Do You Need Branding Guidelines?
You’ve probably been told, and acknowledge, that a business logo is important; a well-designed logo is a visual reminder of a brand. However, the logo is only one element in your visual branding. Is there a consistent look in your marketing materials? If you look at your website, printed materials, and advertising, are there a variety of styles being used? Are old elements being mixed with your new identity, creating a mishmash of styles and confusion?
Brand standards specify guidelines for the size and placement of a logo, approved colors and typestyles, and often include templates for use in producing a variety of documents. Writing and imagery styles may also be specified. This may include what photo content might be appropriate, words or phrases to use or avoid.
Both large and small businesses can benefit from the use of brand guidelines. A small business might not always have the budget to hire a designer, and the larger business might have their external marketing professionally designed, but other communications may be left to an employee without any design knowledge. Having a clear set of standards and templates will help ensure a professional appearance to all communications, instead of an amateurish hodgepodge of design. John Hopkins Medicine has a portion of their website dedicated to branding guidelines. You can browse around in it yourself, and see their brand standards, click here.
Do you think you need branding guidelines? If you are interested, please contact me at Resolution Creative, info@resolution-creative-services.com
Templates and graphic brand elements created for the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Recent Project
I was recently contacted by the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy to develop branding materials for their new IN2 innovation hub. IN2 is an incubator center for students, the local business community and entrepreneurs to collaborate in a high tech environment. Steve Chen, cofounder of YouTube and a graduate of IMSA donated $1,000,000 to fund IN2.
Working collaboratively with the school’s marketing and public relations department, I developed complementary graphic elements to be used with the existing logo, as well as templates for sell sheets, posters, e-newsletters and PowerPoint presentations. The consistent use of these design materials help create a solid, yet separate, identity for IN2 that differentiates from the traditional identity used for the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.