Do You Have Standards?

Corporate branding agencies have long valued the creation and use of Corporate Branding Standards Guides, or something lofty sounding like that. The idea behind the tool, often created as 400 page, richly illustrated books, was to communicate all the ways that the identity elements associated with the brand could and could not be used. This workhorse is often used by internal and external sources alike.

While I believe this has always been an essential item for even the smallest of firms, the web has certainly made the creation, scaling and communication of such a tool more affordable and less challenging.

While your branding standards guide may not need to be as elaborate as, say Apple, you should carefully consider and document the correct use of your identity elements in an effort to maintain consistency in all uses. I've seen two person firms struggle with using the same colors throughout basic stationary. Your style guide will help reinforce the proper use internally and act as a simple way to communicate standards to designers, printers and t-shirt shops.

I also believe a standards manual says that you think your brand is important and that's a message that will serve your culture well as you grow your brand.

You can make your guide as elaborate or casual as fits, but keep it simple and up to date and build it on the web.

Some of the more common elements you to consider addressing are:

Brand Attributes - I think it's a good idea to communicate the strategy behind your brand and help anyone needing to access the materials contained in your guide better understand what your brand stands for and why the standards exist.

About the logo - The hope is that there is a solid strategic reason you've chosen the logo you use as a key branding element. Take some time to communicate what the logo, and any of its supporting elements, illustrates.

All the variations - Demonstrate any acceptable logo variations in positioning, color,size and wordmark use.

Trademarks - If any elements of your brand have been trademarked (subject of another article) then make sure you communicate and emphasize the proper way to display these trademarks.

Staging - It is often a good idea to illustrate the various ways that your logo should be displayed when in combination with other elements. You should dictate how much space should surround the logo by way of a ratio. This may seem obvious when designing letterhead, but less so on a 40 foot banner.

Colors - You cannot communicate enough specific information about colors. List the exact PMS, RGB and process variations of all logo and supporting colors. Include acceptable two color and mono color, including grayscale, options.

Backgrounds - Few things can destroy a perfect identity faster than printing a logo on a dark or photographic background. Take the time to illustrate acceptable ways to do this.

Typefaces - While you may have carefully chosen a logo or wordmark font, don't leave the use of such up to chance. Communicate in very specific terms the names and makers of the fonts and, if any, acceptable substitutions, You should also communicate preferred fonts for basic marketing communication and materials, including headline and body copy fonts and sizes. (Comic Sans alert)

Incorrect usage - Some people learn better from negative examples. It might be helpful to show numerous ways that are not acceptable. Things like rotations and watermarks.

Stationary - Don't spend too much time explaining things like letterhead, note cards, email signatures and business cards. Provide templates and let people work from them.

Web - The Internet can present a new set of challenges so make sure you address identity use for things like banner ads, blog headers, twitter and Facebook backgrounds.

Premiums - Screen printing and embroidery can do some wicked things to a gorgeous design. Experiment and test these kinds of applications before ordering those trade show giveaways and then create standards for unique uses.

Other copy elements - If you have product or service brands or branded processes, take the time to spell the proper use of these terms out as well.

Partners - You may need a mini version of your guide to share with external partners. The language of this guide can be adapted to spell out approval processes.

Supporting elements - The easiest way to make sure that both internal and external sources are using official copies of approved assets is to make them readily available in many formats and sizes. This can be housed on an intranet or on your specifically designed brand standards web pages.

Need some examples? You can find a host of corporate branding guides to draw inspiration from at designertalk.com and identifyworks.com