Creative translations
When do you need creative translation services?
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literary works, such as novels, poems, short stories, or plays
songs, subtitles, video games, YouTube videos
film and series dubbing
and marketing content, such as web copy, branding, headlines, social media copy, slogans, and more.
Translating is as much about preserving the originality of the source material as it is about producing a text that feels authentic to audiences of the target language.
Beyond a perfect command of the source and target languages, translators must have a demonstrated understanding of cultural references and sensibilities, market and industry knowledge, and a lot of creative flair – all at varying degrees, depending on the type of translation.
If you need a creative language specialist to produce effective marketing content for your business, it would only be obvious that you need a creative translator to convey the same message and emotion in a second language.
What makes a translation great?
No good translation will ever substitute word for word. The process of translation is more than word equivalence. I’m surprised when clients tell me they don’t want a direct, literal translation of their text. Of course not. Nobody wants that. Even in legal translations, where accuracy is paramount, the phrasing and terminology must be translated with precision, but never literally. Consider only how a term may have several interpretations depending on the context of the legal text or how every language has a particular way of constructing sentences.
So, whether a translation aims to be a perfect mirror of the source language (essential for legal texts) or to emulate the same style, tone, intent, or identity (such as in branding and marketing materials), there will always be some degree of linguistic adaptation.