Wordsmith Communications

Mark your calendars! It’s an event you will not want to miss.

Today we celebrate NWT CIMP—the Northwest Territories Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program of the Government of the Northwest Territories. They are 2022 ClearMark Awards finalists, recognized for their effective plain language communications efforts in North America. We couldn’t be prouder.

NWT CIMP was recognized for their Indigenous Knowledge Project Funding Guide. Thank you, NWT CIMP for bringing us in on the project! It was a true pleasure to work with a team that was so dedicated to communicating clearly and helping applicants through the funding process. It’s these projects that make us excited to go to work every day.

We can’t wait to see what you and your organization will achieve next and the impact that your work will have in our communities and environment.

Congratulations to:
Meredith Seabrook (photo)
DonnaMarie Ouellette (photo)
Lorraine Brekke
Yvonne Pike
Jane Fitzgerald
Anna Coles
Dion Kelly
Environment and Natural Resources

*** For more information on NWT CIMP and how to get the funding, head to our story highlights

We’re willing to bet this sign predates the age of social media. What do you see first? An image? Or a double underlined “laugh out loud”? (Surely not the message they’re wishing to convey.)

**The lesson here**
Refresh external messaging if it’s been in place for a long time. Make sure it reflects the messages you want to convey to your readers. Note that this can be especially true with templates, which can be in places for years. Outdated information and approaches can easily get recycled by old templates.

Today we brag. We brag about one of our own, Sylvia Gackle, who was this weekend's winner of the Canadian Spartan obstacle race. Yes, that's her with that gold medal around her neck and no, she didn't tell us about it either!

Sylvia, you are not just an amazing boss but an inspiration. Every day you show us how passion and unrelenting work lead to excellence. Your ability to make every moment count, to make every project count is one of those things that make us excited to come to work each morning.

We are so proud of you and can't wait to see what you're going to do next. Yes, that implies we will be watching!

This is a City of Calgary Water Services repair truck. The sign is one of several painted on the sides of these trucks. If someone is working on a water main near you, this is what you would see. We think it’s genius.

Calgary has 12,000 kms of underground pipe. We’re on site to keep things flowing.

*Why is this such a good sign?*

Let us count the ways.

✅ It’s functional. These trucks are highly visible and often have to block a lane when they are working. Instead of just being trucks, they are now living notices that explain, “Hey, there’s a water problem here and that’s why you have to slow down. But we’re working on it!”

✅ The tone is perfect. The sign is friendly, interesting, engaging. It’s not bureaucratic sounding (which is a common way to miss an opportunity to connect with readers).

✅ The layout and visual message matches the text. The image of interconnected pipes helps us relate to the underground pipes in a nanosecond. The white space around the image and text set it off and help emphasize it.

✅ It brings the reader into the experts’ world. Sometimes experts with specialized knowledge write signs as if only other experts will be reading them. In this case, someone chose an interesting technical fact about water in the city that made the sign fun and taught us something cool. It also helps the public respect their work because we get a feeling for the vast water network under our feet.