beyond the pack, with the book functioning as a (rather expensive) namecard. It's worth the trouble though.
Educational Material
We self-published a book to improve the retention of social work knowledge, especially after knowing the pressures social workers had on time.
Motivational Cards
In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, one charity thought it might be a good idea to write cards to each other. They commissioned 20 designs of inspirational cards for the staff team, especially after knowing the difficulties of connecting with each other through the mask.
The problem you might face
Often when people pick agencies to work on their project, they might face these problems.
The agency doesn't write like you
Most (smaller) agencies are design agencies first, and writers are something they outsource, or can't afford to hire. Consequently, whatever you produce feels stilted, and doesn't sound like you.
The agency can't really understand you
Most agencies are generalists. This means that they don't have the domain specific knowledge of your industry, and they therefore cannot capture your voice as well.
The agency executive may be inexperienced
We understand clients first, before writing for them.
The client: Linking Hands
The brief: Linking Hands, a philanthropic organisation, saw how young people were struggling with the transitions between school and work. They wanted to create a resource that could help young people to transit more effectively.
The work: We interviewed 21 career luminaries, including people you might not traditionally have thought of - like a bus driver, or something who was in debt. We shared their stories and eventually built a resource where many youths were helped by.
We understood and created something that resonated for the social services.
The client: Hougang Sheng Hong Family Service Centre (FSC)
The brief: In 2020, during the pandemic, the FSC, which served the needs of those struggling with social issues like low-income, housing, or mental distress, wanted something to encourage their staff and social workers. Their staff were working overtime to meet the needs of residents.
The work: We interviewed social workers to understand their challenges, and also what they were doing to help themselves through the pandemic. We then wrote out encouragement cards with punchy captions, and then got a designer to hand-write the quotes.
We created a set of 20 postcards for the staff.
They were deeply encouraged and one said, "These postcards helped me to find hope and courage again, and reminded me of why I worked in the social services."
We self-published a book that was nominated for awards.
Having started in the social work industry, I was frustrated by everything I got my hands on. It was boring, and often led me to fall asleep, drooling on those books.
Don't get me wrong. They were good books, but social workers were probably too emotionally tired to read through all of them.
So we wondered if we could do something different.
We started with a crazy idea. What if we created a book that:
- had more graphics than words?
- Had funny comics by the side?
- That people actually loved reading?
A book that people enjoyed reading
Yes, we know those books on your shelf, were probably browsed once, and then placed on your shelf, never to be read again.
A book that you could immediately apply
Why read something that was so theoretical, that you couldn't apply? We wanted applicable insights, fast.
A book that you were proud to own
Too many books just looked ugly. Way too ugly to walk out with.
Here's what we did.
We started with wondering if we could design graphics that allowed busy social workers to quickly take the main message away.
So we spoke to social workers to understand what were the concepts that they found most important in their successful transition to full time social work.
One page, as seen below, helped social workers to quickly understand how they often found themselves in situations where they were drowning in work. And to change that, they had to start employing the 'power of 10x' - which was about looking at fundamental principles that allows them to rethink the problems they face in social work.
We also wanted them to have fun in the process, with exercises that would encourage their reflective journey.
Here's one that helped them to figure out what was important to them, so that they could make decisions around whether social work was the career for them.
As you can see from the above examples, what succeeds is not creating the book with the most knowledge. Rather, it's creating the book with the most applicable knowledge, containing things that people can immediately use. There's no point buying another book that sits on the shelf.
Secondly, it's not about having the most text. You probably know that. But we still insist on words, because words are comforting.
Always think how to delete, rather than how to add.