The Role of Editorial Design in Digital Brand Building

There's a version of digital brand building that focuses entirely on visual design: logo, colour, typography, photography. This is necessary but insufficient. The strongest digital brands have an equally strong editorial layer — a consistent voice, tone, and language that runs through every word on every screen.

This was one of the most distinctive aspects of the FBD Insurance digital transformation. FBD's brand positioning — 'Protection, it's in our nature' — is evocative and differentiated. The existing website didn't reflect it. Product descriptions were written in insurance industry jargon. Page titles were functional rather than expressive. The overall editorial experience communicated competent insurance company, not a brand that genuinely cared about its customers' protection.

UX Writing as Brand Expression

UX writing — the craft of writing the copy that appears within digital interfaces — is one of the most undervalued disciplines in product design. The label on a form field, the text on a confirmation button, the error message when a transaction fails: these micro-copy moments collectively define the relationship between a product and its users.

On the AA Ireland projects, UX writing was a significant focus. The AA's 'yellow and black, we've got your back' ethos needed to come through not just in the visual design but in the language of the product. 'Get a Quote' became 'Find out what cover costs for your car.' 'Submit' became 'Get My Quote.' Small changes with significant effects on both conversion and brand perception.

The Protection Stories Approach

One of the most strategically interesting editorial decisions on the FBD Insurance project was the creation of a publishing platform — 'Protection Stories' — that gave FBD a channel for sharing genuinely useful content with customers between renewal moments.

Insurance is a low-engagement category: most customers interact with their insurer twice a year at most — at renewal and, occasionally, at claim. A content platform that gives the brand a reason to be useful and relevant between those moments has long-term retention value that goes well beyond its content marketing benefits.

Principles for Editorial Brand Building

• Audit your micro-copy before your visual design. The language of your product is the most direct expression of your brand voice — and the most frequently experienced.
• Define your tone of voice with specific, testable attributes. 'Friendly and professional' is not useful guidance. 'We use contractions. We never use jargon without explanation. We address users as intelligent adults.' is.
• Involve writers in the design process from the start, not at the content-filling stage at the end. The best UX writing shapes the design, not decorates it.

‍