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Branding     
 
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Visual Guidelines
Posted By: lina* on 10/13/2004 7:57 AM (CST) 250 Points
What are the steps in creating the visual branding guidelines for the company?

Posted by: Michal* Accepted Answer
10/13/2004 8:14 AM (CST)
Hi Lina,

I'm sure some of the members will tell you to browse previous questions in KHE, while others'll ask to provide more details. If you can specify what exactly do you want to do, give a description of the company, basically - all information you can share that members can find useful for visual branding guidelines, it can guide the thought process to produce much better answers as a result.
Regards, see you
Michal
 
Posted by: Carl Crawford Accepted Answer
10/13/2004 9:06 AM (CST)
hi lina,

here is the link to search past questions:

http://www.marketingprofs.com/ea/qst_search.asp

more info would be of great assistance, i will post back soon with a few basic ideas later. now it is time for me to sleep

have a nice day

Carl Crawford
 
Posted by: Patti* Accepted Answer
10/13/2004 2:41 PM (CST)
Hello,

Most importantly, you want to make sure you're setting up corporate style guidelines vs. just visual guidelines. I'm sure you know what a style guide entails -- basically how the company look, feel and language is communicated in every piece of communication from the simplest press release to annual reports. I'm sure if you did a search for style guides on this site, you'd find what you need. Following the creation of the guide which should be extremely user friendly, you should conduct a brief training session for employees -- those outside of Marcom and PR and their respective agencies, are your largest violators. Some folks incorporate this into employee orientation to show their commitment to properly communication.

Best,

Patti
 
Posted by: mgoodman Accepted Answer
10/13/2004 9:44 PM (CST)
If you start by sharing the importance of communicating a consistent positioning for the company (and its brands), and you explain the central importance of positioning, you'll accomplish two important purposes:

1. People will understand the guidelines and why it's so important to adhere to them; and

2. If they ever have to make a decision that isn't covered literally in the published guidelines, they'll understand the rationale so that they can make the right decision on their own.

It certainly makes sense to have published visual guidelines. But I'd say it's just as important to ensure that all company employees (and agencies) understand the basis for the guidelines and the positioning objective(s). They'll ultimately do a better job of communicating effectively and consistently.

P.S. Your graphic designer (or art director) should be able to provide a solid starting point for the actual guidelines. I've always been pleasantly surprised at how well good desingers understand the concept of corporate guidelines for consistency and can create a cogent starting point. (Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised.)
 
Posted by: lina* Author Response
10/14/2004 4:50 AM (CST)
Thanks for your comments on visual guidelines.
Let me give you more information about the company that goes through branding process. Also I will expand my number of questions.

It is training company in Sri Lanka named Wild Drift. The trainings are oriented mostly at team issues and other management issues (lack of leadership, etc) having corporate sector. those trainings are spiced up with a bit of adventure and wild approach in terms of wild environment where we bring our customers most of the time asd put them into extreme situations where they learn lots about themselves and the importance of the team.
This company exists 3 years in Sri Lanka's market, servicing 27 clients currently, but not gaining new ones. part of the problem is lack of brand awareness. That's were we started to think about the importance of branding and started this process.

So let me update what we have done so far:

BRAND IDENTITY:
1. Brand essence: “Empowering, Enabling and Enriching People and the Teams”

I believe this essence is too long. Maybe you have one or two words capturing the whole idea? If you need I can post you the description of all brand identity elements.

2. Core identity:
Wild Drift is a management training company with the wild approach, having unique training delivery methods, adaptable (in terms of we deliver tailor made programs and have a capacity to relate programs to diferent audience from senior management to factory floor labourers), having global perspective, delivering and demostrating passionate exitement.

3. Extenden identity: enjoying, excellence, creativity, wild&exotic environment, adventure, high tech wilderness

POSITIONING:
Target 1: Corporate sector in Colombo, Western province. The target companies are having 200000 RS year budget and not less than 25 employees.

Positioning statement in target 1: Wild Drift is a brand of team issues solving that offers the benefits of:
• Understanding of individuals & teams
• Alignment with organizational purpose
• Passionate excitement during our training programs


Now I plan to start working on this company’s visual guidelines as company’s emplyess (there are six of them) use company’s logo with different slogans, in different ways, use diffirent fonts, etc.
So I detail my question now on visual guidelines:
1. What should I consider (think about) creating those corporate visual standarts for Wild Drift (like logo usage, fonts..What else?)
2. How visual guidelines links to brand identity?
3. how to ensure within the company that created visual guidelines would be implemented?
4. any comments on brand identity?
 
Posted by: rob Accepted Answer
10/14/2004 2:17 PM (CST)
Could there name be part of the problem? I don't really see how it relates to the brand identity unless the translation into English isn't really bringing across the true meaning in your market.

First and foremost, I'd complete a brand audit of all existing materials currently being used. Also take a look at what the competition is doing. Keep in mind you do want to be somewhat different but no so different that it confuses your audience.

The visual guidelines should be the visual representation of the brand. In your case, I'd say images of people working in groups and succeeding, those kinds of things.

As far as the type and color system, that depends on what you think works best with the brand strategy and the market you are going after. What kind of emotional impact do you want to have with your audience. For example, if you want to be perceived as stable, calm, strong then blue is often a good core color to use. If you want to be more 'wild,' then possibly a brighter, more visually striking color (oranges, yellows) that are warmer might work. These are the things you need to consider when choosing your color palette.

Implementation is one of those things that are mandatory if the system is going to work. And what you really need is the backing of senior management and making sure they are part of the process in introducing the new standards to both internal and external audiences.
 
Posted by: jcmedinave Accepted Answer
10/22/2004 1:03 PM (CST)
Some articles:

http://www.indiana.edu/~iirg/ARTICLES/VIZRES/resource_page.html

http://www.ndoylefineart.com/design3.html

http://www.puttermangroup.com/quals/visual.htm
 
Posted by: whitefeud Accepted Answer
10/25/2004 7:33 AM (CST)
To create Visual Branding you must follow :

1. Consistancy: colours, fonts, layout, logotype and symbol

2. Understand what you want to say, to who, waht, and why
 
Posted by: moolba* Accepted Answer
10/29/2004 6:59 PM (CST)
Your question was "What are the steps in creating the visual branding guidelines for the company?"

A: To keep it simple. Knowing which steps or activities to take will depend on the scope/goal of the deliverable. Ultimately, the deliverable says "here is what you can and cannot do visually" (i.e. the rules) and the scope is based on how many visual mediums (e.g. TV, print, web, etc.) and visuals (e.g. logos, imagery, etc.) there are to deal with...giving you some number of permutations (e.g. one permutation is logos on TV another is imagery on print).

Once you know the scope, you can have some series of discussions to set objectives, review existing examples, produce guidelines, and iterate/tweak. This is done for each permutation.

Lastly, it's always important to understand the concept of "shared" vs. "unshared" goals and rules...as well as your client's needs in terms of commitment of time and resources. An example of this - a small company with one marketing director who makes all the decisions is likely easier to deal with than intel who might have 100 people providing input into the guidelines where they have conflicting needs. In four words: Governance and program management.

ps. there are similar guidelines beyond the "visual brand" such as "brand experience" or "customer experience"...though, different tools than "mediums and visuals."


========links of interest========
This is one of the best companies in the world at this...their page on processes has some insights: http://www.landor.com

Examples of the deliverable you seek:
http://www.givingupsmoking.co.uk/images/downloads/Logos/guidelines.pdf
http://www.seagate.com/branding
http://www.nhsidentity.nhs.uk/main.HTM
http://www1.ncaa.org/eprise/main/Public/mlp/promotions_special_events/pe_we...
http://www.att.com/brand/inter_pb/hp_guidelines.html
https://employee.raytheon.com/identity/index.htm
http://www.iabuk.net/brandidentity/downloads/IAB_brandguidelines.pdf
 
Posted by: jose04 Accepted Answer
10/31/2004 11:53 AM (CST)
Hello Lina

Nice concept...Wild drift..wild training..adventure and your positioning.

Maybe the name 'Wild drift' is not capturing the true mission of your training dreams. THe changed name could have a philosophical rhyming with your experience, stakeholder interests and your dreams.

Brands need a distinctive visual identity, so that users are able to quickly recognize the branded product or service.

The visual elements of the brand must reflect the brand's personality and desired positioning.

This link will get you answers to some of your questions
http://www.iconprocess.com/iconProcess/brandIdentity.php?detail=fbsTemplate

An immediate suggestion is that you needn't rush these (though vital) changes too fast. This is for the sake of your present clients and your team and also the fact that such changes cannot be made too often.

Hope these thoughts help!!
 
Posted by: Val (Moderator)* Moderator Response
11/1/2004 11:47 PM (CST)
Hello all. I am closing this question, since its more than 10 days old. We do this to make sure members' contributions are rewarded in a timely manner and to improve the visibility of newer questions. Thanks, so much, for participating!

Val (Moderator)
 


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