Too Often Missing: Brand Guidelines

Imagine that you run a company or school and you’ve just invested in a major branding overhaul. You have updated logos, new brand colors, and a slew of ideas running through your head for new merchandise or swag. How do you roll out the new look? How do you stop Bob in sales from using the old logo in his email signature? How do you stop the history department from creating their own logo variation for the upcoming Rome trip?

The key to answering all of those questions is centered around creating a brand guide. The guide is a bible that informs all decision making around logos, colors, uses, and variations. Having a brand guide is crucial for success and crucial for capitalizing on your investment. Beyond that, brand guidelines will help create a culture of consistency and commitment to putting the best foot forward.

Here are some thoughts and points to consider.

Capitalize on your investment:

• Don’t invest in great branding and then set yourself up for failure. Too many companies and schools invest in creating a new set of logos or colors and then stop short of creating a set of brand guidelines. In turn, employees and partners use old logos or change/misuse the new logos.

Culture of Consistency:

• Along with your brand guide, you need to create a culture of consistency that is committed to adhering to it. Instead of your marketing or communications department acting like the brand police, your entire staff should feel like deputies equipped with the tools to put the best foot forward. The culture also applies to vendors, partners, or agencies who may work with you. You can share the brand guide with anyone who will be working with your logos or branding to ensure attention to detail and consistency.

• A set of brand guidelines also helps ensure consistency through employee turnover or other changes in leadership at the company or school.

Things that should be covered in guidelines:

• Approved logos

  • Outline approved logo uses, placement, and sizes

  • Outline restrictions around the logo. Where shouldn’t you place the logo? Can you alter or change the logo for different departments or uses?

• Approved colors

  • What are your brand colors? Provide hex colors, PMS codes, or any other specific color identifiers that you or vendors may need.

• Approved fonts/typography

  • There’s nothing worse than the colleague who uses comic sans as their email font. Make sure to outline your approved fonts.

• Email signatures

  • Create an approve email signature design and implement it consistently across the company

• List the contacts for questions, approvals, and more

Examples:

Check out the NASA brand guidelines. It’s clear, concise, outlines approved uses, and provides more answers than questions.

UNC-Chapel Hill’s 72-page brand guide is available at this link. This guide is very long and more in depth than we would recommend for most institutions.

In Conclusion…

Think about the right length, style, and form factor for your organization. What will staffers find helpful and easy to use? What will help create that culture of consistency and commitment to the brand?

At 38 House, we specialize in creating and telling stories through dynamic branding. We think that a logo or mark can make or break a first impression for a customer. We’d love to talk to you more about your branding, brand guidelines, or answer any questions that you might have. Give us a shout here.