Corporate guidelines
Alex (350 points) | Thu, 2010-01-07 11:09It's been quite a while since I put together a set of corporate ID/brand guidelines, but I'm working up a set for a large company at the moment.
It struck me though that the remit of guidelines has changed significantly in the last few years.
The web, email marketing, and whole new 'audiences' created by the availability of inexpensive and good-quality(...ish) typesetting and design software/tools have all combined to change the way guidelines are likely to be used.
What's your experience of guidelines - in terms of setting them up and maintaining them, and of using and working with them? And what would your ideal set of guidelines contain?
Any advice or ideas are most definitely welcome.
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I don't have heaps of experiance but during the first stage of sketching and making concepts, I do not follow any guidelines. I made the mistake of following the guidelines directly rather then my creative instinct in my earlier years. I had a lot of trouble designing when there where many restrictions or 'needs' of the client. Now I just try to make something good and apply the guidelines later. If, at a latter stage, that's not possible, I trash the sketch and start again.
In other words, start very broad, then targeting it to it's purpose, rather then starting by targeting it, and then making it broad.
Not sure if that is what you mean, and if it can help ;-)
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That's definitely helpful. I've hunted out a load of recently produced guideline documents from all over the web to use as inspiration/guidence and I have to say, with 90% of them my eyes were glazing over by the end of the first paragraph.
Most of them read like leagalease small-print designed to be used as a stick to beat people with than a set of useful and helpful guidelines. This is partly why I was having such a soul-searching time working out exactly how they could be produced to be useful to anyone.
I think your 'start broad' advice is great way for me to think of them.
Thanks!
the key to a corporate identity guide is keeping it simple. like anything else, the more complex you make it, the less likely people are to follow it (or even bother to read it).
decide what's really important in maintaining the brand and stick to that.
really, most of what you don't want people to do with logos is usually fairly simple. don't distort it, have a safe zone around it, no color modifications, some direction about taglines (if allowed at all). you should be able to accomplish that in a few pages that have visual examples of dos and don'ts.
the rest will depend significantly on how complicated the brand itself is. color palettes, grids, typography, covers or document standards, etc.
you may want to consider having more than one document. a simpler document for every day employees (those people who use word and powerpoint and need to know how to use the logo, what the fonts are, how to use letterhead, and some very basic guidelines on what the brand is) and a larger one for the corporate communications/inhouse designers that gets more into specifics, like the document standards (if you're going that far).
Our corporate guidelines are 3,587 pages long!
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Ha ha ha!
Agree with gwells. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) is the key. 50% of people will ignore it, and the other 50% will only make a half-hearted effort to follow it - so the simpler it is, the more chance people actually follow the guidelines.
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Agree with keeping it simple. However, sometimes the clients expect it to be complicated. They feel that every avenue needs to be covered, especially if they're paying top cash for it! Also, the bigger it is, the bigger they feel.
I have a template which contains around 10 pages. Introduction, logo with elements, unacceptable usage and sizing with clear zones. Corporate colours, typography, stationery and promotional items.
That's it. Any more can be designated by the client, for extra cost.
it's our job to explain to them the pitfalls of making a guide that's too complicated. in the end, though, it'll be their decision and many will go for the jugular with their guide.
that's one of the reasons i suggested two versions. one simpler version for every day use (and for all staff) and one that has more definitions and rules/guidelines for higher-level corporate communications.
I think you are exactly right with this and the KISS principle. I'm fortunate that my client isn't pushing for a set of guidelines that covers absolutely everything - but I've known clients ask for that in the past (initially, at least).
I can also see real benefit in the two or more versions as you and rsanford describe. And I will definitely be taking that approach on this project.
It may be worth 'flipping' the approach.
Perhaps look at it and think 'What would I want as a designer from these guidelines?'.
Perhaps just a basic ad shell, poster shell, fonts, colours is enough?
Miklad
'Keeps losing his mojo, then finding it again'.
Great advice - I've applied this to my working notes and cut out 60% which was stuff that I just felt shoult be in there because I've always added it (and other guidelines had it).
We do quite a bit of work with graphic standards systems. It's becoming more and more complex as the number of marketing channels grow. We use a tiered (or section) approach. The primary system incorporates logo, typography, color, usage, and the basic identity elements of business card, stationery, etc.
Next comes the basic sales elements of brochure, sales literature, advertising. These normally just show regions for logo and creative elements as well as basic typography. We include the types of images and graphic elements to support the brand.
The internet section adds in web usage, which can vary from a basic color scheme and logo usage to the entire navigation system, page layout, etc.
Presentation systems is another section, with emphasis on a consistent and organized approach to PowerPoint type presentations. These encompass basically the background and overall design and typography.
Additionally, there are systems for signage, vehicles, etc. which vary depending on the needs of our client.
A good technique is to have a checklist of all the different graphic elements which you can furnish to your client. It helps them to clarify just what they need and also shows them the complexity of the problem. We find that once we go through all the different systems they better understand why we charge the kind of fees we do.
My most simple logo page ever... a last thought-out quicky
In retrospect, I should have made a comment on no distortions tho...
"Art -- the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised." - James Thurber
Thank you all for fantastic information and ideas there. It's helped me add structure to what initially seemed a daunting task.
I also received some great information from Caspian (smoothfluid.com) who pointed out that (amongst other things) social media is pushing the challenges of visual identity even further - with the potential of company employees using logos and other elements to set up twitter accounts, facebook pages, linkedin profiles... Something I'd not considered at all, but that will clearly become a crucial part of future guideline documents.