Vio.com
Breathing new life into the world of travel and stays
Brand identity guidelines contain the rules to describe the do’s and don’ts on how to showcase your brand to its fullest potential. Brand identity guidelines are for internal and external use. It’s just as important that the employees at your company understand these guidelines, as external parties who might set up your ad campaign.
Having these rules ensures consistency on how components like logo’s, colors and typography can be used. But maybe most importantly, a lot of time and effort went into creating the brand identity. So how do you showcase what the guidelines of the brand are to, how we like to call it, make it stick?
Setting up brand identity guidelines has its own pitfalls. You want to establish a good set of rules on what you can and can’t do, but also want to give designers enough room so they can play around with it. As they say, rules are meant to be broken– that’s okay too. As long as the core of the visual aspect of a brand identity is respected and stands strong.
Some branding guidelines methods we use
The core
The core essence of brand identity guidelines should at least have sections for colors, typography and logo’s. It’s important to clearly mention when to use what logo, what color combinations are allowed and what typeface should be used to bring the brand’s message across.
The core and more
On top of the core elements, we strongly advise to add in sections and rules for photography, illustrations and motion. These rules are set to maintain consistency in a sometimes more emotional state of the brand. A lot is possible, but it’s important to ensure these follow the tone of voice of the brand.
The full package
The Brand identity itself is something that has a lot of thought put into it. To paint a complete picture of the brand identity guidelines you should including both visual elements, messaging, but also the underlying purpose, vision and values of the brand.
Read more of our thoughts on Branding
Motion implementation
Earlier we mentioned adding in motion to really complete make the brand identity guidelines feel as a whole. But how do you describe motion in a static file? In our brand identity guidelines for VIO [linkie naar project page] motion was visualized by adding an explanation on how motion evolves during movements, with an illustration to support the story.
Storytelling
It may sound obvious, but having a clear structure in your brand identity guidelines adds great value to the readability. By adding in chapters, subchapters and page numbers. The brand itself tells a story, so the guidelines should feel like a story as well.
Speaking of story, add collateral examples to your brand identity guidelines that show the brand in the real world. Whether that be on a bus stop billboard, the side of a van or on a brand new hoodie. It makes it easier for people to understand how the brand will be applied, and to keep their eyes peeled the next time they commute to the office.
Brand identity guidelines are essential for maintaining consistency across your brand touch points.
Leon Ephraïm
Lead Branding
Main takeaways
Know the guidelines’ audience/reader.
Be specific in your guidelines, but don’t rule out everything.
Aim for clients to be able to create consistent brand touch points on their own.
