The rules that make a sentence sound like ours, and the check to run before it leaves
Every seat at ORIGIN writes something a client reads. A status line in Asana, a caption on a slide, a follow up email, a scope note, a file name. You do not have to be the copywriter to be read by a client. These rules make your sentences sound like ORIGIN rather than like an agency, and each one is checkable in a minute.
The name and the case
ORIGIN is always uppercase. Never Origin, never origin, not mid sentence, not in a heading, not in a file name, not in a chat message. Everything else is sentence case: a capital at the start, capitals for proper nouns, nothing else. No Title Case in headings, no capitals for emphasis. ORIGIN is the only exception in either direction.
Source: Register tab 6 rows 2 and 3
The dash rule
No em dashes and no en dashes, anywhere, in any output. Where you reached for one, use a comma, a full stop, a colon, or the word you meant. Hyphens inside a compound word are fine, and so are the hyphens in a file name. This is one of the eight lines on the check below, and one dash fails the whole piece.
Source: Register tab 10 row 10
The voice
Outside in is the method. The client reality comes before our methodology, always. Use their words for their problem before you use ours, then connect the two. Write in the second person to a client, and use we only for ORIGIN. Reference governance, frameworks and outcomes rather than listing what we can do. The register is consultancy, never agency.
Five pillars carry the voice: diagnostic, specific, outside in, governance led, premium. Four more are strategic lenses you think through rather than write with: local, creative problem solving, psychology, customer needs.
Source: Register tab 6 rows 4, 5 and 6
Before and after
Four rewrites. The last column names the rule each would have failed.
| Before | After | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Origin's Award-Winning Brand Transformation Services | ORIGIN brand transformation, and what it is accountable for | Capitals, sentence case, superlative gone |
| We are an award winning, full service agency offering creative solutions. | You have a strategy nobody has translated into execution. That gap is the work. | Banned positioning gone, client appears first |
| I hope this email finds you well, just checking in on the below. Please advise. | Following up on the scope note sent Sunday. Kindly confirm the two open items so the build can start Wednesday. | Greeting gone, a reason to write, kindly not please |
| Our methodology delivers audit, fix and grow across brand, strategy and technology - proven at scale. | Your campaign data and your brand system tell two different stories. We assess the current state first, then fix it, then grow it. | Dash gone, feature dump gone, client reality first |
Source: Examples written for this section. Rules per Register tab 6 rows 2, 3, 6 to 10, 23; tab 10 row 10
Words ORIGIN does not use
| Category | Do not write | Write instead |
|---|---|---|
| Greetings | I hope this email finds you well. Awaiting your positive reply. Just checking in. | The reason you are writing |
| Superlatives | Award winning. Renowned. Prestigious. Exciting. Creative solutions. | The observable fact, or nothing |
| Positioning | Full service agency. We do everything. Here is our rate card. Let me show you our portfolio. We can do it cheaper. We will figure out the scope later. | The problem, and the scope that answers it |
| Behaviours | Feature dumping. Capability lists before context. Credentials before the client appears. | Client reality, then method, then proof |
Source: Register tab 6 rows 7 to 10
Two word swaps, internal included
- Never write please. Write kindly.
- Never write sorry. Write thank you for understanding.
The reason is not politeness. Please and sorry put you and ORIGIN in a subordinate position, and the swaps hold the frame. There is also one protected superlative, and it ships word for word: The only brand transformation house in Saudi. No later editing pass takes it out.
Source: Register tab 6 rows 21 and 23
Names, proof and what stays inside
- Only names on the cleared public list may appear in public facing material. The list was cleared by Marwan Arban on 17 July 2026, at Register tab 6 row 18. If a name is not on it, it does not go out.
- Three counterparties sit behind a white label wall and are never named publicly, whatever else is cleared. Register tab 6 row 19 holds them.
- Never take public proof or a case study from a prospect or pipeline list. A live prospect is not a reference. Register tab 6 row 20.
- ORIGIN awards are real credentials and you may use them, but public and social copy never leads with them, because that positions ORIGIN as an agency. Register tab 6 row 17.
- Never put a price, discount, margin or rate in writing to a client or supplier. A price below the approval line has an approval chain, at Register tab 10 row 6. VAT in KSA is 15 percent, the one commercial figure you can state.
- In Arabic, defer to the master glossary. Never invent Arabic for a strategic term. Register tab 6 row 11 and tab 9 row 2.
Source: Register tab 6 rows 11, 17 to 20; tab 9 row 2; tab 10 row 6
The words you will meet in week one
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| POD | The delivery unit. One POD is one client. Tab 9 row 11. |
| House Framework | Audit to fix to grow. Audit assesses current state only, design work is fix. Tab 9 row 12. |
| Pain Funnel | The five level qualification diagnostic. Tab 9 row 13. |
| Arc 1 and Arc 2 | The proposal arcs: burning platform, ambition platform. Tab 9 row 14. |
| Transformation | All three streams as one program, not one alone. Tab 9 row 26. |
| SME bench | Subject matter experts on demand, a value enabler. Tab 9 row 24. |
| Supplier hub | Vetted suppliers, capacity without overhead. Tab 9 row 25. |
Source: Register tab 9 rows 11 to 26. The master glossary carries 322 terms, English and Arabic, tab 9 row 2
The check before it leaves the building
Run this on anything read outside your POD. Pass or fail, all eight lines.
- ORIGIN uppercase everywhere.
- Sentence case throughout, no Title Case.
- Outside in: client reality before our methodology.
- Zero banned phrases, checked against the table.
- No feature dumping or capability list.
- Governance, a framework or an outcome is referenced.
- Any Arabic matches the master glossary.
- No em dashes and no en dashes.
Then the human gate, by discipline. Strategy goes to Marwan Arban. Branding and design to Michel Matta. Copywriting to Omran Alhalabi. Technology to Marwan Arban, or Michel Matta when design related. Nothing external ships without its gate. Last, name the file: CLIENT NAME, DOCUMENT TITLE, INITIALS, the date as DDMMYYYY, then the version, separated by hyphens, with ORIGIN as the client name internally. Initials and date lock at creation. Only the version moves.
Source: Register tab 10 row 10, tab 6 row 12, tab 8 row 15
TO CONFIRM
Register tab 6 row 12 names Omran Alhalabi as the approval gate for copywriting, and does not say who reviews copy he has written himself. Until that is ruled, route it through your Team Lead to the OS Team rather than shipping it ungated. Do not read the silence in the row as permission.
These rules are not style taste. They are how a reader tells ORIGIN apart from the agencies that pitched before us, and you will be trusted with client facing words in your first month.