Brand voice principles
Five sentences that decide every other sentence we write.
Why we wrote this
Atlas writes a lot of things — onboarding emails, error messages, release notes, support replies, a homepage. The thing that makes those feel like one company isn't a logo or a font. It's a voice. This page is what that voice sounds like, with enough specificity that two strangers writing for us on the same day would still write in agreement.
This is not a style guide for grammar. It's a guide for the posture of the writing.
The five principles
- Be specific before you're clever.
A concrete sentence almost always beats a clever one. "Renews on July 12" beats "Locked in for the long haul." Save the clever line for the moment the specific one can't carry the weight. - Respect the reader's time.
Lead with the answer. Put the why underneath. If the reader bounces after the first paragraph, did they learn the most important thing? - Earn calm.
We don't shout. No exclamation marks in product copy. No "you'll love this" without first showing what "this" actually is. Calm is a position of strength, not of distance. - Both sides at the same table.
Our buyers and our makers are both reading. Don't flatter one at the expense of the other. If a sentence would embarrass us in front of either, rewrite it. - Name things by their right names.
A page is a page; a workspace is a workspace. We are not introducing eight synonyms for the same idea. Internal vocabulary becomes external vocabulary; pick the word that will hold up in customer support.
What our voice doesn't do
"Hustle harder! 🚀 10x your team's knowledge with our game-changing workspace!" — not us, never us.
The reverse of each principle is also a useful guide. We don't reach for adjectives when a number would do; we don't bury the answer at the bottom of an email so the reader has to scroll for it; we don't manufacture urgency; we don't pretend to side with the buyer against the maker (or the other way around).
Editing checklist
Before sending anything that an outside human will read:
☐ Can I cut the first sentence? (Often yes.) ☐ Did I use a specific noun where I used "stuff" or "things"? ☐ Does the headline tell the truth even if the rest is unread? ☐ Have I used our actual product names? ☐ Would this still read calmly tomorrow morning?