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Why there is a need for guidance: its benefits
One of the ingredients of a successful business is thoughtful branding, which is impossible without a systematic approach that considers every detail. To promote a company consistently across multiple platforms and in the real world, it is necessary to compile all information about the brand into a guideline.
A guideline is a detailed manual of a company’s corporate identity, including fonts, logo, colour scheme and other details. With such a document, all website banners and merchandise will have the right font sizes, shade numbers and other elements that set the company apart from the competition.
The need for a business guideline stems from the peculiarities of how humans perceive information. People process information on a visual, auditory and semantic level. Familiarity with a brand and its products occurs in a similar way: a person remembers the company by specific design features, packaging colours, logo and other details. And if a user sees a different combination of colours and fonts each time, there will be no association with the brand and, therefore, no recognition. To avoid this, a guideline is used that outlines all the essential features of the design. And it’s not just the design details but its connection to the company’s goals and mission, where every logo curve reflects its activities or characteristics.
Guideline functions
The guideline helps to:
- systematise and standardise information about the company and its visual identity;
- optimise work on new products or their design. In this case, there is no need to create all the details from scratch, as there is already a foundation;
- minimise risks when employees leave. The work of predecessors is preserved. In addition, the new employee can quickly become familiar with the processes.
Guideline plays an essential role in creating an overall positioning concept for the company, helping to ensure a consistent style. It also simplifies the production of promotional materials: all business cards, souvenirs and information leaflets are produced in the same style.
Often small companies do not think about developing a guideline, but in the process of scaling up, problems can arise with the overall positioning. Therefore, it is better to start systematising the elements when creating the company name and logo.
A striking example of guideline use is franchising, where all chain facilities have the same design. In this case, the designers don’t have to develop every element themselves. The document already contains all the important components.
There are no mandatory rules for the creation of the guideline itself. The main thing is that it should contain the necessary information, and for ease of use, it is better to take care of its structure.