An architectural photographer needed a 1-2 sentence working philosophy that could be featured on a web page. We discussed the combination of aesthetic/documentary approaches used in his work, and he said that he wanted to project mastery and proficiency, but also something else he could only define as ‘aesthetic instinct’. At the end of our conversation, he said, ‘It’s all about creating desire’. This is what I came up with:

“My approach with client work is a combination of the aesthetic and the documentary. I strive to communicate with clarity, legibility, and as much accuracy as possible, while at the same time producing images that induce desire in the viewer.”

This headline is about as long as quick readability would allow. There are a lot of long words, but I tried to pay attention to the rhythm of everything together. The 1st sentence introduces a rhythm that is repeated 2x in the 2nd sentence, enhancing the feeling of completion at the end.  ‘Clarity, legibility, and accuracy’ are all pretty dry terms with clear meanings, the better to increase the impact of the final part mentioning desire. ‘Induce’ for a while seemed like too strong a term, and one with some other unhelpful meanings. But the more I thought about it the more I felt it was a good description of desire’s spontaneous, involuntary aspects. It’s a word with some extra potency.

I consider this a success, it fit the the client perfectly. With a few tweaks, it could work well for a writer, actually.