Sticking to Brand Guidelines Once You’ve Got Them
Early on in my career, I went to a meetup featuring an expert speaking on consistency in design across websites and apps. I was in the process of building a design library for a software product and needed some advice on how to get everyone on board. I asked the presenter, “how do you make sure people use your system?” He responded, “they do that because I tell them to do it”. He got a couple of laughs out of the audience, but I left feeling like I received a parental “because I said so” response.
I thought to myself, did we do all that work, research, and strategy in design to have it fall flat on its face in practical use? I didn’t believe so. Looking back on it, the root of the problem was that the project I was working with wasn’t set up for success in brand consistency. There were no foundations or guidelines for the brand and design, no team buy-in, and I was not given access to the final product to review. I learned how key those concepts are for branding buy-in and was able to integrate them into similar projects later on in my career to more success. Brand guidelines will be adhered to only if they are set up for success with 3 key concepts: a point person, a collaborative team, and constraints.
The 3 C’s of Sticking to Brand Guidelines
To implement a brand identity, there’s 3 key parts. I even gave them all names that start with “c” to make it a little kitschy. You need:
Captain - the point person through which all design flows.
Cooperation - the team (especially designers) that you work with need to be engaged, informed, and collaborative
Cornerstone - documents, guidelines, examples that make up the foundation of the brand identity
The Captain
A brand captain (feel free to call it whatever you’d like) is the decision maker and filter to make sure any creative work is in line with the brand identity. This would be someone who is in the proofing process or who could provide a final signoff on the work. Choose a detail-oriented person who will be good at determining the subtle difference between staying within guidelines and creatively breaking the rules.
Cooperation
What seems like the most pervasive problem is having a team that isn’t on board with a brand overhaul or operating within given constraints. If you decide that adherence to a designed brand is something your company values (hint hint, if you paid a designer to create a branding identity suite you might care about this), you need to make sure you are hiring designers and other creatives that believe that, too. That goes for in-house as well as freelance hires. Some ideas for good questions to ask potential designers are:
How important is branding in your design process?
What is your experience with utilizing brand guidelines for consistency in design?
How do you break the rules creatively based on constraints?
There’s no right or wrong answers to these questions, but it will tell you so much about someone and if they would be a good fit.
Have existing team members that aren’t on board with sticking to the brand guidelines? Talk to them and find out what’s going on. Listen to their concerns if there are any. Communicate to them that this is important to the brand itself and why it’s important. A great way to achieve buy-in on new branding guidelines is to involve someone from an existing team in the decision making process. Basically, communication is key to cooperation.
Cornerstone Documentation
The Cornerstone is a foundation for your team and anyone working with you to reference. It’s a single source of knowledge which could include any of the following:
Documentation
Core Business Values
Branding Guidelines
Style Vocabulary
Voice and Tone Guidelines
Mood Boards
Imagery Guidelines
Design Examples
Copywriting Examples
Anything else that sets the tone for the brand identity
This foundation is what the brand Captain would use to discuss with the team. Use the cornerstone documents as a basis to discuss changes. This protects against personal opinions and introduces checking against guidelines. It should facilitate discussion and be a source for checks and balances in design decisions.
How do they all fit together?
The 3 C’s can be a successful strategy to make sure your brand guidelines are followed. There’s no “right” way to implement them. Do what feels natural to your process and workflows. Also, I would like to add from experience, that communication and respect are the secret ingredients in making this collaboration successful. If you don’t foster an environment where there’s clear communication and respect for others' ideas and opinions, branding consistency won’t be your only issue. Use the Cornerstone documents as a foundation, add in Cooperation from a team that wants to value this way of working, and a Captain for the brand that is detail-oriented, but creative and knows when to be flexible.
