Building a successful, recognizable brand takes patience, flexibility, and commitment. And a brand standards guide is an important part of that. You might begin with a highly creative phase where you have the freedom to explore options and ideas. But you’ll need to whittle down and hone those options into a clear-cut visual presentation of your business. This process can take quite some time and talent to develop and is imperative to the survival of your business image.
Where should you begin? You can design a logo, choose fonts that complement the voice of your business, or create a color palette. You can consider whether the tone of your organization is friendly, aggressive, or conjures a foul-mouthed Brooklyn native who speaks with unruly conviction. Whatever form your brand takes, at some point you must shift from the creative exploration stage to the maintaining and building stage. This is where building a brand standards guide comes in. A brand standards guide puts a stake in the ground and anchors your position in the market.
There are many different types of brand standards. Some simply put logo usage, fonts, and color palettes into a document that is shared with internal employees and marketing associates to guide them in crafting communication materials for your organization. But this should be just the beginning of brand development. A brand standards guide can and should go further by informing your viewer what your organization believes in. It should contain a mission statement and positioning statement to better define your brand. Successful brand standards will guide the viewer on how your group sounds by providing sample language for marketing purposes.
You’ll also want to include a brand voice chart so that everyone in the organization knows the proper way to communicate about the brand to the public. In addition to brand voice, you should show examples of the type of imagery that best represents your brand. Will your particular audience understand your image better through scientific illustrations or emotional photography? Landscapes or tightly focused shots of people in your target audience?
Brand standards also dictate how the minutiae of your organization are presented. Does your company use “a.m.” or “AM” when referencing time? Do you spell out the month (September 12, 2018) or use a numeric style (9/12/2018)? These may not seem like big questions, but when an organization of hundreds of people reaches out to the world with a consistent communication style, your brand benefits. Consider the time spent making a presentation document for your board or shareholders. Your marketing, communications, and sales teams can be more efficient if they aren’t spending time thinking about what font, color or cover page they should create for this and every subsequent pitch. With a brand standards guide, they already know the answer and can spend more time on the important things – like building revenue.
As a creative, I love digging in and finding the voice of an organization by exploring and asking thoughtful questions. Only after all things have been considered can we determine the brand’s visual direction and voice. When the rules of the brand have been established, that’s when truly effective creative can flourish. Brand standards send a consistent message and provide the tools your organization needs to build a lasting and successful image.