Tone of voice & core messaging
Our tone of voice
Our tone of voice conveys our mood, our beliefs and our personality. Our tone of voice helps others to get a sense of who we really are. So, it's important...
Natural
→ Warm, friendly and accessible
→ Transparent and vulnerable
→ Open and clear
Warm and approachable, when we say natural, we just mean speaking normally. How we write is how we speak to each other. We want to inspire, connect and educate the people who buy our paper. Knowledgeable, honest and open, we’re a local, independent and family run business, not some faceless corporation. We have ‘customers’ not ‘consumers’, we hold our ‘partners’ in the same esteem and we speak about our ‘team’ rather than our ‘employees’. We are real writing for real people about really great paper and all its possibilities. It’s that simple.
Joyful
→ Playful, joyful and celebratory
→ Colourful
→ Fluid and flexible
As with our paper, our writing is colourful, vibrant and full of character. Joyful and upbeat, playful and curious, our words bring a smile to people’s faces in a way that is surprising and delightful. There’s an effortless fluidity to everything we write and nothing ever feels forced or overwritten. A celebration of creativity, community and colour, we want our words to leave people feeling inspired. Just like our paper, our writing is always feel good.
Unexpected
→ Gently subversive
→ A little bit radical
→ We wear our ethos on our sleeve
Progressive and thought provoking, our words are accessible to everyone, regardless of background, education or location. Fresh and original, innovation is at the heart of what we do and we’re not afraid of change or even breaking the system to make space for a better way of doing things. Always refreshing, always worth reading, we are gently subversive and a little bit radical without being militant, preachy or extremist. When it comes to standing out and standing up for what’s right, we wear our ethos on our sleeve. Whatever we’re writing about, it will always be well thought out, interesting and worth taking the time to read.
Our manifesto
Our manifesto or ‘elevator pitch’ is what brings our brand positioning to life. Whenever space allows, please use the long form version wherever possible. We also have a short form version for social media descriptors and for when space is limited.
Long form
With every sheet of paper, we support our local creative community, the wider creative community and our planet.
With every sheet of paper, we go out of our way to bring exceptional quality, colour and the unexpected together.
With every sheet of paper, we provide the space, freedom and invitation to create.
GF Smith. Feel good papers.
Short form
With every sheet of paper, feel the difference. Discover colour and innovation. Support our local and global creative communities and our planet.
Using our brand positioning in copy
All of our messaging needs to touch on two or three of the pillars of our brand positioning below. Ideally, we never talk about one pillar on its own. Here are a few examples of how you can do this:
Example 1
Our manifesto
Features all three pillars of the brand positioning in an expanded paragraph
With every sheet of paper, we support our local creative community, the wider creative community and our planet. With every sheet of paper, we go out of our way to bring exceptional quality, colour and the unexpected together. With every sheet of paper, we provide the space, freedom and invitation to create. GF Smith. Feel good papers.
Example 2
The Learn > Inspire > Create section of our website
Features all three pillars of the brand positioning in an expanded paragraph
Looking to learn more about paper, one of the world’s oldest, most recyclable, natural materials? After some inspiration for your next project or just need some help making it a reality? From our ‘how to’ guides to our archive and sustainability credentials, our bespoke and partnership embossings and more, we’re here to help bring your creative ideas to life.
Example 3
GF Smith Colorplan Collection introduction
Uses the short form version of the manifesto
Welcome to the GF Smith Colorplan Collection.
For the first time in years we have reimagined the collection to include more colours, more finishes and more variety.
With every sheet of paper, feel the difference. Enjoy the freedom to create. Discover colour and innovation. Support our creative communities and our planet.
GF Smith. Feel good papers.
A few notes on style
Avoid exclamation marks where possible.
The occasional exclamation mark is fine but when you pepper our copy with them, it just reads like you’re shouting or trying to be funny for funny’s sake.
Go easy on the hyphens.
Most of the words and terms don’t need a hyphen and there’s nothing more annoying than seeing misplaced hyphens all over the place. If in doubt, look it up.
Keep it simple.
The simpler, shorter and clearer our writing is, the more people will understand it (and keep reading it).
Keep it varied.
When you’ve written a longer sentence, vary the pace with a shorter one. It’s more interesting and makes your writing easier to read. And it’s fine to start sentences with ‘And’. Or use one word sentences. Honest.
When it comes to writing lists, try to stick to the rule of 3 or 5.
It’s easier to read a list of short points than a big, long, dense block of text.
Be polite, inclusive and welcoming.
Our tone of voice is warm and open without ever being cute, overly familiar or needy. We like to the pronouns ‘our’, ‘we’ and ‘us’ in our copy so that we are in conversation with our audience.
Read it out loud.
That way, you’ll see whether what you’ve written flows and whether there are any superfluous words hiding in plain sight.
The flexibility of our voice
The flexibility of our voice – playful & quiet
The flexibility of our voice – quiet & serious
The flexibility of our voice – loud & serious
The flexibility of our voice – playful & loud
Key words and phrases
Here’s a few words and phrases we like to use in our copy:
→ Paper that speaks
→ Paper that moves
→ Paper that provokes
→ Paper that inspires
→ Paper that brings joy
→ Paper that cares
→ Paper that’s quality.
→ Paper you want to touch, smell and feel.
→ Paper that supports
→ Paper that holds
→ Paper that’s tactile, textured, embossed, glued, shiny, unexpected.
→ Paper you just can’t wait to make stuff with
→ Paper that’s zero waste
→ Paper that provides the ultimate blank canvas
→ Paper that has grit, depth and soul
→ Paper that’s of the people and for the people. → Paper that feels good
→ Tactile
→ Paper with soul
→ Smile on paper
→ We’re here to help
→ With every sheet (of paper)
→ Expert knowledge
How and when to use ‘feel good papers’
We always use 'feel good paper' in combination with GF Smith for example 'GF Smith. Feel good papers'.
It should always be used as a sign off at the end of a paragraph or sentence.
It is not a strapline locked to our logo
Words we don’t use
We don’t use the following terms and word as they are generic, too similar to our competitors and don’t fit with our brand:
Beautiful
Unique
1885 onwards
Craft
Heritage
Endless possibilities*
Elevating creativity
Luxury**
* of creativity
** to describe ourselves as we do have some luxury clients
Product naming
We hold ourselves to account and ensure that the words we use are carefully considered and culturally sensitive both in the UK and internationally.
The first step in this journey is changing some of the historic paper names in the GF Smith Colorplan collection.