5 elements to take into account when creating a brand manual

When undertaking the creation of a brand manual, you should know that it is the instrument that your company will use to help you communicate and create a relationship with your customers. When preparing this document, you will have to consider many things at a graphic level and in all aspects that involve communication, whether internal or internal, since it is about implementing a series of guidelines so that your brand achieves greater positioning and loyalty among your customers.

1: Define the essence of your company

The first thing you should consider in creating a brand manual is what is the essence of your company. How do you see yourself and how do you want to be perceived abroad? What are the elements you want your customers to remember you by? What values ​​or principles do you want to be associated with? And conversely, what ideas do you not want your customers to associate you with?

Those questions require reflection and creativity (remember that you also want to differentiate yourself, be unique) about the purpose of the company. This should be written clearly and concisely in the manual.

It is not only about having clarity in your products or services, in your processes or distribution channels, all fundamental aspects of a business, in this case it is about generating the concepts that you will decide to show to the world and that will accompany your brand, ideally , for a long time. The instruments you use to make yourself known will be derived from the brand manual, will be on the packaging, on your web pages, Newsletter, social networks. Whenever the company has the need to communicate something, for example, when undertaking an advertising campaign, designing a point of sale, or publishing a post, it must transmit the message that you have established in the manual: the factors that differentiate you, inform why they do what they do and how to ensure that they will be addressed to the target audience.

2: Find your voice

It is not only about how they will see the company, but also how it will transmit its messages. We said before that the creation of a brand manual necessarily reflects the personality of your business and there are as many personalities as there are individuals, therefore, finding the right tone that is related to the essence or personality of your brand is essential. The voice that will come out of your brand manual cannot be mechanical or rigid, it can be formal if your services require a certain etiquette, it can be technical, but it can also be youthful, playful or irreverent.

And even if we talk about a representation, it does not mean that it is not real, it is someone who is looking for you and who complements the purpose of the brand. The style manual must be addressed to that client, and as in the graphic aspect, there must be consistency so that whenever your brand is talked about, the same unmistakable voice is heard. The tagline, the copys and slogans must be recognizable and belong to the same voice. Internal and external writers should follow the same style guide whenever they “speak” for the brand.

3: The creation of a brand manual establishes the rules of the game

This manual will guarantee that there is visual and communicative coherence. It should not only describe what your logo is like, but also its variations, what colors should be used, the chosen font and graphic styles, aspects such as Pantone color, the CMYK code; how to use it with the light background and with the dark background, the size is set in web and print.

In this way, the design team, or anyone who is going to create communication pieces for your company, will have all the information to maintain consistency with your corporate identity. The manual details the authorized uses of the logo and other graphic elements.

The elements of the graphic identity that must be established are:

• Anagram: graphic element generally formed by letters that is part of the logo.
• Brand: distinctive sign that differentiates and shows the company’s services are unique compared to competitors.
• Tagline: phrase that briefly states the brand’s value proposition.
• Grid and protection zone: the rules that say the correct ways to reproduce the logo in any dimension and support.
• Minimum sizes: the minimum recommended size to use a logo without losing its legibility in any printed or digital medium.
• Mark positive and negative: in white on a black background and in black on a white background, to indicate which color variant should be used on light and dark backgrounds.
• Use of the brand on corporate colors: guide to present the brand on different corporate colors and images.
• Improper uses: indicates uses that are not recommended when applying the graphic elements of the brand, such as deformations, color changes or incorrect sizes.

4: Let’s talk about fonts

Just as we consider the colors, the uses of the logo, images and photographs, the creation of a brand manual must consider a guide for the use of fonts. Obviously there is an official typography for logos and anagrams, this must be respected on all occasions.

Each company has its own combination of corporate fonts. They often show them with all the characters (the alphabet from A to Z and the numbers from 0 to 9) and different fonts for titles and for the body of the text.

The brand manual can establish the use of fonts, as well as their sizes, colors, weights, title hierarchies, use of italics and bold.

5: Use of images and photographs

A brand manual covers all aspects of corporate identity, it is responsible for putting in order all the rules of graphic application of your company, this includes, of course, photographs, icons or illustrations as communication resources. The creation of a brand manual establishes the style of the images that can be used and puts examples that fit the tone of the brand, as in the previous elements, it is sought that it reflects the tone and personality that have been defined.

You can create a mood board that demonstrates your visual style through a collage of chosen images that represent the creative concepts behind our brand.

Also in this case, the appropriate uses, formats and sizes of: 

• Corporate photographs: style and messages they should convey

• Icons and illustrations: sets that fit the style of the brand

• Patterns: images used to create backgrounds

Finally, the guidelines regarding copyright and the correct uses of the image banks to which they have access must be reported. Don’t wait any longer and go to Play.Interactive® to create your brand manual.