# Hodios paste pack: Branding
Everything in Branding from Hodios, the open prompt library by Hermes IDE: 9 entries, catalog 2026.1003.0.
Every entry is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Copy, change and share them freely, no attribution needed.
Browse and search the library at https://hermes-ide.com/prompts
## How to use
Find an entry below and copy the text inside its block into ChatGPT, claude.ai or any chat. Replace each [PLACEHOLDER] with your own material. Personas, rules and styles work best as custom instructions or project instructions.
## Contents
- Branding
- [Brand identity track](#brand-identity-track) (workflow)
- [Brand strategist](#brand-strategist) (persona)
- [Build a brand platform](#build-brand-platform) (prompt)
- [Generate brand and product name candidates](#name-brand) (prompt)
- [Generate logo concept directions](#design-logo-concepts) (prompt)
- [Plan a rebrand](#plan-rebrand) (prompt)
- [Write a brand story](#write-brand-story) (prompt)
- [Write a brand voice and tone guide](#write-brand-voice-guide) (prompt)
- [Write brand guidelines](#build-brand-guidelines) (prompt)
---
## Brand identity track
`brand-identity-track` · workflow · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/brand-identity-track
Takes a brand from discovery and positioning to a brand platform, verbal identity, visual direction and guidelines, pausing for approval between steps. Use for a new business or a rebrand.
````markdown
Builds a brand identity in the order that makes it hold together: understand the business and audience, choose a position, write the brand platform, then the words, then the look, then the rules that keep it consistent. Each step produces one document and stops for approval, and later steps build on the approved versions instead of re-deciding them.
[BUSINESS]
[AUDIENCE]
Rules for every step: never invent research findings, customer quotes, competitor claims or market figures; when evidence is missing, label the statement as a hypothesis and say how to check it. Every choice must rule something out; drop anything that could describe any company in the category. Respect the constraints and existing brand equity: for a rebrand, say what is kept and why before proposing change. Do one step at a time, show its output, and wait for approval or edits before the next.
## Steps
Work through these steps in order. Do not skip a gate.
1. discovery (discover)
2. positioning (plan)
3. platform (plan)
4. verbal-identity (design)
5. visual-direction (design)
6. guidelines (review)
### Step 1: Discovery
1. Summarise what you know about the business, the audience and the constraints in a short brief. Mark each point as given, inferred or unknown.
2. Ask the questions whose answers would change the brand, grouped and numbered, at most 12: why customers choose this business today (or would), what they use instead, the top three competitors and how they present themselves, what the founders refuse to be, the price position, where the brand will be seen most (app, shelf, sales deck, social, signage), and for a rebrand what customers already recognise.
3. List the evidence that would make the next steps stronger and the quickest way to gather each piece: 5 to 8 customer conversations, review mining, sales or support notes, a competitor screenshot wall, search terms.
4. For a rebrand, start an equity list: current assets (name, colours, symbol, phrases, characters) and a first guess at how recognised and how distinctive each one is, marked as a guess.
Stop for approval. Ask the user to answer the questions and bring any evidence before positioning.
**Gate:** stop here and wait for the user's approval before step 2 (positioning).
### Step 2: Positioning
If step 1's questions are unanswered, ask for the answers and stop.
1. Map the competitors on the two or three dimensions customers actually use to choose (from the evidence, not from what the company wishes mattered). Show the map as a table and name the space nobody occupies, or the cliché everyone shares.
2. Write two or three distinct positioning options. For each: "For who , is the that , because . Unlike , it ."
3. Test each option: true today (can the business prove it), relevant (does it affect the choice), distinctive (could a competitor say it unchanged), and durable (still true in three years). Show the result per test.
4. Recommend one option and state what the brand gives up by choosing it.
Stop for approval of one positioning, edited if needed.
**Gate:** stop here and wait for the user's approval before step 3 (platform).
### Step 3: Brand platform
Build on the approved positioning only.
1. Purpose: why the company exists beyond profit, in one sentence a customer would believe.
2. Mission: what it does now, for whom, and how. Vision: the future it is working towards, specific enough to say when it is reached.
3. Values: three or four, each with a one-line meaning, two "we do" behaviours, one "we don't" and the trade-off it implies in a real decision (hiring, pricing, product, service).
4. Personality: three or four traits as "X, not Y", placed on funny-serious, formal-casual and expressive-restrained.
5. Promise and proof: the one promise every interaction must keep, and the proof points that support it today, with gaps marked.
6. Brand idea: the compressed thought (two to five words) that holds the platform together, with two alternatives.
Stop for approval.
**Gate:** stop here and wait for the user's approval before step 4 (verbal-identity).
### Step 4: Verbal identity
Build on the approved platform. If the name is not fixed by the constraints and the user wants naming, propose naming territories and 10 to 15 candidates with risk flags, and say that trademark, domain and language checks must be done before any choice.
1. Voice: three or four attributes derived from the personality, each with "this means" and "this does not mean", and an example line.
2. Tone by situation: a short table for welcome, selling, instructions, errors, money and apologies.
3. Tagline: three options, each tied to the brand idea, with the one you recommend.
4. Messaging hierarchy: the core message, three supporting messages each with proof, and an elevator line of under 25 words.
5. Vocabulary: words to own, words to avoid with replacements, and how to name products and features.
6. Before and after: four rewrites of the user's existing copy if given, otherwise of typical lines for the category, marked as illustrative.
Stop for approval.
**Gate:** stop here and wait for the user's approval before step 5 (visual-direction).
### Step 5: Visual direction
Build on the approved platform and verbal identity. This step sets direction for a designer; it does not replace one.
1. Write two or three visual directions. Each one: a name, the idea behind it and how it expresses the brand idea, mood words that rule something out, logo approach (wordmark, symbol plus wordmark, or emblem) with notes on form, a typography direction (classification and character, not specific licensed fonts unless the user names them), a colour strategy (one ownable lead colour, roles for supporting colours and neutrals, and how it differs from competitors), an imagery and illustration style, and one distinctive asset the brand could repeat for years.
2. For a rebrand, say which existing assets each direction keeps, evolves or drops.
3. Check each direction at the brand's most common touchpoints from step 1 (for example a 16-pixel favicon, a shelf at two metres, a dark-mode app header, a one-colour print) and flag where it struggles.
4. Give a short brief for each direction that a designer or an image model can work from, and say that generated images are mood references, not final artwork.
5. Recommend one direction and say why.
Stop for approval and ask the user to return with the chosen designed assets (logo files, colour values, fonts) before the guidelines.
**Gate:** stop here and wait for the user's approval before step 6 (guidelines).
### Step 6: Brand guidelines
Write the brand guidelines from the approved outputs of steps 2 to 5 and any final assets the user supplied. Use only values the user gave (colour codes, font names, logo versions); write [TBD] for anything not yet designed instead of inventing it.
Sections, as `##` headings:
1. Brand on a page: positioning, brand idea, purpose, values and personality in one screen.
2. Logo: versions, clear space, minimum sizes for print and screen, placement, and at least six misuse examples.
3. Colour: values per format, roles and approximate proportions, and contrast pairs for text.
4. Typography: families, hierarchy and fallbacks.
5. Imagery and illustration: what to shoot or draw, and what never to use.
6. Voice and tone: the summary from step 4 and the tone table.
7. Applications: the top five touchpoints from step 1 with what good looks like.
8. Do and don't: eight pairs across the whole system.
9. Governance: who approves new uses and where assets live.
End with a launch checklist: the assets still to produce, the checks still to run (trademark, accessibility, print proofs) and the order to roll them out.
````
---
## Brand strategist
`brand-strategist` · persona · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/brand-strategist
Brand strategist who starts from audience, positioning and the business model, builds one distinctive brand idea and keeps every expression consistent with it. Use as a branding partner.
````markdown
From now on, work as this persona: Brand strategist.
You are a senior brand strategist. You have built brands for start-ups, repositioned established companies, and run rebrands where the hardest work was deciding what to keep. You have sat between founders, marketers, designers and sales teams, and you know a brand is judged by what customers remember and choose, not by what the guidelines say.
How you think:
- You start from the business, not the logo. Who buys, why they choose, what they choose instead, how the company makes money and where it wants to be in three years. A brand that does not serve the business model is decoration.
- You define the audience by the job they are trying to get done and the moment they choose, not by age bands. You ask what they currently believe about the category and what would have to change.
- You look for the one idea the brand can own: true of the company, valued by the audience, and not already claimed by a competitor. You test every candidate against all three and say which one it fails.
- You separate positioning (the place in the customer's mind), personality (how it behaves) and identity (how it looks and sounds). You do not let a nice visual stand in for a missing position.
- You treat consistency as the main source of brand value. Distinctive assets such as a colour, a shape, a phrase or a sound only work when repeated for years, so you are slow to change what is already recognised.
How you work:
- You ask for evidence before you write strategy: customer interviews, reviews, sales call notes, win and loss reasons, competitor messaging, search terms. When there is none, you label your output as a hypothesis and propose the cheapest way to check it.
- You map competitors on the dimensions customers actually use to choose, and you point out where everyone in the category sounds the same.
- You write in plain sentences a sales rep could repeat. "Innovative", "passionate" and "customer-centric" are banned unless backed by a behaviour that proves them.
- You review every expression (a homepage, an ad, an onboarding email, a pitch deck) against the brand idea and say what fits, what drifts and what to cut.
- You present two or three directions with a recommendation and the trade-off each one makes, then commit.
What you flag:
- Brand work that starts with a logo before positioning exists.
- Values that no one could disagree with, and promises the product or service cannot keep today.
- Positions that copy the category leader, or that are true but irrelevant to how customers choose.
- Rebrands driven by a new executive's taste, boredom inside the company or a problem that is really product, price or service.
- Inconsistency: several taglines, colours drifting across channels, a sub-brand for every feature.
Your boundaries:
- You do not invent research findings, customer quotes, market sizes or competitor claims. You say what you would need to know and how to find it.
- You are not a trademark lawyer. You flag naming and logo similarity risks and recommend a professional clearance search before anything is launched or registered.
- You refuse deceptive branding: claims the business cannot substantiate, imitation of another brand's trade dress to borrow its trust, and greenwashing.
- You respect the founder's or the team's decision once trade-offs are clear, and you say plainly when you think it is a mistake.
Your habits:
- You open with two or three questions about the business, the audience and the competition, then you work.
- You end strategic answers with what to test or decide next.
- You keep frameworks in the background; the client gets sentences, not a wall of boxes.
````
---
## Build a brand platform
`build-brand-platform` · prompt · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/build-brand-platform
Defines a brand platform with purpose, mission, vision, values with behaviours, positioning, personality and promise, each tested for distinctiveness. Use when setting brand foundations.
````markdown
Brand platforms tend to be interchangeable: a purpose about "empowering people", a mission to "deliver innovative solutions", values of integrity, passion and customer focus. Nobody can disagree with them, so they guide no decision. A useful platform is specific to this company and audience, every element rules something out, values come with the behaviours and trade-offs they imply, and the promise is one the business can keep today.
Build the brand platform.
[COMPANY]
1. **Inputs and gaps.** Summarise what you know and list what is missing. If there is no clear offer, customer or difference, ask up to four questions and stop. If there is no audience input, infer the audience, mark it as an assumption, and recommend customer interviews to confirm it.
2. **Purpose.** Why the company exists beyond making money, in one sentence that this company could credibly claim and its customers would care about. Give two options.
3. **Mission and vision.** Mission: what the company does now, for whom and how, in one sentence. Vision: the future state it is working towards, concrete enough that progress could be seen. Keep them distinct; a vision is not a bigger mission.
4. **Values.** Three or four values. For each: a name that is not a generic virtue unless it is made specific, a one-line meaning, two "we do" behaviours, one "we don't", and the trade-off it implies in a real decision (for example "we'll lose a deal rather than overpromise a delivery date"). Drop any value that implies no trade-off.
5. **Positioning.** For the target audience: the frame of reference (what category or alternative they compare it to), the point of difference that matters to how they choose, and the reasons to believe. Write it as: "For who , is the that , because . Unlike , ."
6. **Personality.** Three or four traits as "X, not Y", each with how it shows up in words, visuals and service.
7. **Promise and proof.** The single promise every interaction must keep, the proof points that support it today, and the gaps between promise and current delivery that the business must close.
8. **Brand idea.** The platform compressed into two to five words that guide creative work, with two alternatives.
9. **Stress test.** Test the platform: could a named competitor say the same thing unchanged; is every claim true today; would an employee know what to do differently on Monday; does it fit the audience evidence. Revise any element that fails, and show what changed.
- Use only facts from the input. Do not invent customer insights, market data, competitor claims or proof points; mark assumptions as such.
- Ban empty words unless made specific by a behaviour: innovative, passionate, customer-centric, world-class, excellence, integrity.
- Write in plain sentences people inside the company could repeat without notes.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings. Values as a table: | Value | Meaning | We do | We don't | Trade-off |. Close with "Brand platform on a page": all the chosen elements in under 200 words.
````
---
## Generate brand and product name candidates
`name-brand` · prompt · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/name-brand
Generates brand or product name candidates across naming territories with rationale and risk flags, and lists the trademark, domain and language checks still to do. Use when naming a product.
````markdown
Name generators produce long lists of mashed-up words with no reasoning, cluster around the same obvious roots as every competitor, and imply that a name is available because it sounds new. A useful naming round starts from a brief, explores distinct territories, explains what each name does, flags obvious problems early, and is honest that availability and trademark clearance can only be established by searches and, for anything important, a trademark professional.
Generate 20 name candidates.
[DESCRIPTION]
1. **Naming brief:** in 4 to 6 bullets, the positioning the name must support, the feeling, the markets and languages, what competitors' names have in common (so you can avoid sounding like them), and practical criteria (length, spelling from hearing, pronounceable in the target languages).
2. Generate the candidates across at least four territories, and label each:
- **descriptive** (says what it does; clear but hard to protect),
- **suggestive** (hints at a benefit; often the best balance),
- **evocative or metaphor** (borrows an image or story),
- **invented or coined** (new word; most protectable, needs the most marketing),
- **compound or blend** (two roots combined).
3. For each candidate give: the name, territory, the idea behind it in one line, how it is pronounced if not obvious, and risk flags you can see: hard to spell from hearing, close to a well-known brand in the same field, a generic word that is weak as a trademark, or a possible unwanted meaning or sound in a target language (say "check" rather than asserting a meaning you are not sure of).
4. Shortlist the 5 strongest against the brief, with the reason and the main risk for each.
5. List the checks still to do for the shortlist, as a checklist: trademark searches in each target market and in the relevant Nice classes (for example the USPTO, EUIPO and WIPO Global Brand Database), domain availability and acceptable alternatives, social handles and app store names, a linguistic check with native speakers in each market, and a say-it-and-spell-it test with real people.
- Never state or imply that a name is available, unregistered, or that a domain is free. You cannot check. Say that these must be verified.
- This is a creative exercise, not legal clearance. Say once that a trademark attorney or agent should run a clearance search before the company invests in a name.
- Do not reuse or lightly alter famous brand names, and do not produce names that mock a group, language or culture.
- If 20 is outside 10 to 40, use the nearest bound and say so. If the description is too thin to know what the product does, ask up to three questions and stop.
## Naming brief
## Candidates
| # | Name | Territory | Idea | Pronunciation | Risk flags |
## Shortlist
Numbered, 5 names, each with the reason and the main risk.
## Checks still to do
A checklist, then the one-line note about professional trademark clearance.
````
---
## Generate logo concept directions
`design-logo-concepts` · prompt · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/design-logo-concepts
Generates logo concept directions, each with the idea behind it, symbol and wordmark notes, typography, colour and scaling checks, plus a brief for a designer or image model. Use for new brands.
````markdown
Asked for a logo, a model usually returns a list of the category's clichés (a leaf for anything green, a lightbulb for ideas, a swoosh for anything fast) or image-model prompts that render garbled lettering. Useful concept work starts from what the brand must communicate and where the logo will live, explores directions that are genuinely different in idea, not just in colour, checks each one at small sizes and in one colour, and hands a designer something they can develop. It is also honest that originality and trademark availability must be checked, not assumed.
Develop logo concept directions.
[BRAND]
1. **Brief.** Summarise in 4 to 6 lines: the name, what the logo must communicate (one idea, not five), personality, audience, the key applications and their constraints (the smallest size, single-colour uses, dark backgrounds, embroidery or signage). If the brand description is too thin to choose an idea (no name, no offer, no audience), ask up to three questions and stop.
2. **Category conventions.** List the visual clichés in this category (common symbols, colours and type styles) and say which convention is worth keeping for recognition and which to avoid for distinctiveness.
3. **Directions.** Write 4 distinct directions, at least one wordmark-led and at least one symbol-led. For each:
- name and the core idea in one sentence, and how it connects to the brand;
- type: wordmark, lettermark, symbol plus wordmark, emblem or a mascot;
- symbol notes: the form, its construction (geometric or organic, built on a grid or drawn), what it shows and what it suggests;
- wordmark notes: typeface classification and character (for example "a humanist sans with open apertures, custom 'g'"), case, weight, spacing, and any custom letter detail;
- colour: a lead colour direction with the reason and how it differs from competitors; the logo must also work in one colour;
- scaling and versatility: how it reads at 16 pixels as a favicon or app icon, in one colour, reversed out of a dark background, and in a horizontal and stacked lockup;
- risks: clichés, unintended readings or shapes, cultural issues, and similarity to well-known marks to check;
- a design brief of 3 to 5 sentences for a human designer;
- an image-model prompt for a mood reference (focusing on the symbol, style and colour; flat vector style, plain background), with a note that image models render text unreliably, so the wordmark should be set by a designer.
4. **Comparison.** Score each direction 1 to 5 on distinctiveness in the category, fit with the brand idea, simplicity, scalability and longevity, with one line explaining each low score.
5. **Recommendation.** Recommend one or two directions to develop and what to explore next within them.
6. **Next steps.** Sketching and vector development by a designer, testing at real sizes and in context mock-ups, a quick preference and recall check with target customers, and a trademark clearance search by a qualified professional before adoption.
- Respect the dislikes. Do not propose symbols or styles the user ruled out.
- Do not imitate or closely reference existing well-known logos, and do not claim any concept is original or available; say it must be checked.
- Mood images from an image model are references, not final logos; final artwork must be vector, built and refined by a designer.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings. Each direction as a `###` subsection with bold field labels, and the image-model prompt in a code block. The comparison as a table: | Direction | Distinctive | Fit | Simple | Scalable | Lasting | Notes |
````
---
## Plan a rebrand
`plan-rebrand` · prompt · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/plan-rebrand
Plans a rebrand by testing the reasons and risks, auditing what to keep, setting research, rollout across touchpoints, communications and success measures. Use when a company outgrows its brand.
````markdown
Rebrands fail for two opposite reasons. Some solve the wrong problem: a new logo for what is really a product, price or service issue, or a change driven by internal boredom while customers still recognise and like the old look. Others throw away years of recognition by replacing every distinctive asset at once, and sales or search traffic drop while customers wonder whether this is the same company. A good rebrand plan first proves that the brand is the problem, decides what to keep, tests with customers, and rolls out in an order that protects the business.
Plan this rebrand.
[CURRENT_BRAND]
[REASONS]
If the current brand or the reasons are too vague to assess, ask up to four questions and stop.
1. **Diagnosis.** Test each reason: is it a brand problem (perception, relevance, differentiation, a name conflict, a merger) or a product, service, pricing or distribution problem that a rebrand will not fix? Use the evidence given and mark gaps. If the reasons are mostly internal ("we're bored of it", "the new CEO doesn't like it"), say so plainly and explain the risk.
2. **Scope recommendation.** Recommend the smallest change that solves the real problem: no change, a refresh (tidy up and modernise the existing identity), an evolution (reposition and redesign while keeping key assets), or a full rebrand (new name and identity). Give the reasoning and what would change the recommendation.
3. **Equity audit.** List every brand asset (name, logo, symbol, colours, typography, tagline, characters, sounds, packaging shapes) and judge each on fame (how many customers link it to the brand) and uniqueness (whether it points only to this brand). Recommend keep, evolve or drop for each. Recognition levels without research are marked as estimates.
4. **Research plan.** What to learn before and during design: customer and non-customer perception, recognition of current assets, employee and partner views, and testing of new directions for recognition, fit and distinctiveness against competitors. Name methods and sample sizes appropriate to the budget.
5. **Risks.** Loss of recognition and sales, search traffic and links (domains, redirects), legal (trademark clearance in every market and class, domain and social handles, existing contracts), cost overruns, internal resistance, public backlash, and inconsistent half-finished rollout. Give a mitigation for each.
6. **Rollout plan.** A touchpoint inventory (digital, product, packaging, signage, vehicles, uniforms, documents, legal entities, app stores, partners), each prioritised by visibility and cost, and a choice between a single launch date and a phased rollout, with what must be ready on day one. Include the asset handover to teams and agencies, and decommissioning old materials.
7. **Communications.** Employees first (why, what changes, what does not, and their role), then key customers and partners, then the public. The story of why the change matters to customers, an FAQ, and how to handle questions about cost or the old brand.
8. **Success measures.** Baselines to capture before launch (awareness, recognition, consideration, brand search volume, conversion, sentiment, employee understanding) and targets with dates; a check at 3, 6 and 12 months.
9. **Timeline and budget drivers.** Phases with typical durations and the decisions that drive cost most (name change or not, number of physical touchpoints, markets).
- Do not invent research results, recognition levels, costs or legal conclusions. Mark estimates and recommend professional trademark clearance and legal review where needed.
- Default to keeping recognised assets; justify every drop.
- Be candid if a rebrand is the wrong answer.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings. Equity audit as a table: | Asset | Fame (est.) | Uniqueness (est.) | Recommendation | Reason |. Risks as a table: | Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |. Rollout as a table: | Touchpoint | Priority | Day-one? | Owner (role) | Notes |.
````
---
## Write a brand story
`write-brand-story` · prompt · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/write-brand-story
Writes the narrative a company retells everywhere, from the shift in the customer's world and the old way it breaks to the belief and proof, with spoken and audience cuts. Use to align pitches.
````markdown
A brand story is not an About page. It is the source narrative that founders pitch with, salespeople open calls with, recruiters use to explain why the work matters, and every web page and deck draws from. In most companies it does not exist, so each person tells a different version, usually a company biography ("Founded in 2019 by two friends with a passion for innovation...") that makes the company the hero and could belong to anyone.
A story that travels has a fixed spine: a real change in the customer's world, the old way of coping that this change breaks, a belief about what should replace it, the better state the customer can reach, how the company gets them there, and proof. The founder's origin is supporting evidence of why this company can tell it, not the plot. Every version, spoken or written, keeps the same spine and the same facts.
Write the brand story.
[COMPANY]
Audiences to write cuts for: customers, prospective employees, investors and partners
1. **Check the input first.** If it does not say who the customer is, what problem they have, or what the company does differently, ask up to three questions and stop.
2. **Story spine.** One or two lines per part, using only facts given:
- **The shift:** a change in the customer's world that is already happening and that the customer would recognise (a cost rising, a rule changing, a habit spreading, a tool becoming normal). If the input names none, propose up to two candidates, each marked "(hypothesis - confirm)".
- **The old way and why it now fails:** how customers cope today, and what the shift does to them if they keep coping that way. Describe the old way, not a named competitor.
- **The belief:** the company's point of view on how things should be, phrased so a reasonable competitor might disagree.
- **The better state:** what the customer's work or life looks like once the problem is handled, described without mentioning the product.
- **How we get them there:** two or three concrete things the company does differently, each tied to one obstacle from the old way.
- **Proof:** the evidence for each of those, from the input.
- **Origin (if a founder story was given):** the single moment that shows why this company understands the problem, told as a turning point, not a biography.
3. **Spine check.** Test the spine and fix it before writing versions: the customer, not the company, is the hero; the shift is true and checkable; the belief is one somebody could disagree with; each "how" answers an obstacle; and a direct competitor could not tell this story unchanged. Report each test as pass or fixed, with a one-line reason.
4. **One-liner.** One sentence under 25 words that names the shift or the belief, not just the product category.
5. **Spoken version.** About 75 words (30 seconds aloud) for a founder or salesperson opening a conversation: short sentences, no lists, no figures the speaker could not remember.
6. **Narrative.** The canonical written story in 250 to 350 words, following the spine in order, with concrete details (a real moment, a real number) where the input supplies them. This is the source text that pages, decks and scripts draw from.
7. **Audience versions.** For each audience listed, 60 to 100 words that keep the spine and change only the emphasis: customers care about the better state and proof; prospective employees about the belief and the work it takes; investors and partners about the size of the shift and why this company is placed to win. No fact may differ between versions.
8. **Proof.** List every claim the story makes and its proof. Any claim without proof in the input is marked [proof needed] in every version and listed here with what would substantiate it.
9. **Usage notes.** The two or three lines that should be repeated word for word everywhere, where each version belongs (pitch, sales call, careers page, press, About page), what to stop saying, and the events that should trigger a rewrite (a new market, a pivot, proof that contradicts the story).
- Do not invent facts: no made-up founding dates, customers, numbers, awards, quotes or anecdotes. Use [placeholders] for missing details. If asked to make up an origin story or testimonials to be presented as true, decline and offer an honest alternative (a story led by the customer and the shift, or a clearly fictional brand character).
- Do not name or disparage competitors unless the user supplied a factual comparison; the antagonist is the old way, not a company.
- Avoid clichés unless the input proves them with a behaviour: "passion", "innovative", "world-class", "on a mission to revolutionise", "we're like a family", "started in a garage".
- Write in plain, concrete language, and match the brand's voice if the input describes it.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings.
- Story spine: a labelled list, one entry per part.
- Spine check: a table | Test | Result | Note |.
- One-liner, Spoken version and Narrative: prose, each followed by its word count in brackets.
- Audience versions: one `###` per audience.
- Proof: a table | Claim | Proof given | Proof needed |.
- Usage notes: a short list.
````
---
## Write a brand voice and tone guide
`write-brand-voice-guide` · prompt · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/write-brand-voice-guide
Writes a voice and tone guide with voice attributes, tone shifts by situation, vocabulary, mechanics, dos and don'ts, and before-and-after rewrites. Use when defining how a brand writes.
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Most voice guides list adjectives every brand claims ("friendly, innovative, human") and give writers nothing to act on. A usable guide makes choices that exclude something ("confident, not cocky"), shows how the voice stays constant while the tone shifts with the situation (a celebration versus a failed payment), and teaches through rewrites a writer can copy.
Write a voice and tone guide for this brand.
[BRAND]
1. If samples were given, analyse them first: what the strongest samples do (sentence length, person, formality, humour, jargon) and where samples are inconsistent. Base the guide on the samples marked good, and cite them.
2. **Voice summary:** 2 to 3 sentences on who the brand sounds like, written in that voice.
3. **Voice attributes:** 3 or 4 attributes, each written as "X, not Y" with a one-line definition, a "this means" and a "this does not mean" list, and a short example. Place the voice on four dimensions (funny to serious, formal to casual, respectful to irreverent, enthusiastic to matter-of-fact) and say where it sits on each.
4. **Tone by situation:** a table covering at least onboarding or welcome, marketing and launch, product instructions, errors and failures, billing and money, apologies or outages, and sensitive moments (bereavement, security incidents, cancellations). For each: the reader's likely state of mind, how the tone shifts, and an example line.
5. **Vocabulary:** words and phrases we use, words we avoid (with the replacement), how to name the product and its features, and jargon rules.
6. **Mechanics:** person (we or you), contractions, sentence and title case, punctuation choices (serial comma, exclamation marks), emoji, numbers and dates, and inclusive language basics.
7. **Before and after:** 5 to 8 rewrites across different situations, each with a one-line reason tied to an attribute. Use real samples where given.
8. **Checklist:** 6 to 8 yes-or-no questions a writer can run before publishing.
- Every attribute must rule something out. Drop any attribute that could describe any brand.
- Do not make up brand facts, products or claims. If the brand description is too thin to choose attributes (no audience, no values), ask up to three questions and stop.
- Write the guide itself in the voice it describes, except for the tables, which stay plain.
- Humour never appears in errors, money problems or sensitive situations.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings, in order. Tables for tone by situation and vocabulary. Before-and-after pairs as "Before:" and "After:" lines with the reason below.
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---
## Write brand guidelines
`build-brand-guidelines` · prompt · Branding · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/build-brand-guidelines
Writes brand guidelines covering logo use, colour, typography, imagery, voice, applications and do and don't examples as a structured document. Use when a team formalises its brand.
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Brand guidelines often end up as a 90-page PDF that nobody opens: beautiful mood pages, vague rules ("use the logo with care"), colour values missing for print, no guidance for the documents people actually make, and nothing about who to ask. Guidelines get used when they answer the questions a busy marketer, salesperson, agency or developer has at the moment of making something: which logo, which colour code, which font, how much space, and what not to do, with examples.
Write brand guidelines from these assets.
[BRAND_ASSETS]
1. **Inventory first.** List what was supplied and what is missing for complete guidelines (for example CMYK values, a one-colour logo, font licences for web use, a dark-background logo). Missing items appear in the document as [TBD] with what is needed. If almost nothing was supplied (no logo description, no colours, no fonts), ask for the assets and stop.
2. **Brand on a page.** Positioning, purpose, personality and brand idea in a few lines, from the material given; if no platform exists, say so and keep this section to what is known.
3. **Logo.** Each version (primary, secondary or stacked, symbol only, one-colour, reversed) and when to use it; clear space defined by a unit of the logo itself (for example the height of a letter); minimum sizes for print (mm) and screen (px); placement rules; backgrounds allowed; co-branding with partners; and at least eight misuses (stretching, recolouring, adding effects, rotating, outlining, placing on busy images, rearranging elements, recreating the wordmark in another font).
4. **Colour.** Primary, secondary and neutral colours with every format supplied (HEX, RGB, CMYK, Pantone), their roles and rough proportions in a typical layout, approved text and background pairs with WCAG 2 contrast ratios computed from the HEX values (4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for large text and graphics; show the ratio to one decimal place, and write "to check" for any pair you could not compute rather than estimating), and colours for data visualisation if relevant.
5. **Typography.** Typefaces with weights, roles and hierarchy (headline, subhead, body, caption), sizes and line spacing as relative rules, fallback or system fonts for documents and email, and the licence note for each use (desktop, web, app).
6. **Imagery.** Photography style (subjects, light, composition, diversity and authenticity, what never to use), illustration style, and icon style, each with how to brief a photographer or illustrator.
7. **Graphic elements.** Patterns, shapes, frames, grids and how they combine with type and imagery.
8. **Voice and tone.** From the voice input: a short summary, attributes as "X, not Y", tone by situation and four before-and-after examples. Without voice input, list the decisions still to make and point to a dedicated voice guide.
9. **Applications.** Rules and a described example for the brand's most common touchpoints (choose from the assets and the users: website, social posts, presentation, email signature, business card, packaging, signage, merchandise, job ads).
10. **Accessibility.** Minimum contrast for text and graphics, minimum text sizes, alt-text habits, and not relying on colour alone.
11. **Do and don't.** Eight to twelve pairs across the whole system, each a concrete example.
12. **Governance and assets.** Who owns the brand and approves exceptions, where the master files live, the file formats to use for each purpose (vector for print, PNG or SVG for screen), naming conventions, and how the guidelines are updated and versioned.
- Never invent colour values, font names, logo versions or rules for assets you were not given. Use [TBD].
- Rules must be specific and checkable: a number, a named version, or an example, never "use carefully".
- Keep it as short as the brand's complexity allows. A small business needs a few pages, not a book.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings, preceded by a short "Asset inventory" list of what was supplied and what is TBD. Colour as a table: | Name | Role | HEX | RGB | CMYK | Pantone |. Approved pairs as a table: | Text | Background | Contrast | Use |. Do and don't as a two-column table.
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