WELCOMING CUSTOMERS INTO YOUR BRAND UNIVERSE

Powerful Communication

The personality of a brand comes to life through the tone of voice used, whether in marketing slogans or in every day content. Transposing this into another language requires a careful, context-aware translation, to ensure your company’s identity is faithfully reflected in your communication.

Marketing & Slogans

Making your brand identity memorable requires creativity and careful wording, adapted to the cultural identity of your target audience.

Reports & Press Releases

These publications help establish your brand language. Words must be chosen with care.

Newsletters & Websites

Your written media is a reflection of your brand’s personality. To retain your readers’ attention, it needs to be understandable, easy to read, and sometimes funny.

Subtitles

Demand for videos is high. These require concise, accurate subtitling.

My language skills for your storytelling

I am fascinated by the different layers involved in communication, and nothing satisfies me more than a slogan with the perfect pun or a witty punchline.

I will help you by phrasing clear, inventive and powerful messages to reach your French-speaking audience.

I can handle any format, from corporate videos to blogs, formal communication, or slogans.

My flexibility in style and endless quest for the right word will help bring your products and concepts into the spotlight.

A case study: icebreaker’s communication

Translating for the outdoor, merino wool clothing retailer from New Zealand

icebreaker, a sustainable and natural clothing brand from New Zealand, has entrusted me with their marketing content for the European French-speaking market since 2016.

This brand differentiates itself through a sustainable approach to fashion and a communication strategy built around storytelling.

View my translation in the Our Story section of the icebreaker website

The content to translate is diverse, and ranges from the history of the company to newsletters, including company reports, a blog (“Southern Chronicles”), or the subtitles to promotional videos.

In substance, these publications all share a common trait: they aim to communicate information about the brand in an attractive manner. In form, each communication channel comes with its own requirements.

Subtitles should be short; company reports (such as the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Transparency Reports) or explanatory text on the website must be easy to read and accessible; newsletters need punchy headers and preview text with a touch of humour; press releases require a journalistic style and should be written in the 3rd person; slogans should be concise and memorable.

A case study: icebreaker

Twice a year, I translate the full content of the icebreaker catalogue. This involves long and short product descriptions, instructions for care, technical garment characteristics, and so on. In-depth research as well as a solid build-up of experience enable me to provide technically precise descriptions that are accurate while flowing naturally.

For the last few years now, I have teamed up with fashion designer Marie-Sabrine Delaye, who is generous enough to share her priceless knowledge of tailoring vocabulary and clothing manufacturing techniques. She has been a precious aid in navigating the murky waters of sewing terminology and sock lengths, especially when English and French terminologies overlap!

Such cooperation allows us to go way beyond the service that we could offer as translators working alone, and is an essential ingredient for an optimal result.

My Partner Network

Throughout my career as a translator, I have built up solid partnerships with a number of dedicated, quality-driven professionals. When the volume, deadline or specifics of a project call for team work, I gladly join forces with a colleague, or two!

Mathilde

Sperduto

Trained in technical translation for EN/JP>FR, Mathilde is a full-time employee of Parallel Words, nurturing her natural curiosity and versatility in the world of video game translation.

Marie-Sabrine

Delaye

Marie-Sabrine is involved in the technical side of fashion. She gladly shares her expertise on anything involving needlework.

Céline

Dugny

Céline’s work is located at the crossroads between the cultural sector, human rights and European and international cooperation.

James

Harvey

James translates towards English with particular attention to the subtleties of language, ensuring the final version is both accurate and natural.c le souci de toutes les nuances de langage, de la justesse et du naturel de l’anglais final.

Happy Customer Testimonials

"Translating any kind of text from English to French, it’s a hard job to do. It’s not just translating words but it’s about delivering the proper message with the original meaning. Raphael is doing this perfectly always hitting deadlines and with a proactive attitude. I would definitely recommend you work with Parallel words. They would be the right partner for you"

Matteo Castelli - Brand and Communications Marketing Manager, EMEA, icebreaker

"It was a pleasure and an honour to work with Raphaël Rouby! His skills, professionalism, availability, attention to detail and sensitivity with regard to the written word have much benefitted our editorial projects."

Mihaela Cojocariu - Éditions Albin Michel (Gift Books)

"Raphaël is an excellent translator and mentor. Working with him has been the most formative experience as he taught me everything there is to know about translation and localization. As a dedicated linguist, he is always looking for the best way to convey meaning and will not give up until he finds it. Tenacious, passionate and hard-working, Raphaël is someone I would trust with any project as I know he will give it his very best."

Sabrina Ducrocq-Poirier - Freelance Translator, English to French

"Raphaël is a thorough and enthusiastic translator. In our line of business, which is more and more dematerialized – as is the world we live in – this is especially precious. We work together regularly on projects for the outdoor clothing brand icebreaker. His work is of a very high quality and his advice always relevant. In short, ours is a very enriching partnership!"

Céline Dugny - Freelance Translator, English to French

"I’ve known Raph since 2013 and he has consistently proven himself to be a highly productive and reliable English to French translator with a great sense of humor. Raph has brought joy to our French customers and translated numerous word-heavy projects for us over the years and delivered his projects in a timely manner. Raph has been quick to communicate relevant and accurate feedback to our in-house team of linguists and game developers. I’d recommend Raph for any English to French translation projects. Raph is a joy to work with!"

Steen Groennebaek - Localization Director, Big Fish Games

"Hello Raphaël, All good for me. It’s great. Thanks,"

Anne Babel - Marketing Coordinator - France/Spain, icebreaker

"Raphaël thank you so much for your attention to detail!"

Laura Charabot - Marketing Coordinator, icebreaker

Have a project to translate?
Get in touch!

Raphaël Rouby
+33 (0)6 95 98 07 79
raphael@parallelwords.fr