The Power and the Beauty of Words

Good tools in the right hands are truly a thing of real beauty and power – this applies to skilled lawyers as much as it does skilled cabinetmakers.

A lawyer's tools are words, both written and spoken, and the sometimes highly complex concepts, structures and arguments they build with them. Like the good cabinetmaker, the good lawyer builds his or her opinions elegantly and efficiently, with economy but perhaps also a flare of something here or there for style and emphasis.

Ever experience how protective a cabinetmaker is with his chisels? Just try borrowing one. Lawyers are no different with words, as we found out when we developed a new identity for McCann FitzGerald. To our surprise they noticed even the tiniest typographic details of our design suggestions — fine points that even many type anoraks in the design world wouldn't catch — and they challenged us on them. We didn't always agree with their opinions, but have to admire the passionate eye they brought to the topic of type.

And isn't this the point? Would you ask a cabinet maker who left his chisels kicking about to make you a cabinet? Would you solicit the opinion of a solicitor who didn't care about words?