How To Create A Style Guide

By Author: Amanda Johnstone
Total Articles: 4762
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How many times have you dispatched business cards to print and received yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been enthusiastic to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then noticed that the crucial tag line is nowhere to be found or your logo has been wrecked.
There is only one way to prevent this from happening and that is to use a style guide. Not only will a style guide help you steer the reproduction of your logo - it will also help you extend your brand recognition, which many argue is one of the strongest selling tools.
We have placed the below steps together for you as a starting point.
Step 1 : Define the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to utilize in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?
Step 2 : Define what your output uses are. This is important because you will require different logos and file formats for example, black and white publication adverts in comparison to vehicle graphics.
Step 3 : Define the tone for the copy and content required. For example you may requirecopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website ...
... content.
Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to specify to the business and team.
Step 4 : Insure you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding lies on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reprinted.
Step 5 : Insure to insert any contributing logos or logos of business that are affiliated with you. It's also important that you issue a copy of the layout to these companies to insure they accept the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.
Step 6 : Insure that grammar, spelling and contact details are correct.
Step 7 : Insure that when suppliers are using the Style Guide they apprehend that a proof needs to be dispatchedto you to be validated as correct.
Have your Style Guide finished and as established as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly advise a training session †whereby your design studio arrives and trains your staff on how to utilize the Style Guide and most importantly your brand.
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For graphic design Brisbane, logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today. We help your brand build business.