How to Develop Brand Guidelines?

Using your ‘Brand assets’ should never be a chore!

Injecting life into your brand, including colors and fonts, logos, making a visual appeal should always be a joyful experience.

The designer mind can often fall into two categories- If you work as a freelancer, or for an agency, and do varied work, you may use to working within the restraints of various clients brand guidelines, but you feel you have more creative freedom in your everyday work.

A company can outsource to a freelancer or agency to get a different perspective about the brand, and as a result might be willing to lift the restraints of their corporate branding a little to reap the benefit of that fresh new input.

More prominent clients, often have in-house design teams whose jobs revolve around standardizing the company style. The second category would be designers who work in-house exclusively for one business or organization. The first category of designers will feel a bit sorry for the second category cause they won’t get that much creative work. This is not the case for most in-house designers. It all comes down to the quality of the work. If your style guide is developed, it won’t stop the creative flow it will channel it!

One of the critical elements for a successful style guide :

•    The cover
•    A logo guide
•    A color guide
•    A content page
•    The brand ethos/motto
•    A guide to photography
•    A guide to graphics
•    A note of thanks to everyone who has read the guidelines through the end

Why do you need Brand Identity Guidelines?

Every brand depends on uniqueness and individual brand identity guidelines because those guidelines make it possible for the brand to move through the three primary steps of brand building: consistency, persistence, and restraint.

 If your brand isn’t consistently portrayed and communicated persistently and within certain restraints, then your entire brand can be compromised. This leads to brand confusion, which is the number one killer of brands. If you strive to have a similar brand recognition like some famous brand you will probably fail because the physical elements and personality of a brand can become valuable company assets that play an essential part in building brand equity. If you invest in developing your brand elements, trademark them, and marketing them, you should spend in protecting how they’re also used. An excellent brand guidelines manual can ensure your brand is always developing, consistently and accurately, so consumers have the opportunity to build trust in the brand. Most reliable brands develop brand experiences so consumers can self-select how they want to interact with the brand.

Imagine how the brand experience would look if they come from a dozen different brands? It’s essential to develop an identity as early as possible in the brand lifecycle. Keep your goals clear, and prepare for ups and downs in the growing market, by creating a distinctive brand identity manual that covers all aspects of your brand’s current and potential use!