Six briefs, and what came of them

To be clear up front: this isn't client work. The bakery, the beekeepers, the clinic and the rest don't exist. I invented them to show how a few lines of brief turn into finished copy, and where that copy ends up.

So there are no results here, no charts and no quotes from happy customers. There's the copy itself, in Polish with an English gloss so you can follow it, two versions of every headline, and a short note on why each line is written the way it is. If you're bringing a brand into Poland, that last part is the hardest to judge from outside, so the notes mostly explain what a Polish reader hears.

Piekarnia Kwaśny Ranek ("Sour Morning Bakery") — sample

A small sourdough bakery outside Lublin. One oven, two shops, and the bread usually runs out before noon.

The brief: "We bake with sourdough, no improvers. We open at 6 and the bread’s often gone by 11. We need a website and a line for the awning, but we don’t want to sound like a Parisian boulangerie, because we’re not in Paris."

The words

Paper bag

Nie wkładaj do lodówki. Chleb tego nie lubi.

Kromki na jutro? Lniana ściereczka, nie folia.

Home page, opening

Sourdough bread. Baked at night, sold in the morning.

Two shops, one oven. When the bread's gone, it's gone, usually around eleven. If you want to be sure, order a loaf the day before, by 6 p.m.

Order for tomorrow

Mon–Fri 6:00–14:00, Sat 6:00–12:00. On Sundays, we sleep.

Where they live: the awning over the door, the paper bag, the home page.

Why this line

Every Pole knows "do wyczerpania zapasów", "while stocks last", from supermarket leaflets. Swap one word for "zakwasu", "sourdough", and the most tired phrase in retail becomes a reason to slow down outside the window. It also tells the truth the bakery doesn’t want to hide: after eleven there may be no bread. Version B is for people who’d rather have warmth than a joke.

See the service: Website copy I’d like something like this

A canvas awning over a bakery entrance in a weathered tenement building, on an overcast morning with a wet pavement. — markiza_kwasny-ranek_01.jpg · version A

Pasieka Krzywy Ul ("The Crooked Hive") — sample

A family apiary near Zamość, selling through an online shop and a Saturday market stall.

The brief: "We have four honeys: rapeseed, linden, buckwheat and wildflower. Customers keep asking which to pick, and whether it’s normal that the honey has gone hard. We don’t want to claim it cures anything."

The words

Product pages in the online shop

Buckwheat honey

Our darkest honey and the boldest. It smells a little of gingerbread and a little of a barn after harvest, in a good way. Less sweet than linden, and it lingers. Good with curd cheese, dark bread, and tea, if you don’t mind it taking over. It crystallises over time, which is natural and says nothing about quality either way.

Rapeseed honey

Pale and mild, almost white once it sets. And it sets fast, sometimes a few days after extraction. That's not a fault, that's rapeseed. If you prefer it runny, stand the jar in warm water (up to 40°C) and give it time. The microwave is a bad idea.

Why has my honey gone hard?

Because that’s what honey does. Crystallisation is natural: quick in rapeseed, slower in linden.

Where they live: the jar label and the product pages in the online shop.

Why this line

A jar label holds five or six words, so each one has to help someone choose. "Nie dla każdego", "not for everyone", puts some buyers off, and that’s the point. There’s nothing about health in the descriptions. Health claims on food are tightly regulated in the EU, and customers are asking a more practical question anyway: is something wrong with honey that’s gone hard?

See the service: Product descriptions I’d like something like this

A jar of dark honey with a blank paper label on a kitchen table, a window and grey daylight behind it. — etykieta_sloik_gryczany_02.jpg · version A

Gabinet Najpierw Rozmowa ("Talk First Dental") — sample

A two-chair dental practice in Lublin that wants to reach adults who've put off the dentist for years.

The brief: "Lots of people haven’t seen a dentist in years because they’re scared. For them we do a first visit with no treatment, just a conversation and a check-up. We need a campaign landing page and a poster for bus shelters."

The words

Landing page

Here, we talk first. Treatment starts when you say it can.

The first visit takes about 30 minutes and involves no treatment. You tell us what worries you, the dentist looks at your teeth and tells you what they see. Then you go home and decide in your own time.

What happens in those 30 minutes

A conversation at a desk, not in the chair. Then a quick check-up, if you agree. You leave with a written treatment plan and prices, and nobody pushes you to start today.

You can stop at any time

We agree a signal at the start: a raised hand. The dentist stops straight away. Every time.

What it costs

The first visit costs 100 zł. If you go on to have treatment with us, it comes off your first bill.

Book a talk (no treatment)

We'll call back during opening hours. We'll only ask about a date.

Where they live: a backlit poster case at a bus shelter, and the campaign landing page.

Why this line

"Bezboleśnie", "painless", is tempting, but no practice can promise it to everyone, and anxious patients know that better than anyone. So the headline promises something the clinic can keep: a conversation instead of treatment. People waiting at a stop give a poster about three seconds. Version A opens with a question they answer in their heads, and version B gives a time and an object everybody recognises.

See the service: Landing pages I’d like something like this

A backlit advertising case on a bus shelter at dusk, wet tarmac, the blurred lights of a trolleybus behind. — citylight_wiata_03.jpg · version A

Rozliczka (roughly, "Settle-up") — sample

An invoicing app for Polish sole traders: raise an invoice, send it, and see who’s paid.

The brief: "Our messages were written by developers and it shows, e.g. ‘NIP field validation error’. We want the app to sound like someone from accounts who actually likes you. To start with: notifications, errors, the empty screen, buttons."

The words

The app's states

The app's states
Empty screen	Your invoices will live here. The first one takes a moment longer while we get to know your business. After that, it’s quicker. Create your first invoice
NIP field error	This tax number has 9 digits and should have 10. Check one hasn’t slipped away. —
No connection	The invoice didn’t go, because the internet did. We’ve saved it as a draft; send it when you’re back online. Try again
Overdue invoice	Your client is 7 days late paying. Send them a polite reminder? Send reminder · I’ll wait a bit
Deleting a draft	Delete this draft? This can’t be undone. Delete draft · Keep it

Where they live: a phone lock screen, and the app's empty states and messages.

Why this line

A good error message says three things: what happened, whose fault it is, and what to do now. "Validation error" says none of them. Buttons name the action ("Delete draft") rather than giving consent ("OK"), because when people delete something, the button is all they read. The payment notification gets half a sentence of warmth, because it’s good news.

See the service: Microcopy and UX writing I’d like something like this

A phone lying face up on a café table beside a cup, its dark lock screen leaving room for a notification. — ekran-blokady_stolik_04.jpg · version A

Księgarnia Ośle Ucho ("Dog-Ear Books") — sample

An online bookshop with two people packing orders and a clear weakness for crime fiction.

The brief: "We want a welcome email for new accounts, and a card to go in every parcel. Warm, but no ‘dear reader’. We don’t do a sign-up discount; we’ve got other things to offer."

The words

Welcome email

You're allowed to fold the corners. Really.
Your account works. So, what are we reading?
Welcome to Ośle Ucho (no discount, but a recommendation)

Three things worth knowing before your first order.

Hi,

your account's ready, so briefly, here's what we do differently.

We pack by hand, two of us. Orders placed by 1 p.m. usually go out the same day.

We don't have a recommendation algorithm. We have Ula, who reads everything in crime, and Tomek, who does non-fiction. Reply to this email with something you liked recently and they'll send you three titles.

There's no sign-up discount. There's a bookmark in every parcel, and a person answers every email.

Happy reading, Ośle Ucho

See what's new

Where they live: the card in the parcel, and the inbox.

Why this line

The brief ruled out a discount, and a welcome email without one has to offer something else. Here it's people: two named booksellers and an invitation to reply. Subject line 1 plays on the shop's name. In Polish, a dog-eared page is an “ośle ucho”, so the line reads like a note from a friend rather than a shop.

See the service: Emails and newsletters I’d like something like this

An open cardboard box of books wrapped in brown paper, with a card lying on top. — kartka_paczka_05.jpg · version A

Sęk i Słój ("Knot & Grain") — sample

A joinery workshop in Roztocze, south-east Poland, making oak dining tables for customers in Germany, the UK and Scandinavia. It's opening a showroom in Lublin.

The brief: "For the showroom window we want a line in Polish, with the English next to it for foreign customers. Our line is „Stół, przy którym zmieści się cała rodzina. Łącznie z kłótniami.” The translator turned it into 'A table where the whole family will fit. Including the quarrels.' Something’s off."

The words

Where they live: a vinyl decal on the showroom window, and the export page of the website.

Why this line

"Quarrels" sounds like a nineteenth-century novel, and "fit" suggests a squeeze rather than hospitality. In British English, family friction at the table already has a ready-made picture: Christmas dinner. So the image changes and the joke survives. "Seats eight" also borrows the language of product listings, so a buyer gets the one spec they’d ask about first.

See the service: Transcreation I’d like something like this

A large furniture showroom window after dark, an oak table and chairs behind the glass, with clear space on the pane for a vinyl decal. — witryna_salon_06.jpg · version A

For comparison, next to version A, the literal translation: A table where the whole family will fit. Including the quarrels.

Want to see how this would look for your brand?

I don't write free test pieces. What I offer instead is a paid sample: three product descriptions, or one section of a page. If you go ahead with the full job, the sample's cost comes off the price.

Send a brief See pricing