Remarkable, of a strong character and an eye catching product is what will keep your customer interested in your business. Design plays a huge part in creating one that is pleasent for viewing. In order for your product to always leave the same good impression, a Brand Book is made. Brand is what your client perceives your product as, it’s identity. A Brand Book is a guideline that explains rules for creating an image of your product. Every little detail of design has an effect on the viewer, it is a dependent on what they will think. Every small change will have a big impact. Style guide will assure that the impact made is the right and positive one.
What is Included in a Brand Book?
Brand Book differs from company to company. It is a strategy a certain group decides to obtain, after all. The more specific it is, the less chance there is that the marketing of your product will end up a failure. Presented rules usually show not only what to do but also what should be absolutely avoided.
Logo
First and the most important thing your customer associates your product with your brand is it’s signature – a logo. Well designed, represents your product and invites customers to find out more about your project. Logo will become a synonym of your brand – if your first services or products are a success, it will be way easier to sell more. Viewer subconsciously gets the idea behind the logo while looking at it by it’s shape, color, used font or your products name. Once you have your perfect logo created, it needs to be determined, with your designer’s help, how is it going to get used. And that is one thing the brand guideline will define. You need alternatives for putting your logo on white, black and other colored backgrounds; how to use co-branding elements and sub-logos; color range that will compliment your signature with specified shade code; your slogan; optical correction; or even screen and print versions. Same applies to things like business cards.
Typeface and Writing Style
What fonts, how and when they should be used is also described here. All font details like size, style and text color for every aspect like heading or body copy you will find in the model. Complexity of the model is what keeps your business consistent and information conveyed elegantly, preventing your customer’s confusion due to a chaotic product. Another important thing for marketing is copywriting. It is good to set out rules for the overtone of how you deliver your message to your customers.
Graphics, Layout and Photography
To fit your marketing tactics you need the visual side working properly. Graphics and photography are prior things that grab your viewer’s attention. What are they showing? How do you want your customer to feel when they look at them? Particular styles, artistry, simplicity and the strenght of word the image has, carries a part of your accomplishment in business. As far as it does not sum up the marketing, if you show somebody a picture of people smiling, it will awake positive emotions in them. You will need to state what sort of images should be used with your product. Layout helps people find the data they are looking for. It is crucial to make it as easy and accessible as possible. Designers often use grid to fit elements on the page accordingly to their level of relevance, they do not do it randomly. The size, outline and layout determine where human eye will go first and where will it go next. People look at objects geometrically. Depend on how dynamic or simple the layout is, human will follow pieces differentely with their sight. Strongest parts of your product are the first ones they should see. Giving tips on how to place items guarantees a pleased customer. You can read more about the importance of geometry in design in our post “Golden Ratio in Web design”.
Fundamental Values and Objectives of Your Project
For the project team to understand the message your brand is sending and how to maximize those efforts, you can talk about the history behind your vision in the guide. It is said, that the most critical question is why. Why do you want to realize this project? Set out your main objectives and state what are the main beliefs you want to live by in creating your product. The team will now stand in your shoes and know where you are coming from. That will make building the abstract easier, for team members will be seeing your idea from your perspective and know what desicions they should make in order to do it as best as they can. Remember to introduce who is your target audience. All the information generates your idea as more clear and motivates reflecting on made choices, improving the process.
How Does It Benefit You?
The major role the Brand Book plays in your business movement is blocking your brand from giving wrong advertising. While your field is growing, you will need more people involved in it and they will all have to make sure they are doing their job in a way that suits your concept. Brand Book is a warranty they have an instruction to do it right and will not do you wrong by choosing a shade of color that will repel your customers or graphics that will be incomprehensible for them, resulting in low sales.
Certainty of Good Marketing and Appealing Design
Your product’s appearence is what attracts the client to choose just yours among the competition. Guide created with the help of a Graphic Designer pushes the branding in the right direction. They or other people working on your product will not have to go through the set of trials and errors of guessing what will work for it. With well defined and specified stylistics no mistakes should be made. With the style guide your product will be escorted by designers correctly, opening the gate to great marketing. Trust Graphic Designer’s experience and actively participate in creating manual to branding accordingly to your vision. Be open minded and always ask questions about options produced by them to know exactly if that is what you think will speak for your Brand. With it you will never be misguided and your product will stay consistent for your viewer’s pleasure. And perhaps, thanks to that Brand Book, will become as iconic as Apple’s logo one day.
