A guideline or guide to the use of corporate identity elements performs an extremely important function in the life of a company. It records all the features of the formation of corporate identity. A corporate identity is a set of elements that form the image of a company, and if there are no written rules regulating the form of their expression and use, then these elements will forever remain just bright pictures. That is why the quality of the guidelines largely determines how the corporate identity will function and develop in the future. The issues of the content and purpose of the guideline were discussed in detail in this material. This material is intended to cover in more detail the issues of the specific features of writing a guideline, which have the greatest impact on its quality.

Format

The most popular guideline format today is pdf. The question arises: why should the electronic version be preferred to the printed version? It's all about who the guideline is intended for. This document, unlike a brand book, is most often used not so much within the company as it is given to third-party organizations: design studios, advertising agencies, etc. Naturally, sending an electronic document is faster, cheaper and easier than sending a printed version by post. In addition, changes are made to the guideline, again in comparison with the brand book, more often. The essence of the brand may not change, but the shape of the logo can easily be restyled over time. You can make changes to the electronic version more quickly than reprinting the entire book because of one section.

Another interesting way to consolidate the guideline in an electronic version is to create a special section on the website. That is, this is not just a page on which you can download a guide in pdf format, but a real section describing all the rules for using a corporate identity with links to download materials. It is precisely because of the already existing links to materials that this option is more acceptable. When a company sends a pdf guideline, for example, to a printing house, it must also separately send the logo, patterns and other layouts of the necessary elements. In the case of the “corporate style” section of the site, there is no such problem - one link to all the rules and layouts at once. Abroad, such sections on corporate websites are quite common, but in our country only a few companies post information only on some of the most significant elements of style.

The MTS website page about corporate style contains information only about the logo

A section of the New York University website that regulates all the features of working with the corporate identity of this educational institution

In a guideline, it is not enough to simply list the elements of a corporate identity. For each element, you need to answer several important questions:
1. what this element looks like;
2. how to use it correctly;
3. what function does it perform;
4. where can I get it.

For example, the answers to these questions for a brand font would include the following information:
1. name of the corporate font, image of its main characters;
2. layout rules (design of headings and subheadings, determining the required size, modular grid, etc.);
3. reasons for choosing this particular font;
4. link to download the font.

Of course, the above list of questions is not exhaustive. For each element, additional specific aspects of its use can be highlighted. For example, in the case of a font, the system font must be additionally specified, replacing the corporate font in cases where this is necessary.

Another important aspect of the content of the guideline is the formulation in its text of the rules and principles for the use of corporate identity elements. You can get more detailed information on this issue in the paragraph “What to write in the guideline”.

Presentation style

The guideline is, of course, the main repository of information about the corporate style, and its entire appearance should speak about this. You cannot turn a guide into a purely technical document; on the contrary, it must be imbued with a corporate style. In practice, this means that it is necessary not only to describe in detail the elements of corporate identity, but also in this description itself the corporate style must be felt. For example, you need to not only list the numbers of corporate colors, but also color the entire guideline in them so that from one glance at its pages it becomes clear how exactly they are used.

On the left is a guideline page with a simple listing of color numbers, on the right is a page with a description of colors, made in the company’s corporate style

The same is true of the text itself. The style of presentation should be as consistent as possible with the spirit of the company. Of course, the rules must first of all be precise and understandable, but at the same time it is quite obvious that the set of artistic expressions in the guideline text for a steel company and a manufacturer of lingerie should still be different.

Applications

A distinctive feature of the guideline as a document is the presence in the text of links to layouts of corporate style elements. The most popular is to provide links to element layouts in the chapters that describe those elements. For example, in the chapter about the logo there is a link to download a logo layout from the company’s website. However, if there are quite a lot of layouts, a more convenient option would be to create a separate page in the guide with a complete listing of all links. Searching for links to necessary materials throughout the document is not always convenient.
Very often, a DVD with layouts is attached to the guideline, and links in the document go to specific folders on this disk. For the reasons described in the first paragraph of this article, laying out layouts on disk is not very convenient. A better option would be links to materials located on the company’s website in cloud storage or file sharing services.

What not to write

The quality of a guideline can be seriously reduced due to the inclusion of obviously unnecessary and useless information in its text. For example, there are guides that give detailed recommendations regarding the construction of a logo. Obviously, no one will ever recreate the logo; logos from the layouts attached to the guideline are always and everywhere used. Recommendations of this kind only artificially inflate the volume of the document and make it difficult to find really necessary information in it. Before including any rule in the guideline text, you need to think carefully about how necessary and applicable it is in real life.

A page with a logo construction diagram from the Gazprom guideline. Under the construction diagram it is written that “only the original electronic version of the mark should be used for reproduction.” That is, in essence, the developer gives a construction diagram and immediately writes that there is no need to use it.

Another block of obviously unnecessary information consists of some examples of the use of style elements on different media. Of course, such examples themselves must necessarily be in the guideline, but they should be demonstrated only on media that can actually be used by the company for which the guideline is being written. For example, showing the use of an online store’s logo on the fuselage of an airplane is at least illogical.

Output

The guideline must always be up to date. If something changes in the corporate style, these changes should be immediately reflected in the guide. That is why it is important that one of the last pages indicates the date of compilation of this document and information about its current version and updates.

In addition, as noted above, often third-party organizations work with the guideline. It is important that if they have questions about the use of corporate identity elements, someone can answer these questions. For this purpose, it is useful to indicate in the guideline the contact details of the company employee responsible for working with corporate identity or an email address to which you can send a letter with any questions you may have.

It would be “good form” to specify the guideline developer, since a true professional must be responsible for his work.

As mentioned above, the functioning and development of a corporate identity largely depends on the quality of the guideline. There is no doubt that each corporate style is unique in its own way and one hundred percent uniform rules for drawing up guidelines for all situations cannot be found. However, the principles described above can significantly make life easier for developers and help them find solutions that will most effectively describe the rules for using identity for a specific business.

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Your main logo color is red, a universal sign of excitement, passion, anger and sexuality. Looking for a loud, playful, youthful or modern color? Red is your path.

Do you think that white is the absence of color? White the color of youth and thriftiness, but can work for almost any brand. As a neutral color, consider white as secondary accent.

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But remember, you are not limited to just one logo color. Choosing a primary color with two or three accent colors can highlight other brand features. Additionally, if your brand has a variety of products, complementary colors are a great way to differentiate them.