Brand Bible

I’m working on a brand development handbook for a friend and would value comments and suggestions on the following guidelines.

A corporate identity manual should:
a) be easily printable and easily referred to,
b) be easily accessible ( format: Make your guide available as PDF, Put the guide on your intranet , Create templates of all your elements so people can easily work with them and stay on-brand ),
c) use very simple language - and at least in 2 languages ( one in a major language of the country plus vernacular languages ). e.g. In Canada it will be in English & French. In the Middle East, English & Arabic. In Pakistan, English and Urdu and so on and so forth,
d) use lots of "Dos & Don'ts" to lucidly depict the logo type, colour scheme, size, height etc,
e) display options in colour & if in black & white,
f) portray all possible avenues of branding.

A corporate identity manual should contain:
a) Corporate introduction: include your brand values, philosophy, proposition with a little history about your brand, its roots, founders etc. It gives the creatives a little more meat to chew on and they love a good story!
b) Brand basics ( communication platform/attributes, writing style, design attributes ),
c) Kit of parts ( corporate logo, font samples, colour palette / Pantone , photography, icons and other graphics elements, headline usage, page layouts, paper specs ),
d) Templates (presentations, packaging, marketing literature, merchandising),
e) Promotional items (banners, trade show booth design elements, packaging/info-binders),
f) Direct Mail guidelines,
g) Advertising (print) guidelines,
h) Electronic brand elements (web site layout guidelines, GIF banner guidelines, e-mail templates and guidelines),
i) Co-branding guidelines,
j) International considerations ( guidelines for local photography, font usage ):
 - Paper specifications are not the same worldwide. Make sure to leave room for local paper specifications ( material, format, etc. )
- Font usage ( Japanese/Chinese/Hebrew/Cyrillic fonts do not always exist, depending on your font choice )
- Photographic material ( think about racial effects, cultural dependencies )

Notes
1. Explain the importance of using the brand guidelines consistently and why they need to be used across all markets and what this contributes to the brand. Maybe include, how much re-branding has cost to the company and why EVERYONE needs to ensure the correct formats, identity, logo, colour etc are used.

2. Use a binder that you can add inserts to and that are easy to print and do not incur unnecessary costs by being 'creative' - an A4 size will do and is a pretty universal format.

3. On your CD/DVD make sure your interface is simple and easy to use with a hyperlink to get updates from your website/intranet. Include commercials or well known campaigns.

4. Clearly illustrate the different versions of your identity - e.g. colour, greyscale and outline versions and specify colour usages.

5. This also applies to your product & brand typeface usage but can be applied to pictorial usage and any other elements you use as a standard across your brand. Also allow for some interpretation of elements for International markets for flexibility.

6. Show relationship sizing of your identity & products regarding its placement within collateral material with samples of use in e.g. a full colour ad, bw ad, billboard, poster treatment, email campaigns etc.

7. Specify media usage with clear examples using the identity, colours, sizing and proportion.

8. Also show, how your brand CANNOT be used. Give examples of wrong use of identity, colour etc and product usage. This refers to brand identity mutilation and distortion, inappropriate or offensive imagery or association (becomes more important internationally) This saves a lot of headaches and annoying questions.

9. Specify photo usage and how they can be used with your chosen media. Include examples as mentioned. You need feedback from your International markets regarding photo 'sensitivities' e.g. sexual references but this will be clarified in your brand values, philosophy and proposition earlier.