Brand Guidelines

In order to best reference and maintain consistency within the brand, we must ask: What documentation do we need to equip our staff with a shared set of rules and recommendations? What channel or format is most accessible and most easily adopted? How extensive should it be to inform, but not overwhelm? How can we ensure that staff will use it?

Brand Guidelines defined: Often referred to Brand Standards, a Style Guide or a Brand Book, this comprehensive document provides valuable guidance and context for understanding the legacy, Vision, Mission, Personality and the Attributes that define the brand. Brand Guidelines can serve as rule book or a set of graphical guide posts. The extent of the document depends on multiple factors: Who, and how many people are using it? How will they use it? How often should it be refreshed?

Brand Guidelines document the strategic framework, key messaging and all visual identity assets — photography, applied graphic style, and secondary identifiers. The Brand Guidelines document informs the work of an entity’s entire staff as well as external agencies and production vendors. It serves to establish standards, approved variants and appropriate usage and application of each of the organizational brand assets, as well as how the brand fits together. Most importantly, it will underscore the principles and thinking behind the work product and serve as the basis for broader reaching organizational change.