Style Guide Development
A style guide is a manual that provides the foundations for all design decisions. It is self-designed within the brand design and contains detailed specifications to ensure that all products from commissioned designers fit consistently into an overall picture.
Style guides are essential to the success of a brand's design strategy. Here is an insight into the work for Sonova | Audiological Care.
Excerpts from the design guidelines for the client LIBAKO. The impact of a brand lies not only in the individual elements, but in their interaction.
A style guide is like a navigation system. The goal is set. Designers can use clearly formulated values to design measurably "correct" applications. At the same time, the designer's freedom is ensured. Like a good navigation device, you can choose your own routes and be guided to your destination from any point.
Your advantage:
Efficient communication in design jobs and ensuring consistent brand representation.
What are the advantages of a style guide?
One of the biggest advantages is its clarity. Definitive structures and specifications must exist, because they are a guarantee for consistency and uniformity. In addition, proportions are defined. You can see the effect of an overall work. If a style guide itself feels strange, i.e. inconsistent, you can already tell that there is a need for improvement in the brand design. It is structured by chapters, contains descriptions and background information.
A style guide is the basic law of brand communication. And yet it has a commercial advantage: designers don't have to constantly reinvent the wheel - which saves money.
For brands, brand consistency is the key to customer recall. The style guide is the means to that end. Perhaps a designer didn't follow the style guide? Font wrong? Color value different? Layout grid not adhered to? The result is clear: the customer does not remember the brand image or does not associate the medium with the brand image that he would actually expect. This phenomenon is actually clear when we think about the fact that we sometimes find it difficult to recognize faces because the hairstyle has changed or a new pair of glasses has been added. Brands must always remain identifiable.
Fixed elements in a style guide
There are elements that must be fixed in any guide. These include the definition and numerical specification of the following elements:
Logo and its possible applications
Fonts and font styles, application, text and image
Web alternatives to the fonts
Font sizes and line spacing
Symbols (icons) and their application
Specifications for formats (DIN, US, Web, etc.)
Colors, formulated in the various technical formats (RGB/Hexadecimal, etc.) and definition of color gradients, if used
Layout details, baseline grid, paragraph formats, etc.
Stylistics of images, infographics and illustrations
specification of sources of supply (BAM or DAM, stock suppliers, etc.)
besides definition of "how-to", "don'ts" should also be defined
Variable elements in a style guide
A very inspiring option of the style guide is the presentation of mockups. After pages on definitions and specifications, a small portfolio of concrete examples can break up the sometimes austere reading and inspire designers to come up with their own solutions.
Mockups can be very diverse:
Posters, store design, website, ads in magazines | newspapers, business cards, brochures, flyers, loyalty cards, mailings, books, apps, TV commercials, web banners, and more.
Mockups of stationery and posters, as in application common at professional trade shows for the client Volumetric.
What is a micro style guide?
A micro style guide contains only the most essential information and explanations. The company logo, color values, BAM and DAM access and fonts can be defined here, among other things, to ensure rapid communication for rush orders.
