Make it beautiful
The metaphor exists to bring warmth to something inherently cold: steel, code, industrial processes. Reach for it to make the implementation inspiring.
"Every workflow working in harmony."
Tone of Voice
Overview
Our voice principles are downstream of our broader design principles. They shape what we say and how we say it. They help us to maintain consistency, no matter who’s writing across whatever format.
Our two TOV principles are lyrical and literal. See the full TOV guide to learn more about Idealwork’s proposition, audience and how the our tone of voice works in practice.
Principles
Lyrical
Evocative language that leans on “in concert” as a metaphor. This is effective as headline copy to grab attention.
- Trade Show Banners
- Campaign Headlines
- Brand Films
- Out of Home
Take from the stage
Borrow specifically from the language of performance: conducting, rehearsal, the stage. Don’t be afraid to get specific, the beauty is in the analogy.
"Born on the factory floor. Built to conduct it."
Only for effect
Lyrical language leads with scale and feeling, never with technical product information. The moment a sentence needs a spec or a number, it's left Lyrical territory.
"From fragmented to orchestrated."
Never overexplain
Our lyricism is there to bring people in, not to be intellectually watertight. Use it for effect and then lead into a more technical conversation. Best practice is to use one metaphor to arrest attention and then move into more descriptive writing.
“Your factory floor is concert” is enough, no need to talk about the crescendo or timbre in this sentence.
Literal
Clear, direct language that gets to the point. This is used in product descriptions, specifications and technical information.
- RFP Response
- Spec Sheets
- Technical Documents
Facts over figures (of speech)
When talking about a product’s technical details we lead with the specs and save the story for later.
"Vendor-agnostic software managing mixed robot fleets can improve uptime by 20%."
Talk to today, inspire tomorrow
Speak to immediate benefits immediately before introducing any future vision. The best way to close a big deal is to start with a small one.
"Start with a single robot and scale your system."
Get out of the way
Customers are coming to you with a presumption of what you sell. Lean into their expectations; if they want to buy a robot talk about that, if they want a whole solution you have license to riff.
"Real-time fleet coordination, task allocation, and traffic control."