training/skills/hallmark/references/copy.md

Copy

Words are part of the design. A great layout with stock copy looks generic. Tight copy in an average layout reads as considered.

Principles

• Specific verbs. "Save changes" beats "OK" beats "Submit".
• Labels describe. "Email address" beats "Email".
• Link text stands alone. "View pricing plans" beats "Click here".
• Errors are instructions. Describe what broke, why, how to fix — in that order.
• Active voice. "We couldn't find your account" beats "Your account could not be found".
• Consistency. Pick one of "Delete" or "Remove". Pick one of "Sign in" or "Log in". Use it everywhere.

Buttons

Use the verb for the action the button performs.

Good: Save changes, Create account, Send invitation, Copy link, Open file. Bad: OK, Submit, Click here, Continue (only as the secondary button of a multi-step flow).

Error messages

Three parts:

1. What happened. Past tense, factual. "That card was declined."
2. Why, if known. "Your bank flagged the charge."
3. What to do. Imperative. "Try another card, or contact your bank."

Never apologetic for the user's input. Don't say "Oops!" on a validation error. A form that won't accept a value should explain the value, not perform embarrassment.

Empty states

Three beats:

1. One line naming what's empty. "No projects yet."
2. One line on why this matters / what projects are. "Projects group your tasks and team."
3. One button. The single next action. "Create a project".

Loading

• Short wait: spinner with no text.
• Medium wait (>2s): spinner + "Loading…".
• Long wait (>10s): spinner + progress indication + an honest label — "Compiling (this can take a minute)."

Microcopy bans

• "Click here." Link text must stand alone.
• "Oops!", "Uh oh!", "Something went wrong." Name the thing that broke.
• "Enter your email below." If the input is below, you don't need to say so.
• Exclamation marks in error states.
• Humour in frustration paths (forgot-password, payment-failed, account-locked).
• Stock placeholder names: Jane Doe, John Smith, Lorem Ipsum (unless the page is a lorem-ipsum tool).
• Startup clichés in product copy: Acme, Nexus, Unleash, Seamless, Supercharge, Transform, Elevate, Empower, Delight, Magical.
• Marketing copy that promises a feeling without naming a feature. "Experience the power of ___" is empty.

Proper typography

• Curly quotes: "Hello", 'word'.
• Em-dash for interruption: — (U+2014). En-dash for ranges: 10–20 (U+2013). Never --.
• Ellipsis: … (U+2026). Never ....
• Apostrophe: ’. Never the prime '.
• Non-breaking space before units: 10 kg, 5 min (use   or U+00A0).

If the text is loaded from a CMS, configure Smart Quotes in the CMS. If it's hard-coded, write it correctly.

---

Voice samples per tone

The skill bends toward distribution-default copy ("Built for the modern team", "Unleash your X", "Where A meets B") unless given non-default voices to imitate. The samples below are real opening lines from sites that defy that distribution. Imitate the kind of specificity — named places, named dates, named verticals, refusal of metaphor, refusal of the verb — not the wording. The tone column maps to the seven tones the design-context gate (see SKILL.md Step 1) commits the user to.

Editorial

Three voice patterns: date-anchored, refusal of the verb, enumerative.

• "Creative direction, design and type for culture since 2003." — apracticeforeverydaylife.com — date + named verticals
• "A monthly art publication featuring contributions by some of the most engaged thinkers working today." — e-flux.com/journal — uses cadence (monthly) and a verb (featuring) that's specific
• "A thing well made." — klim.co.nz — refusal of the verb, treats design as material
• "Frieze elevates the provocative and brilliant leading voices who shape and challenge today's art world." — frieze.com — uses challenge instead of empower
• "We design everything for everyone." — pentagram.com — refusal of marketing verbs; democratic claim
• "Writer + Photographer." — craigmod.com — three words, two roles, no padding
• "Type, set with care." — Hallmark Specimen — three words; the comma is the design
• "I'm a French design technologist based in London. I make websites and fonts, amongst other physical and digital artefacts." — mathieutriay.com — named place, named deliverables, "artefacts" signals craft

Brutalist

Three voice patterns: flat declarative, refusal of metaphor, direct address with consequence.

• "The product development system for teams and agents." — linear.app — flat declarative; no flourish, no "powered by AI"
• "Resend is the email API for developers. Send transactional and marketing emails at scale with a simple, modern API." — resend.com — names the form factor, the audience, and what it does
• "Purpose-built for planning and building products. Designed for the AI era." — linear.app — names the era plainly, no euphemism
• "WE ARE A STUDIO. WE ARE NOT A PLATFORM." — Hallmark Meridian (test 04) — defines by refusal, all caps
• "We design products that last twelve years. We do not design products that need replacing every two." — concrete number, paired declaration
• "A toolkit for assembling new worlds from the scraps of the old." — are.na — second-position copy that breaks template
• "NO COMPROMISE." — Hallmark Brutal — two words; the period is the design
• "We will not put our work behind a chatbot. We will answer the email ourselves." — declarative refusal, two short sentences

Soft

Three voice patterns: poetic restraint, passion via enumeration, vulnerability with proof.

• "It's about time." — cron.com — pun without winking; restraint
• "Time is our most precious resource." — Notion Calendar — opens on the philosophical premise, then gets concrete
• "Designer for the Web (v. XIX)." — lynnandtonic.com — version number signals craft-in-progress
• "Design engineer creating software that makes people feel something." — rauno.me — emotional outcome over feature list; "feel something" avoids genre cliché
• "All I want to do is build websites. Typography, motion design, copywriting, performance — the web is an endless medium of opportunity." — paco.me — passion via enumeration; vulnerability ("scratched the surface")
• "I craft UI demos that explore the power of the web and help others sharpen their skills." — jhey.dev — names the verb (craft), names the audience (others)
• "Soft, but exact." — Hallmark Hum — two short adjectives, one comma, full stop
• "This page is soft because the surface should be soft. The rules underneath are not." — pairs claim with refusal

Technical

Three voice patterns: spec-embedded prose, measured language, data-first opening.

• "The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 brings serious speed and advanced on-device AI to the personal, professional, and creative work you do every day." — apple.com — spec embedded in prose; "serious speed" is measured language
• "434 total posts. New CSS you feel like you could use today." — nerdy.dev (Adam Argyle) — data-first; "feel like" suggests genuine utility
• "$ streampipe parse access.log --filter status=5xx | jq" — Streampipe (test 02) — open on a real command, not a marketing claim
• "Open the trace, find the span, fix the regression. No glossary required." — Tracejam (test 05) — three concrete verbs, then a refusal
• "From stdin, through the pipe, into your dashboard." — names the data path; refuses abstraction
• "23 spans · 4 services · 482 ms." — Tracejam mockup — data is the headline
• "Read anything that emits lines. Files, pipes, sockets, kubectl logs." — names the inputs, refuses generality
• "Drop-in OTLP. No agent, no sidecar." — pairs claim with refusal of common alternatives

Luxury

Three voice patterns: heritage with specifics, refusal as sophistication, named scale.

• "The world's most acclaimed creative collective, where 23 partners work independently and collaboratively to shape the future of design." — pentagram.com — heritage (implied longevity), named scale (23 partners)
• "By appointment." — atelier-style — refusal as gatekeeping
• "A study in the senses." — Hallmark Atelier — single nominal phrase, comma-free
• "A page should arrive like a person — composed, deliberate, in good clothes." — Hallmark Atelier — analogy treats the page as social
• "With pleasure, you are most welcome." — Hallmark Editorial salutation — formal address
• "Restraint, repeated, becomes a signature." — Hallmark Atelier — three commas, four words, philosophical
• "A studied hand." — three words; the determiner does the work
• "A small, opinionated craftsmanship engine that argues with your AI assistant on your behalf — and wins." — Hallmark Atelier — names the role precisely, embraces the conflict

Playful

Three voice patterns: analogy via pop-culture, food/sensory metaphor, anticipated reaction.

• "Playlists, but for ideas." — are.na — analogy that's also useful
• "Internet memory palace." — are.na — three-word noun phrase, structural metaphor
• "Devouring details. Nourishing novelty. Deploying excellence." — rauno.me — alliteration; food + tech metaphor
• "The kind that make you say, 'Wait, how did you do that?'" — jhey.dev — direct address, anticipates the reader's reaction
• "Built to ship." — Hallmark Sport — three words, declarative, with a verb that's a verb
• "Ready? You are two minutes from shipping." — Hallmark Sport — a question, then a number
• "design like print: warm, off-register, intentional." — Hallmark Riso — lowercase + colon + three modifiers
• "this is not a page that pretends to be paper. it is a page that remembers paper." — Riso — refuses the imitation framing

Austere

Three voice patterns: extreme abbreviation, principle as opening, refusal of marketing language.

• "Hello." — Hallmark Coral salutation — one word; the period is the design
• "This is a page that doesn't try." — Coral — declares the position openly
• "Things Become Other Things." — craigmod.com — three words; treats brand as essay title
• "Lightness above weightiness, elevate everyone you encounter." — craigmod.com — principle-first positioning
• "A quiet skill." — Hallmark Coral — three words; the article is doing work
• "Software can be soft and exact at once. That's the trick." — Hallmark Hum — names the contradiction, names the resolution
• "One HTML file." — Anya (test 06) footer — three words; the count is the boast
• "This page doesn't move." — names the design decision openly

---

Banned opening lines (anti-patterns)

These phrases appear across distribution-default LLM copy and reach for none of the specificity above. Banned outright — if you find yourself reaching for one, replace it with one of the patterns from the tone above.

Phrase	Why it fails
"Built for the modern team"	Vague; assumes no specifics; temporal marketing
"Unleash your [X]"	Hyperbolic; software can't unleash anything
"Where X meets Y"	False synthesis; creative laziness
"Empower your..."	Missionary language; avoids concrete benefit
"Reimagine the way you..."	Suggests dissatisfaction before explaining need
"Supercharge your workflow"	Energy metaphor without mechanics
"Innovative solutions"	Meaningless; every product claims innovation
"Seamless integration"	"Seamless" has no antonym; signals non-specificity
"In today's digital landscape"	Temporal hand-wave; assumes the reader needs orientation
"Next-generation"	Implies predecessor inadequacy; offers no differentiation

If the brief gives you nothing to work with for an opening line, say so to the user and ask one question that elicits a specific noun, verb, or place. The user knows their product; the model is not allowed to invent specificity.