Proposal language as complex as the large, complicated assignments it seeks to attract.

The use of 50 cent words where good old, commonsense nickel ones would do.

It is the grand irony of our profession that we, designers and marketers in the communications business, so often communicate poorly. How is it that the solutions we provide our clients can be so focused and exact, while the conversations that precede them -- both oral and written -- are so often unclear and misleading?

Worse, why is it that we do this on purpose?

On purpose, indeed. The communications business is filled with people whose tendency to lapse into fancy language is anything but benign carelessness. Although their inflated discourse may seem to be the result of ingrained habits or unwritten rules, it is in fact symptomatic of disingenuous relationships with their clients -- and ultimately harmful.

In addition to undermining the integrity of these relationships, insincere language interferes with solving the visual and communications problems at hand. Words, after all, are an expression of meaning. While they can be used to build bridges to understanding, they can also be used as barriers -- as "obfuscations" -- behind which many in our profession try to hide less-than-admirable motives.

The cult of expert.
As consultants, we represent ourselves to our clients as experts in our field. And that we are. Our special knowledge and skills afford us an authority both forged and tempered by years of experience.

Our misuse of language, however, is a result of thinking that our credentials and processes are more important than they really are. Instead of admitting that our methods are actually quite simple (although finding answers may indeed prove challenging), some will instead believe that these procedures are in fact very complex; that they're proprietary and unique to our profession -- or worse, unique to their own company.

The consequence is that clients are expected to pay for this "mysterious" expertise with a price -- usually a hefty one. And yet the motivation for such deception on the part of certain design practitioners is nothing more than greed; a desire to receive greater compensation by convincing their clients of a project's extravagant worth. How? By writing long-winded dissertations about otherwise commonsense issues. By being vague and indirect, where straightforwardness is called for. By pretending, quite simply, that a problem is larger than it really is.

Truth in marketing.
In reality, our credentials and processes are merely the foundation for what is truly important in our business: building strong and lasting relationships with our clients, and producing the good, solid (and, when we can get the stars aligned correctly, spectacular) work that we're capable of.

These relationships can exist only when communication is direct and honest. Because the plain truth is that clients, like all of us, value honesty as much as knowledge. Trust, as much as smarts. In the best relationships, we are never penalized for not knowing an answer; instead, we are rewarded for our ingenuity and enthusiasm in finding it.

And this requires nothing less than the plainspoken eloquence of truthful discourse.

Language as power.
All of which brings us back to the ways in which we express ourselves. Language, after all, is a currency, and each of its coins -- its words -- has a value. That these coins allow us not only to describe the world around us, but also to evoke the entire range of human emotion, is a testament to their remarkable power.

At its most basic, though, language remains a way for us to make our ideas known and understood so that, in the case of our own work, we might then go on to properly meet, and solve, challenges of visual communication. By listening carefully to our clients and colleagues, we hold the key to finding the precise vocabulary for succeeding in those challenges. If we are dishonest in this effort -- if our words are used to mask our greed or vanity -- we suffer the consequences of relationships built on unstable pillars.

But if, on the other hand, our meanings are true, and direct -- if we speak and write in a language that is clear and straightforward -- both we and our clients reap the rewards of effective, productive communications.

From a superior work product to trusting, long-term relationships, these rewards need no words of explanation.