Steps To Create Brand Style

Steps To Create Brand Style

Protecting a brand’s identity can seem like a daunting task, especially when you need to communicate its importance to a client. That’s why it’s a great idea to include a Visual Standards Manual (aka brand style guide) with any logo you design for a client, so they have a reference point before making major decisions.

The guide will protect them from diluting the logo’s message thus weakening the brand’s overall identity in the marketplace. The manual itself can range from a just a couple simple pages to what appears to be a thick novel. Obviously, what you offer depends on your clients’ specific needs.

Step 1: Draw a layout. There are a few basic pages that most manuals include, but there are literally hundreds of rules you could chose to incorporate as well. Narrowing it down before you start will save you time and a headache later.

Step 2: Make a master. When you’re creating the manual, (I prefer to use In Design) be sure to make a master page with the header, guides, a footer with page numbers, etc. You’ll probably be making dozens of standards manuals for many clients and there’s no need to start from scratch each time. You also might want to make multiple layers so you can quickly hide an obsolete section in the future.

Step 3: Add a contents page and directives. Unless it’s common knowledge, each item should include a brief summary of how it applies to their specific logo.

1. Color Palette: Include Pantone colors for printing. You may want to add CMYK or RGBvalues as well.

2. Typography: Write out the entire alphabet and numbers 0-9 in each font chosen for their brand.

3. Logo colors: Display the logo in the Primary color and also the Secondary colors (if any). We also recommend displaying a reverse logo.

4. Unacceptable logo versions: There are a number of examples of how Not to display a logo; such as distorting, changing colors, rearranging elements, adding text, adding a white box, etc.

5. Clear Space: Add an example showing how much space around the logo should be untouched at all times. This is usually the size of one of the medium sized letters in the logo.

6. Minimum Logo Size: Because they’ll be including the logo on many different printed materials, it’s important to provide the client with guidelines of how small they can shrink the logo while keeping in legible and conveying the same strong brand message.

7. Identity Materials: Be specific about where the logo should appear in a number of their identity materials, like envelopes, business cards, faxes, stationary- you may even want to include an email signature.

8. Product Placement: This tells them where the logo should be placed on merchandizing items, such as t-shirts, hats, and bumper stickers. This section will defiantly depend on the client’s specific needs.

Other topics you may choose to include in the manual are text wrapping, an example of a Sponsorship logo, and an explanation of file formats.

Step 4: They’ll have questions. On the back cover or in the footer of the manual, make sure to include a contact at your firm with their information. This way, if there’s any confusion down the road, the client will contact you instead of possibly making a bad decision.

Step 5: Presentation is everything. There are several options for presenting the standards manual. The two I recommend are either uploading it as a PDF or printing it out and presenting it in a binder rather than a bound copy. Both ways allow you to insert additional pages as the brand grows and more detailed needs have to be addressed.

{e} has found that creating visual standards manuals for clients has been incredibly beneficial. Not only does the client receive a quick reference for their logo queries, but also the manual helps them to grasp the importance of branding and preserving their logo’s strong message.