MAKR Labs talks like one person who builds things and enjoys it: loud and goofy in the places made for jokes, and plain everywhere a reader has to decide, pay, fill in a field or recover from an error. In one line: first person, claims you can check, and the joke goes beside the literal, never instead of it.
Rules#
| Id | Rule | Why | Checked by |
|---|---|---|---|
| BB-VOICE-01Must | Write as the studio in the first person, "I", and to the reader as "you".Applies to: Site, Docs, MAX//OS, Documents, Email, Social, Slides | MAKR Labs is one person. Writing as a team that does not exist would be the first claim nobody can check. | Manual review |
| BB-VOICE-02Must | Keep jokes in the joke zone; the literal zone stays plain words.Applies to: Site, Docs, MAX//OS, Documents, Email, Social, Slides | The humour is loud on purpose (D-I2), and the labels, prices, errors and legal lines stay literal so nobody has to decode them. | ComponentcheckSfx and checkBalloon; the rest by eye |
| BB-VOICE-03Never | Use an em dash anywhere.Applies to: Every channel | It is the most common tell of generated copy, and the voice is written to sound like one person typing. | Lintbrand/em-dash |
| BB-VOICE-04Never | Use the banned tells: setup and punchline headings, "X, not Y" pairs, runs of fragments, "no A, no B, no C" lists, or leaning on the words honest, straight or real.Applies to: Site, Docs, MAX//OS, Documents, Email, Social, Slides | These patterns read as generated filler. Specific detail says the same thing better. | ComponentCOPY_TELLS in the copy checks |
| BB-VOICE-05Must | Make every claim checkable: a number carries its source and its date.Applies to: Site, Docs, MAX//OS, Documents, Email, Social, Slides | Proof over promises: a reader can test the claim, and a dated number never goes quietly stale. | Manual review |
| BB-VOICE-06Must | Write dates, times, money and numbers in the formats of the voice page.Applies to: Site, Docs, MAX//OS, Documents, Email, Social, Slides | One format everywhere means a date or a total never has to be read twice. | TestformatDate and formatMoney |
| BB-VOICE-07Must | Pass every SFX through checkSfx, and never put one on an error, a price, a legal line, a destructive confirmation or a form field.Applies to: Site, Docs, MAX//OS, Social, Slides, Print | An SFX is a caused event. On a serious line it turns a fact into a joke at the reader's expense. | ComponentcheckSfx; the press DOM check |
| BB-VOICE-08Must | Use fictional people and businesses in every example, sample and fixture.Applies to: Every channel | Real names in samples leak client details and publish people who never agreed to it. | Testcheck:docs (fictional emails and phone numbers) |
| BB-VOICE-09Never | Publish a price on the site: prices live in quotes, proposals and invoices.Applies to: Site, Social, Slides | Every job is quoted on its scope, and a published price would be the first number a client could not check against their own project. | Manual review |
| BB-VOICE-10Must | Use the fixed words as written: the action labels "Get a quote", "Send" and "Email it instead", the status words "In development", "Private preview", "Preparing release" and "Live", and the stamp words.Applies to: Site, Docs, MAX//OS, Documents, Email, Social, Slides | Fixed words are learned once. A creative label on a button costs the reader a second look at the exact moment they want to act. | ComponentQuoteForm, the product card's status schema and isStampWord |
Specs#
The two zones#
The joke zone
Loud and goofy, first person, claims you can check.
- Headlines, with a literal subhead right under any joke that hides what the page is
- Kickers
- Balloons and captions
- SFX
- Empty states, the 404 and loader captions
- Social headlines and slide titles
- A document's cover note and its closing line
The literal zone
Plain words only. The joke goes beside them, never instead of them.
- Action labels and nav labels
- Prices, totals, terms and payment details
- Form labels, hints and errors
- Legal lines
- Status and stamp words
- Accessible names and alt text
- Dates
- Editor's notes with links
The voice per channel#
| Channel | Voice |
|---|---|
| Site | Both zones (D-I2): jokes in headlines and art, literal labels, prices and forms |
| Docs | Jokes in intros, empty states and examples; every instruction literal |
| Documents | Literal; one joke line, in the cover note or the closing |
| The literal signature block, with one optional tagline | |
| Social | The headline in the joke zone; the caption's first line literal |
| Slides | Titles may joke; prices and timelines literal |
| The business card is literal; stickers may joke |
The word list#
| Kind | Words | From |
|---|---|---|
| Names | MAKR Labs, makrlabs.dev, MAX//OS, Overprint, Custom apps | BRAND_NAMES, BB-MARK-10 |
| The action | “Get a quote”, on the one yellow key | 20 §8 |
| The quote form | “”, “” | QUOTE_FORM_COPY |
| Product status | “In development”, “Private preview”, “Preparing release”, “Live” | STATUS_LABEL |
| Stamps | “Sent”, “Shipped”, “Launched”, “Approved”, “Booked”, “Printed”, “Done”, “Live”, “Paid”, “Copied” | STAMP_WORDS |
Formats#
| What | Write | How |
|---|---|---|
| Dates in prose and documents | 23 October 2026 | formatDate: the day, the month in full, the year; no leading zero |
| Dates in data | 2026-10-23 | ISO 8601 |
| Times | 2:30 pm | The 12-hour clock, lower-case am and pm with a space |
| Money in documents | CAD 4,800.00 | formatMoney: the ISO code, two decimals, en-CA; never published on the site |
| Numbers with units | 0.7 s, 6 weeks | A space before the unit |
| A claim | 98, PageSpeed mobile, 18 October 2026 | The number, its source and its date |
Banned tells#
These patterns read as generated filler. The copy check (COPY_TELLS) catches the phrases; the patterns are on every writer (BB-VOICE-04). And never an em dash (BB-VOICE-03).
| Tell | Looks like | Instead |
|---|---|---|
| A setup, then a punchline heading | Say the thing once, with the detail: “Sites that load in a second on a phone.” | |
| An X, not Y pair | State what you do, once: “Sites built to bring in customers.” | |
| A run of fragments | One sentence with a verb. | |
| A no A, no B, no C list | Say what is there: “Hand-coded, and the code is yours.” | |
| Leaning on honest, straight or real | Let the detail prove it: “A fixed quote, in writing, before work starts.” |
SFX words#
SFX are caused events: something landed, shipped or broke. They pass checkSfx, they are hidden from screen readers, and they never sit on an error, a price, a legal line, a destructive confirmation or a field (BB-VOICE-07).
| Verdict | Words | checkSfx |
|---|---|---|
| Use | POW! BOOM! ZAP! KRAK! WHAM! BAM! BONK! THWIP! BLAM! ZOOM! WHOOSH! THUNK! CLACK! KA-CHUNK! TADA! | 15 of 15 pass |
| Never | 12 of 12 refused: prices, status and error words |
Do and don't#
Do
Don't
Do
Add your email, so I can reply.
Don't
Whoops, it vanished!
Do
98 on PageSpeed mobile, measured on 18 October 2026.
Don't
Blazing fast, guaranteed.
Twelve more pairs, by where the words appear:
A site headlineBB-VOICE-02
DoWebsites that get the phone ringing. Hand-coded sites for small businesses in Toronto.
Don'tWebsites that get the phone ringing.
The action keyBB-VOICE-10
DoGet a quote
Don'tLet's make some noise!
A form errorBB-VOICE-07
DoAdd your email, so I can reply.
Don'tWHOOPS! Email went missing!
A claimBB-VOICE-05
Do98 on PageSpeed mobile, measured on 18 October 2026.
Don'tBlazing fast, guaranteed.
Who is talkingBB-VOICE-01
DoI build the site and I answer the email.
Don'tOur team of experts is here for you.
A priceBB-VOICE-09
DoFixed quote, in writing, before any work starts.
Don'tSites from 999 dollars!
A date in a documentBB-VOICE-06
DoValid until 22 November 2026
Don'tValid until 11/22/26
An empty stateBB-VOICE-02
DoNothing here yet. The first post is in the oven.
Don'tNo data.
A balloonBB-VOICE-04
DoOrdering went online on Monday. The phone stopped ringing at six in the morning.
Don'tNot just a website, a whole new way of ordering.
A statusBB-VOICE-10
DoPrivate preview
Don'tAlmost there!
Alt textBB-IMAGE-06
DoThe Fernlight Bakery home page on a phone, the order form open.
Don'tCool screenshot
A sample in the docsBB-VOICE-08
DoSam Okafor, Fernlight Bakery, sam@example.com
Don'tA client's name and email copied from the inbox
Related#
- The comic grammar: balloons, captions and SFX on the page.
- Stamp: the stamp words in use. SFX: the lettering and
checkSfx.