Style guides
Client case study: Behnaia antiques and vintage goods
Behnaia is a sister-led antiques studio based in Los Angeles focused on interior sourcing and styling. They came to me to define their brand’s unique voice and tone, create a playbook for their product descriptions, and create foundational narrative materials like their mission statement.
Philosophy, and process
My end goal for any brand collateral or style guide is ease of use, maximum application across the business, and longevity. The client should fully understand how to flex the principles outlined, and be able to confidently run with it after handoff. And no matter whether I’m defining the voice and tone for a new small business or established tech giant, the best way to get a result that resonates is starting with curiosity. For Behnaia, I set up an intake call with founders Payal and Hasina to get to the soul of their business. Examples of my intake questions below:
Understand the fire within:
What’s your company’s mission?
In your perfect world, what do people walk away feeling after interacting with your business?
Define the landscape:
What’s the industry like? Who are the main competitors?
How do they speak? How successful is this tactic?
ID your differentiator:
How might language make this product/company/mission stand out?
Who’s your ideal customer/user?
Find the emotion:
Why should using your business, product, or service matter to your customers?
What does interacting with your business do for folks?
Building blocks, and the nitty gritty
At the core of any content style guide, you need key content principles to use as guideposts, “this not that” examples to show the voice + tone in action, and a nuts and bolts section to show finesse for the style at it’s most granular. The proprietary style guide format I deliver to my clients is shaped from years of working with companies of all sizes and disciplines.
Behnaia’s final voice and tone guide gives them easy playbook for creating copy for any situation: for their website, social media, e-commerce product descriptions, PR blurbs, and more. Examples of their final takeaway document below:
This, not that examples to show how to flex their voice:
Tone+voice in real life:
“Melody is a wizard with words! She brings so much energy and personality to everything she does. We had such a wonderful and productive experience working with her! ”