14/6/2023- 28/6/2023 / Week 11 - Week 13
Chuah Kwai Pin / 0348376
Brand Corporate Identity / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media /
Taylor's University
Task 4: Brand Guidelines
INSTRUCTIONS
LECTURES
TASKS
- Create an E-book about the brand guidelines which include Brand Profile, Visual Guideline (Task 2) and Applications (Task 3)
- E-book dimensions: 1366 x 768px
- To include grid system, text layout and suitable visuals
- Under Visual Guidelines, include short descriptions for logo system.
1) Visual References
Before I began working on Task 4, I went on Pinterest to look for some
inspiration and gather some ideas on how a brand guideline should look like.
The ones that I have saved were mostly designs that suit the theme of my
brand. I liked that most of them used minimal colours and kept the designs
simple and clean by using shapes to frame certain information.
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| Fig. 1.1 Reference Board |
2) Margin and Layouts
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As for the columns, I tried with 4, 5 and 6 columns just to see how my text
placements would look like. Since my brand guidelines would include
additional visuals as well especially in brand profile, I went ahead with 5
column grid system so I can use a ratio of 2:3 or 3:2 for visuals and text.
Whereas for visual guidelines, I used 6 column grid system as there are more
images compared to text.
Fig. 2.2 Margin and Columns Template
Fig. 2.3 Margin and Columns with text layout
3) Visuals and design
During class, we were also told to look for some suitable visuals that would complement the brand well. This is so that the brand image can be communicated through appropriate visuals and it gives off the right impression that the brand wants to convey.
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| Fig. 3.1 Visuals for Brand Guidelines |
Week 11
In this week's attempt, I have made the front cover and laid out my brand profile including the visuals that I have found. During the class, we were told that we needed to design some navigation buttons for our interactive e-book.
Fig. 3.2 Week 11 Progress
Week 12
Based on the feedback given in Week 11, I have added the navigation system and also continued with my visual guidelines. I also changed a few of my layouts and adjusted my body text to purple colour so that it looks more like my brand colours.
Fig. 3.3 Week 12 Progress
Week 13
After the very helpful group discussion in Week 12, I was able to get more ideas in how to make my layouts more interesting. It was a very insightful session as I got to learn from my peers' work and the feedback they have given me as well. From there, I have made changes to my navigation design and also added more variations to my visuals so that they look more interesting.
Fig. 3.4 Week 13 Progress
For my navigation design, I have experimented with a few that I thought would be more fun and less stiff to look at. In the end, I went with the one that looks neater because I realised that the others may look a little distracting for a subtle navigation system.
Fig. 3.5 Navigation Design Variations
FINAL OUTCOME
Fig. 4.1 Task 4- Brand Guidelines (Interactive PDF)
Feel free to open in Google Chrome PDF viewer for better viewing
FEEDBACK
Week 11
- Include navigations and consider where to put them
- Margins currently too tight, may consider 2cm
- To include 4 buttons for navigation: contents, the brand, visual guidelines and applications
Week 12
- Make navigation more organic
- Explore more with the layouts
- Include next page and previous page arrows
- Pictures can have more variation besides just flowers
- Change all the text colour to purple
- Add descriptions for all the logo systems
Week 13
- For navigation, keep the original shape of the petal with the pointy edge
- Next page and previous page button to replace the arrow with the sun ray
- Background visuals can try to stretch into navigation
- Check and fix any orphans and widows
- No need buttons on last page, just link the logo back to home page
- Add in picture credits on the side of each picture
REFLECTION
Experience
Overall, I have gained a lot of new knowledge and refreshed my memory in using InDesign. It was not very difficult to get familiarised with InDesign, but it did take me a few tutorials to understand how to make my book into an interactive e-book. I had a lot of minor inconveniences and even faced a few exporting errors that I could not figure out why. After endlessly trying to fix my document and persevering through it, I finally found the error and it was a mistake that I will always keep in mind so that it does not happen again. Not only that, I even accidentally deleted my InDesign file and I could not recover any of my progress from the week before. It was the biggest heartbreak I have ever experienced and I felt so dejected to start a new file. However, when I think back on it, I was rather glad that I started everything over because I ended up liking what I had in my new document.
Observations
I realised that the group discussion session that we had in Week 12 really helped me a lot. From looking at my peers' works and discussing what is good and what can be improved, it really helped me reflect on my own work. It helped me notice things that I myself could not see, and I was inspired by my peers' ideas and suggestions that they gave me. It was also very interesting to see my peers' works as well because it really reflects how they are like as a person and it is a fun way to get to know them better.
Findings
To be honest, the navigation buttons were what worried me the most because it was something that was newly introduced. There were many times when my buttons could not work and I could not check my preview as it was lagging a lot. Hence, every time I have to check if my buttons could work, I have to export them and view them from Google Chrome. There were also a lot of buttons that we had to work with and sometimes I would accidentally click on other things that I would not notice. For example, I accidentally made my background a button and whenever I export my document, all I get are blank pages. For the longest time, I could not figure out what happened, but when I did, I was relieved that it was not some file corruption that I can not save. From that, I find that it is important to check the buttons thoroughly before exporting the file so that they link to the right pages and have no errors when clicked.
FURTHER READING
To understand more about brand guidelines and get inspiration on how to design them, I went online to read more about it.
What are brand guidelines?
Brand guidelines communicates and displays the composition, design and general look-and-feel of a company's branding. It usually dictates the content of a logo, website, advertisement and marketing collaterals.
Elements of a brand style guide:
1) Logo
- Include a visual of the logo with design details
- Describe how it can be used with external and internal publishers
- Include the wrong usages (Do's and Don'ts)
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| Fig. 5.1 Examples of Dos and Don'ts to a logo |
2) Colour Palette
- A group of colours that a company uses to design their brand assets
- Usually include primary colours, followed by a variety of secondary, tertiary or neutral colours.
3) Typography
- Supports the brand's design with the links, copy and even tagline
- Recommended to have a primary and secondary font
- Plays a major role in websites for a good user experience
4) Imagery and Iconography
- To create a stronger style guide, include custom icons, symbols or patterns
- Can be used across website and print collaterals
5) Brand Voice
- To show how the company wants to represent their brand online.
- Option to include a full editorial style guide.
- The brand style guide is to maintain all of the various elements of a company so that the brand is recognised when they are combined
Besides giving helpful tips about brand guidelines, this blog has also included 21 style guide examples from various well-known brands such as Walmart, Skype, Starbucks, Spotify, TikTok, NASA and more.
References:
Hesterberg, K. (2023, June 29th). 21 Brand Style Guide Examples for Visual
Inspiration. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/examples-brand-style-guides
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