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Laura Cornet
Conceptual thinker with a sharp instinct for language. Makes strategy tangible through ideas and copy that bring brands to life.
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In a time with more and more images and less and less text, it is essential to attract and hold your reader's attention. One of the means to do this is through the use of rhythm. After all, reading rhythmically makes the message stick! And that's why we love it.
A rhythmic text is like music to your ears
Through the correct use of figures of speech and commas, full stops and blank lines, a text becomes not only informative, but also musical and lively. Think of a summary that flows smoothly, but also of speeding up or slowing down a paragraph by breaking up the text in the right way. Besides the fact that this is pleasant to read and sounds nice, it has another important advantage: your brain is more involved, which makes the content stick better. Like the alphabet song: you can still sing that, right?
Familiar rhythm, familiar technique
The shorter your text, the more important the rhythm. Take the Dutch slogan 'Heerlijk, Helder, Heineken' (Delicious, Clear, Heineken) for example, an alliterative tri-colon. A what? Well, a slogan that is alliterative because of the 3 H's in a row. The three words, separated by a comma, form a tri-colon. And it works so well that we even know one from Roman times. Back then, Caesar was the one who shouted 'Veni, vidi, vici', which uses exactly the same style-technique.
There are of course many other techniques that help set the rhythm, but more about that later. Most important for now? Rhythm is important, both for copywriters and designers. You can also play with rhythm in the design, by choosing where sentences are broken and how far apart you place texts. This way, a little bit of composing will result in super snackable seduction! (see what we did there? ;))
Laura Cornet
Concept Developer & Copywriter