The quill
One named editorial deliverable. Two weeks. Two named writers.
Two weeks · 10 working days
from 180 €
fixed scope
Vol. VI · № 07 · Helsinki
An editorial copywriting studio
Helsinki, since 2019
A copywriting studio
for brands worth
the second read.
Four people in Helsinki, writing fewer pieces, slowly, by hand. A named writer and a named editor on every engagement. The work we send is read aloud at the desk before it leaves the studio. No AI in the writing. Twenty engagements a year. Three of them might be yours.
Editor's note
Vol. VI · № 07
Most copy on the internet today is fast, plausible, and forgettable. It is written quickly, edited lightly, and read once before being scrolled past. There is more of it than there has ever been; there is less of it that anyone remembers.
StrongBrandWords is a studio for the small minority of brands that would prefer not to compete in that volume. We write fewer pieces, slowly, by hand, with a named editor and a named writer on every engagement. We turn down more work than we take. The work we take, we read twice before we send it.
We are four people in a Helsinki office, since 2019. Our shortest engagement is two weeks for one finished piece of writing; our longest is a quarter of considered editorial output. Everything in between is written down on a single fees page, which is unusual for our part of the industry, and which is the first sign that we mean what we say. — Lotta
— Lotta Salminen, editor & founderThe three engagements.
Three named ways to commission writing from the studio — sized for one piece, one voice, or one quarter of considered editorial output.The voice
A complete brand voice system and the first four pieces written against it. Six weeks.
Six weeks · 30 working days
from 380 €
fixed scope
The residency
A quarter of considered editorial output — twelve pieces, one voice, one team.
Thirteen weeks · One quarter
from 580 €
fixed scope
A small number of brands we have written for.
Noma Collective
Meritalo Press
Kallio & Co.
Helsinki Power
Turku Saunas
Aurinko Grain
Six principles the studio is built on.
The six rules that govern how we take work, how we write, and what we refuse to do. Read more in the studio page.-
I
A named writer, a named editor.
Every engagement is owned by a senior copywriter and a senior editor — both named in the engagement letter before the work begins. There is no anonymous middle layer. The person who answers your first email writes the brief, drafts the piece, and reads the final round.
-
II
The voice is decided before the writing.
We do not write a sentence of body copy before the question of who is speaking has been answered in writing. A brief that does not answer the voice question is sent back to the brief stage. Most studios get this wrong by skipping it; the result is copy that sounds like the studio rather than the client.
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III
Edited twice. Read once.
Every piece we send is copy-edited by a writer who did not draft it, then read aloud by the editor before it leaves the studio. Reading the piece aloud is the cheapest editorial intervention there is, and the one most often skipped. We have not skipped it on a single engagement since 2019.
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IV
Two rounds, not seven.
Every engagement is priced for one round of revision and held to a second if real new information arrives between the first round and the second. Beyond the second round the engagement is no longer a writing engagement and is converted to hourly time at the published rate.
A few of the brands we have written for.
Six recent engagements across hospitality, publishing, fashion, utilities, and specialty food. Full case studies in casework.
2025 · Hospitality, Copenhagen
Noma Collective
The Voice — brand voice system + four pieces
A documented voice and four launch pieces for a new Copenhagen restaurant collective. Two months of work; a verbal identity that runs from the website to the menu to the hand-typed reservation confirmations.
Read the casework
2024 · Independent publisher, Helsinki
Meritalo Press
The Residency — quarterly editorial output
A full quarter of editorial output for a Helsinki-based independent publisher — twelve pieces across thirteen weeks, from the book-launch landing pages to the founder essays.
Read the casework
2024 · Independent fashion, Helsinki
Kallio & Co.
The Quill — seasonal lookbook copy
The seasonal lookbook essay for an independent Helsinki fashion label, written to be read on paper and on the e-commerce site without changing a word.
Read the caseworkNotes from the studio.
Long-form essays from the four people in the studio, on the work of writing for brands and the editorial decisions that make it possible.
On reading the piece aloud before you send it
The single editorial intervention with the highest return on time. A short essay on the only piece of editorial advice we give every writer who joins the studio, and the only one nobody listens to until they have shipped a piece they wish they had not.
Three routes, not twenty references
On the moment in a brand voice engagement when the temptation is to present every possible direction. Why we present three, why we kill twelve of our own ideas before we get there, and what the resulting conversation feels like.
Against fast copy
The case for writing fewer pieces slowly, against the very real pressure to ship faster. Notes on what we have measured, what we have stopped measuring, and what we are willing to lose by writing this way.
Begin a brief
Tell us what wants writing well.
Send a brief, however rough — a few sentences is enough. Lotta or Mikael will write back within two working days with one of three answers: yes and here is how, no and here is who, or could we hop on a call.