I’ve been working in the design industry, well forever. Most of it, I’ve been working as an independent – directly with my clients, small business owners. Because I’ve not worked in a lot of agencies, I sometimes lose track of industry jargon. I pick up lingo mostly from online reading – thought-leaders, bloggers, social media posts, stories of life in agencies. But the only reason I make the effort is for the times I speak with agency folks. If I’m interviewing for a gig with an agency, I’d better be able to talk the talk, right?
Still, it always strikes me as a bit self-serving, this constant churn of words.
I can understand the agencies are cut throat. Designing your own terminology for things can present you as a thought-leader. Particularly if your terminology starts being used in the industry. And surely it’s fun to come up with new terms, and sometimes the terms are even funny. But has this gotten out of hand? How useful is lingo outside of the agency atmosphere? Clients don’t know the lingo – so when talking to clients you have to use plain speech anyway – so what’s the lingo for? is it just to impress your friends? sound cool on LinkedIn? Do clients get impressed by someone who uses industry jargon in their presentations or do the get confused?
