Brand Guide
The patient-facing identity for the Thermora procedure. Built in the brand it documents.
Working draft · derived from Drew's in-progress designsConfirmed vs pending
A strong, coherent direction. Several pieces are still open. Every open item has an owner.
An everyday condition that is almost never an everyday conversation. Thermora exists to change that.
Lead with dignity and plain talk. Earn trust with evidence, not hype. Thermora is the procedure patients know; the clinics are FAST Clinical; the company is Meribel Health.
Clinically grounded
Specific over superlative. Numbers replace adjectives. Every claim traces to a source.
Empathetically direct
Name the lived experience without dwelling on stigma. Never euphemistic, never crass.
Empowering, not selling
Equip patients to decide. No pressure, no urgency tactics.
Dignified
Treat a sensitive subject with the respect of a clinical consultation. Calm, never cute.
Three tiers, kept distinct
Thermora follows the Invisalign and LASIK model: patients know the branded procedure, not the parent company.
Meribel Health
The corporate parent. Investor, partner, and corporate contexts only. Not the patient-facing hero.
FAST Clinical
The clinics where Thermora is performed (fastclinical.com). Introduce as the place of care.
Thermora
The procedure brand patients see, search, and remember. Leads all patient-facing work.
Naming rules
Thermora is a procedure, not a company. Never a verb, never pluralized. First medical reference: "the Thermora procedure," then "Thermora" alone.
Relationship line: "Thermora is performed at FAST Clinical, a Meribel Health company." Surgeon-facing, the procedure is Thermal Submucosal Hemorrhoidopexy (spell out, then TSH).
Trademark
Use Thermora™, not the registered mark, until registration is confirmed. Carry the mark on the first or most prominent use, then drop it.
Note: guardrails.md still names the legacy "Fast" brand and predates Thermora. Update it to match.
Rules that frame everything
Thermora is FDA-regulated medical marketing. Meribel and legal own all medical and legal review. Nothing patient-facing publishes without human sign-off.
Banned descriptors (hard ban)
Claim discipline
Cite Sias and Milone (2025), a published case series of 248 patients (Level IV evidence). Call it a "published case series," not a "clinical trial," until the Paris and NYC controlled trials publish.
Grade II to III internal hemorrhoids only. "92% of patients reported no pain in the first five days," not "painless." "Light sedation per the published protocol," not "anesthesia." 12.9% retreatment, so no "cure" or "one and done." Not "FDA approved" until clearance is confirmed in writing.
Flags in the current draft copy
Teach the voice by contrast
Write the way a surgeon explains the procedure to a friend's parent: medical authority, no institutional distance. Flip the switch.
Do
- Use specific data with a citation
- Normalize prevalence (more than half of adults over 50)
- Use correct anatomical terms
- Vary sentence length; let the fact carry the feeling
- Add "Individual results may vary" to any testimonial
Don't
- Absolute claims (painless, cure, guaranteed)
- Euphemisms ("down there," "that problem")
- Humor about the condition
- Urgency or pressure ("don't wait")
- Brand-as-hero framing
Wordmark + crescent mark
The Thermora logo is the wordmark paired with a mark of two nested crescents: a teal outer arc and a navy inner arc, opening toward the wordmark. It reverses to white on dark backgrounds. Toggle the background, then see what not to do.
A teal family
Sampled from Drew's mood board. Deep teal anchors, cerulean and bright carry action, sage and pale keep large areas calm. Click any chip to copy its hex.
Instrument Sans + Lato
Two free Google Fonts. Instrument Sans for display and headlines, Lato for body. Drag to feel the display scale.
Natural light, real moments
Photography is natural and outdoor, not clinical. Soft, dappled light. Greens and earth tones sit beside the teal. People at ease, getting back to their lives.
Rules
No clinical or anatomical imagery in awareness work. No implied patients and no before-and-after without written authorization (HIPAA and FTC). Realistic, diverse casting with consent and release. Keep it calm: no staged stock cliches, no stress imagery.
The crescent mark as a motif
Reuse the nested arcs as a quiet system device: section dividers, an accent beside eyebrows, a low-opacity background texture. Keep motion calm; it should feel like relief arriving, never like a toy.
The web system, live
Patterns from the site Drew is building. Hover a tile to see the rule behind it.
Other patterns: outlined rounded cards, a procedure comparison table (must follow claim rules and cite each source), and forms with separate patient and physician paths.