The Branding BibleA simple guide to help protect & enhance your brand

by

Gerard T. Richard

Table of Contents

1. Why Do We Need A Brand Bible?2. Logo Usage3. Fonts & Typography4. Colors & Multimedia5. Text & Tone of Voice6. Brand Bible Checklist7. Resources

Why Do We Need A Brand Bible?

Brand bibles or books are developed to establish the internal & external voice, persona, and over all communication of every aspect of a business.

This document establishes the guidelines on how all assets of your brand should be handled. It should include rules on creating a consistent and identifiable face & structure of your brand. This includes the design of the logo and how it can be used in letterhead, your website, social & printed advertising, and marketing material. In the process of trademarking your brand, having a set brand book is almost required, but at most a great resource to have on hand.

As an employee, having this available will help them know how to use and commu-nicate what your brand’s message is effectively. Your staff knowing the brand message, positioning, and elevator pitch will help them consistently and effectively at sharing it to your target group.

As a graphic designer myself, being able to refer to a brand book helps me know the outlines and boundaries for making products like packaging, web & print advertis-ment material or even infographics. This manual would also let me know the allowable typefaces, color usage, sizing, and more.

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Logo Usage

These are some examples of logo usage guidelines. After you have your finished logo, it is a strong recom-mendation to maintain the integrity of it across your material. Having these guidelines can clarify how you want your logo sized, colored, and even what you want it to look like as an object on top of a background. The main key is consistency.

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Fonts & Typography Working with typeface & fonts have become really popular with everyone between the mobile phone users that want to add extra flair to their photos to the designers involved with corporate branding. Some professional typograhers see that there is a difference between font (what you use) and typeface (what you see).

BRAND NAME BRAND NAME BRAND NAME BRAND NAME

There should be a common type style that you can use between print & digital applications. Again the rules should be consistent and clear, from what type families are allowed, how they are used, type size, and color.

The way that I have usually seen it approached is dependent on the way the mate-rial is being published and viewed. For example, in this document’s body, I am using a Serif typeface. This document will most likely be viewed in print. The most common Ser-if typface is the Times New Roman font, also most commonly used in journalism, maga-zines, and other print material. Most web designers prefer Sans Serif typefaces, Arial or the common used Comic Sans. Most companies use one or two typefaces (print & web). There is an example above to show the difference between the two.

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Colors & Multimedia Defining the color palettes of your brand book is one the most important things that have to be done. In your brand book, outline every color and how it should be used. Include colors that are in your logo, text, any other design assets involved.

Some brands such as universities or sport teams take the step in naming the colors that are used and the color values (ie. Aggie Maroon RGB = 80.0.0/CMYK =15.100.39.69).The different color values are also used to keep the consistency of color on both print and web. CMYK is used for print and RGB is used for digital

When establishing these colors, think about your brand mission, message, and posi-tion. Certain colors make you feel a certain way. Green is usually associated with hotwords like: outdoors, growing, money, fresh & clean, and security while on the other hand red is usually associated with: conflict, passion, danger, power, and energy.

When dealing with guidlines for visual & audio material (photo, video & audio), be detailed in how it is gathered, edited, and when & how it is used. This will protect your brand, employees, and show great integrity and ethical values to your target market.

Decide if you want your backgrounds to be stock footage (used by many companies), local footage (used by small businesses), or edited textures & solid colors that you have al-ready established.

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Text & Tone of Voice So going back to the idea of consistency in the brand book, the text & tone of your brand book refers back to the foundations of your brand. What words do you or do you not want your brand associated with? When your employees talk about your brand, what and how do you want it explained? If in a situation where you or one of your employees have to explain your brand in a “elevator pitch” to an investor, what hotwords do you want to be consistently associated with your brand?

Determining the acceptable tone of voice & text that you want to use with your target market is important. Will it sound formal & to the point or casual & heavy winded. Two examples that I can think of are Starbucks & McDonald’s. Starbucks tone & text are associated with high-quality, inviting, and genuine. McDonald’s tone of voice is more directed to words like brightening, personal, and memorable. The text & tone of voice associated with your brand will seperate you from your competition, give your brand it’s own persona, and help you gain & maintain your target market. Have a tone of voice that translates what your brand is about.

A couple of ways that you can be really strategic about this is research. These are some of the methods that are mostly used.

• Target Audience Research • Content Audit • Audience Engagement Exercises • Brand Reviews

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The Branding Bible Checklist

• Overview of Brand (including history, mission, & persona)• Logo Usage• Font & Typeface Usage• Color Usage• Multimedia Usage• Letterhead & Business Card Design• Design Layouts & Grids for Print & Web Materials• Brochure Guidelines• Signage & Outdoor Advertising Guidelines• Text & Tone of Voice Guidelines• Social Media Guidelines• Visual Examples for Each Guideline (for proper & improper use)

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Resources

Brand Books

Jamie Oliver: FRV Guidlineshttp://issuu.com/bellfrog/docs/jamie-oliver-frv-brand-guidelines/1

American Red Crossww.redcross.org/images/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m6440103_Brand-Poster.pdf

Branding

Hole In The Roof Marketing Inc.http://holeintheroof.com/

Drip Drop Creativehttp://www.dripdropcreative.com/

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