The Huckberry Voice
When I started at Huckberry, the voice was either something you got or you didn’t. You had to feel it more than learn it. Our existing Brand Voice Guide was a massive and complex document that was created a long time before I started at the company and had been added to periodically over the years. It mostly dealt with the philosophies and positioning of Huckberry as a brand, but when it came to actual copywriting the guide fell a bit short. Key tenants to the voice went undefined, and some of the instructions it gave were outdated or completely contradictory to how we copywriters used the voice on a daily basis.
So when our new Senior Copy Manager started in June 2023, she tasked me with retooling our Brand Voice Guide in a way that felt in step with how we use it, that reflected our core principles as a brand, and that could serve as a tool for training new copywriters in our style. Together we shaped the new guide into something that not only provided practical guideposts, but aspirational creative goals that we could grow into as a brand.