A designer friend contacted me the other day to ask if I had done much work on corporate identity guidelines as she was trying to put something together for a client. It’s been several years since I have worked on any logo/corporate ID guidelines, but of course I have had to follow existing ones for projects I am working on for larger companies.
I did a quick google to see if there was any information about corporate guidelines and found a resource I thought could be very useful. At http://www.designerstalk.com they have a page with has loads of downloadable PDF files of different companies corporate ID guidelines which could be really helpful if you are trying to put something together yourself.
Also I have just found via David Airey’s logo design love another site with branding guideline examples
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Thanks for the tip. I remember from a few years back that I found lots of corporate ID guidelines manuals just through Google, so that’s another avenue too.
Thanks for the resources.
I do find that the longer the guidelines the harder it is for clients to follow them. If they go on more than 3 or 4 pages then in my experience the client tends to ignore them. Have you had any experience of this or is it just my clients?!
HI Tracey
I remember finding a national charity’s guidelines that way, but I don’t think the local version of the charity knew they had any!
Hi Lucinda
I haven’t had to put together any for ages, but I know when you have to use them yourself its a nightmare when you have to read through a big brochure to see what you can and can’t do just to put together what should be a really simple A4 poster.
This is a great resource, thanks Tara! I’ve compiled a few ID standards before, but they’ve always been something I threw together without really knowing what the standard is for standards.
Now, is that website Designers Talk or Designer Stalk?
Excellent. I am planning to put one together for my current company, and this is right on time.
I have authored long detailed and specific corporate identity documents in the past, only to have them ignored or skimmed. I have found that creating a web page with the same content received a better response. Not sure why, perhaps people are so used to using online resources they have forgotten how to turn pages.
Excellent post! Coming from a graphic design background into web design, this sure is a blast from the past. Some really awesome resources you’re sharing though, definitely adds value! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for the links. I haven’t done any ID guidlines before but it’s definitly worth exploring.
Another good tip from this site. Thanks. As soon as I have our rather old and nasty website redesigned, I will place a link back.
As someone who has put ID guides together on both sides of the client divide I have seen organisations big and small request these documents, tinker with them and often dismiss their value – certainly baulk at paying too much for them. Far better to get a rolling start from a ‘template;’ such as these than start from scratch, labour for days and receive little reward.
Corporate logo is very crucial for a company because it reflects the over all image of one business.
I bought a book about corporate ID, guidelines and Briefs a couple of years ago, and is the best thing I could have done. If someone is interested in getting back to paper and not just internet browsing
the book is “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler, a must have from my point of view.
Thanks for the great links. You can never be careful enough when preparing these things. I’m going to forward these resources to a friend of mine that’s currently mulling over some guidelines..
I haven’t heard about logo design love before… but it’s just great.
Excellent post! Coming from a graphic design background into web design, this is a blast from the past. Some really awesome resources you’re sharing though, definitely adds value! Thanks for sharing!
great insights.. thanks for sharing the link. i learned from it. I never knew it was that good. thanks!
Hi Calidad, I read the book “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler some while ago and it was excellent. Need to go and find it. Its always recommend to learn from those that have the experience
wow, thank you for the great resources.
I don’t need them but they will be very helpful to a friend of my who was recently promoted at his job.
Hey, thanks for the information. I’m still a little unsure of this and your post has allowed me to understand more on it! Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing, it’s good to learn about logo design.
Our corporation just rolled out a new logo. Ugly! ugh!
Thanks for this resource, it is sites and blogs like this that help alot of new designers grasp the whole idea of graphic design.
Regards
Taz
Some great resources.
My biggest problem is that I try to do too much myself, without having the necessary expertise or experience designing logos or anything similar
Logo designing expertise is something that hard to find. Very few people I know expert in this field.
These are really helpful, dose anyone know of any good sites for colour management and printing guidelines, in my job im really detached from the whole printing process, but im expected to have knowledge and get things right first time. I often waste hours sending artwork back and forth before it gets done right. Any advice?
It is always great to hear about new resources, thanks very much, keep them coming!
your blog is great!
Super information, I am well aware of designer talk it is an excellent resource!
Thanks for sharing..great resources.
Thanks for this resource, it is sites and blogs like this that help a lot of new designers grasp the whole idea of graphic design.
is there any article or info of designing web/blog for a beginner? thanks
corporate identity guidelines – damn them!
Makes every design you create look the same as the one before. Really difficult when doing advertising campaigns with different concepts from one to the next…
You Corporate Identity is part of your branding which is very important for your business as it’s what your existing and potential clients/customers will identify you by.
Thank you for these great tips,
Thanks for the review on logo creation.I want to try out a own logo for my website.Hope this helps to me a lot..
great explanation and i need it…logo is important for us to show to everybody who we are…
We should have a proper knowledge regarding designing websites then only we can have a creativity in designing the logos effectively..
The downloadable companies corporate ID guidelines are pretty useful and much easier than surfing the Internet for them. thanks
Luckily i found this block. Working on some IDs again. Must have been ages since last one
Now i got something to spin off things a littel faster than last time.
Thx alot and happy new year! =)
Hmm.. i know its a little old to comment on this.. but i totally agree with Flena about creativity and logo design. Client hardly ever knows what they want
I guess the article on the importance of a logo is kinda a continuation of this one. I love your tips, they add so much value.
Excellent!
Hi,
I am Rhys, Excellent resources. It’s a great and i need it. I want to try out a own logo Design.Hope this helps to me… Thanks……….
Tara, Great website, great article! Regards,
Rak
Thanks for the links. Opened my eyes a bit on certain things.
Im currently putting together design guidelines for the company i work for, this is a new thing for them so this resource has been really helpful…
Hey cool: Even german companies show their design-guidelines!
Hey cool: Even german companies show their design-guidelines! Very useful for beginners.
This is a great post. The resource is excellent and it is most insightful to see such in depth Corporate Identity Guidelines.
For many businesses such in depth guidelines would not really be necessary. Just detailing the most important elements such as logo, symbol, colours, typography, printing reference codes and company ethos would be enough but for very large companies with lots of different departments such detail can be necessary to provide consistency of the Identity with regards to the different sections of a company.
I am going to bookmark the resource now! Thank you very much for sharing this.
Wish I had a company to worry about my corpoate logo.
nice resources though TY
Even german companies show their design-guidelines!
Excellent, n thank 4 share
I know where Lucinda is coming from. Corporate attention spans are not that great. I try to stick to the KISS theory