Most law firms design their letterhead to express their corporate personality. The
justification may be that the firm's documentation should express the firm's professional
image.
The problem with professional image is that it arises in the eye of the beholder -- the
client. In the same way, your credibility doesn't reflect your honesty but whether the
public believes you are honest.
Back to letterhead: when your client or some other person receives a
message on your
letterhead, what is their first impression? Do they perceive your firm
to be friendly, direct,
open, and easy to deal with? Or do they perceive your firm to be
stuffy, top-heavy, old-fashioned, and a pain in the elbow? Which is the
image you want to convey?
Psychological and neuro-linguistic research over the past 40 years tells us how to design
letterhead that both creates a good impression and makes your information easier to read.
Unfortunately, few law firms take these factors into account.
I recently spoke with two designers about the law firm approach to selecting letterhead
and corporate graphic images. Two main issues arise:
- So many partners have to inject their tastes and retain veto power that decisions are
seldom based on clear-cut principles of design or a good balance of design factors.
- The designs selected will reflect the firm self-image or desired professional image
rather than the needs and tastes of the target clientele.
So, next time you redesign your letterhead, think of your clients first. Adopt client-centred
design instead of lawyer-centred self-expression. Here are some points of advice for
client-centred information design:
- Text line length should be 5 inches - stretch it to 5 1/2 if you must. To
encourage your writers to keep the text short, keep the design of your letterhead within the
same margins as your text should be.
- Make it easier for clients to annotate your letters by keeping the margin on one side
wider than the other, for example: use a two inch margin on one side and a 1 inch margin
on the other.
- In the absence of an eye-catching graphic, the human eye begins reading from the
upper right-hand corner of a page and rotates clockwise. For this reason, place your
letterhead text along the right margin rather than the left.
- Use at least 10 point type in your letterhead text to set the standard for the letter
body. Point-size smaller than 8 is the source of public complaints about "fine-print" in
legal documents. Clients older than 40 won't be happy to read any text under 10 point. If
your clientele are senior citizens, use 12 point type.
- Gothic or sans-serif type faces are appropriate for your letterhead text, but the letter
body should be a serif or Roman type face. Serif faces are easier to read, sans-serif
provides contrast in headings or logos.
- Capital letters should be kept to a minimum. Capitilize words, not blocks of text.
Don't combine two features like capitals and bold or underline or italics.
- Maximize the contrast between ink and paper. For this purpose, the best choices in
paper colour are still white or pale ivory or cream.
