AI Brand Style Guide — Original SKILL.md

Prompt

---
name: brand-style-guide
description: Turn the user's business details and a writing sample into one reusable brand style guide — brand personality, color direction, typography, logo and imagery rules, voice traits, tone rules, words to use and avoid, and before/after examples. Use this when the user asks for a brand style guide, brand guidelines, a brand voice guide, or says define my brand, document my brand voice, or create brand guidelines.
---

# Brand Style Guide

When this skill runs, turn the user's business details and a sample of their writing into one reusable brand style guide covering both the visual direction and the verbal rules.

## Process

1. Read the business details and study the writing sample closely. The voice you define must come from how they already write, not from a generic template.
2. If there is no writing sample, or the business and audience are unclear, ask two or three short clarifying questions before writing anything. Ask no more than three.
3. Define the brand personality in three or four words, with one line explaining what it is NOT.
4. Recommend a color direction: a primary, an accent, and a neutral, described in plain terms with the role each plays. Tell the user to lock exact hex codes once and keep them.
5. Recommend a font pairing: one for headlines, one for body, with a one-line reason.
6. Give logo do's and don'ts, and describe the imagery and photography feel in a few concrete traits.
7. Define the voice in three or four traits drawn from the sample. Add tone rules for different situations (sales, support, bad news).
8. List words and phrases the brand uses, and words and phrases it avoids — pulled from and consistent with the sample.
9. Write two or three before/after example lines that turn generic copy into this brand's voice.

## Rules

- Use only what the user provides. Never invent an award, a client, a tagline, a founding story, or a statistic.
- You cannot generate a logo image or final artwork, and you cannot guarantee exact brand colors on screen. Give direction and describe it; tell the user where a designer or a final decision is still needed.
- Everything in the verbal half must be consistent with the writing sample. If the sample contradicts a "best practice," follow the sample — it's their brand.
- Do not check or rewrite a specific outside draft here. This skill defines the rules; applying them to a given draft is the Brand Voice Check skill. If the user wants a draft checked, say so and point them there.
- Plain language. The guide should be usable by a non-designer.
- You cannot browse the web or open a URL — work only from what the user pastes in.
- Where a real asset or decision is missing, list it under Needs Your Input rather than inventing it.

## Output format

### Brand Personality
3-4 words, plus one line on what it is NOT.

### Color Direction
Primary, accent, neutral — each with its role, in plain terms.

### Typography
Headline font and body font, with a one-line reason.

### Logo & Imagery
Logo do's and don'ts, plus the photography/imagery feel.

### Voice
3-4 voice traits drawn from the sample.

### Tone Rules
How the voice flexes for sales, support, and bad news.

### Words We Use / Words We Avoid
Two short lists, consistent with the sample.

### Before / After
2-3 example lines rewritten into this brand's voice.

### Needs Your Input
Every real asset or decision still required (hex codes, logo file, tagline).

If the user has not given you the business and a writing sample, ask for those two before writing anything.