Winning Digital Products | TEESBUBLIC

 Foursquare's brand guide includes the correct color palette and proper use of the logotype.

 Need inspiration for your brand guide? Check out the Yellow and Teal Modern Bordered Brand Guidelines Presentation template.

 What better way for a designer to prove how detail-oriented they are than by compiling a detail-dense style guide for their own personal branding. Designer Amanda Michiru has done just this with a meticulous guide to her personal brand that ranges from logo construction to primary and secondary palettes and so much more. This guide is short but concise, just the bare necessities for a solid brand, a great example for beginners to style guide creation to have a look at. Have a read of the guide via Issuu.

 In 2016, Animal Planet underwent a brand identity change. Helmed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, the new branding focuses on capturing the childlike joy and wonder experienced with interacting with animals.

 The new logo—silhouette of a blue leaping elephant—is strong and distinctive, and was largely inspired by the classic Animal Planet logo and is a homage to the brand's history. This new identity was optimized to fit anywhere—both digital and non-digital platforms across various products and services.

 We all know what communication from Apple looks like, right? And why is this so clear to us? The answer is a well-maintained brand, thanks to a meticulous set of style guidelines. This guide for official Apple product retailers is just one example of how detail-oriented Apple is (in case you weren’t already aware). With concise and detailed explanations on how to use just about every Apple asset, there’s really no excuse for any retailer’s errors in upholding the Apple brand.

 It’s a good idea to tailor your style guide to your brand to ensure enough detail is given for the really important elements. Take this example by Argento Wine. Since the logo for Argento will be displayed on numerous pieces of packaging, this manual goes into extreme detail about sizing, signatures and logo colours to ensure there are no errors in application. Check out Argento’s style guide here.

 This style guide is not an official set of guidelines for Barnes & Noble, but a project of Carolina Pistone for her industrial design class. It doesn’t mean it’s not beautifully compiled and worth a read. This fictional style guide is as meticulous as any real deal, it explains and deconstructs its’ primary logo, signatures and sub-brand logos in an informative and explanatory way. Topped off with a simple but beautiful design, this style guide provides an amazing template for a successful set of brand guidelines. Have a peruse of it via Issuu.

 With competition against the likes of Google, it makes sense that search engine Bing would have to have a strong set of style guidelines in order to keep their brand strong. Bing deconstructs and explains nearly every fact of their brand, right down to the search bar dimensions and composition. Bing also explains just about every decision to provide a manual that would be easy to follow and rules that are easy to replicate. Read through Bing’s manual over here.

 Style guides are informative tools, so most of the time the function is valued over the form, but this doesn’t mean that your guide has to look bland. Take a leaf from Black Watch Global’s book where informative brand rules meet punchy design. With big type that bleeds from page to page, stylistic typography and unique displays of colour, this is definitely one style guide that you won’t fall asleep while reading through. Check out more of the manual and design via Mash Creative.

 If you’re not as keen on a more adventurous approach as the previous example, a more formulaic layout of a manual can work just as well. This manual by Mike Collinge for Bosphorus lays out each page similarly with a cohesive format that makes digesting the information easy and clear. As always, consider your brand and whether or not a more minimal approach would suit it/the guidelines better. Have a look at Bosphorus’ approach over here.

 Get the simple but professional look with the Geometric Diamond Pattern Brand Guidelines Presentation template.

 Don’t be afraid to get a little experimental with your style guide’s design. This guide for BPR has been executed as a poster. Why? Because it concerns BPR’s internal communications, so using the format makes in-office reference to the rules as easy as a glance over toward a poster. Do consider your own situation though, and what medium would be best for your brand/whoever will be reading your guidelines – a designer doesn’t want to open an A2 poster while at their studio desk just to find which size type to use. But for this instance, a poster is a useful medium. Have a closer look at the poster and well-organised rules via Red Stone.

 If you’re looking for detail, be sure to have a peruse of the style guide for Calgary Chamber. Each element of this style guide is explained, demonstrated and displayed in extraordinary detail, making for a clear and strong set of guidelines toward the brand. This manual groups colours by emotion (intelligent through to energetic), maps out gradients, colour combinations, type combinations, sizes, weights, just about anything any future designer would need. Have a look at the detail of this manual via Iancu Barbărasă.

 When it comes to an event like the Olympics, you want your country to stand out, and what better way to do this than with a meticulously designed and upheld brand. The Canadian Olympic team have a specific branding that is captured and outlined in this detailed and explanatory style guide. An interesting thing to take from this example is the use of translations on each page. Since the dominant languages in Canada are French and English, both languages have been represented in this manual, a clever way to tailor this manual to the audience. Check it all out via Ben Hulse.

 Sometimes less really is best. Check out this simple style guide for concrete distributors Cemento. A minimal palette that coincides with the brand, and big, bold headlines that make flipping through the manual quick and easy. There has been a careful attention to the trademark Cemento pattern and its construction in this manual as this pattern is a large part of the brand. Again, be sure to tailor your style guide toward whichever elements are the most important to your brand. Have a read of the Cemento guide via BP&O.

 Have you got a simple brand? Well, even the simplest of brands needs a comprehensive style guide, just as we can see with the guidelines for Channel 4. While Channel 4’s overall design is fairly simple, this does not mean that the instructions and brand rules are any less detailed. With some pretty specific instructions on placement, type size, logo application and much more, this simple brand is given just as much attention as any complex brand gets. Have a peruse through the manual via Issuu.

 If you thought style guides were purely limited to corporate or retail brands, boy, were you wrong. This manual was created for the video game Child of Light and is as meticulously detailed and compiled as any corporate brand. This guide explains each decision in detail and deconstructs the logo in an understandable way, shedding some light on the process for anyone involved in the game’s creative direction. Remember: wherever there’s a brand there should be a brand manual. Have a look at the guidelines and development via Behance.

 Mininal design with a distinct color palette, like the Purple Minimalist Production Brand Guideline Presentation template, can rock your brand guidelines.

Printables

 The last thing you want with your manual is for your explanations to be skimmed over or even worse – completely unread. This manual by Cisco avoids this by putting their reasonings and explanations into an interactive website. Not only do they provide the usually approved color palettes and font type, but they also have a vast library of approved photos, audio, and video that can be used any time without fees.

 While a majority of brand marks concerns what to do with a brand, just as important is some outlines for what not to do. This manual for charity group Don’t Use Me outlines both the do’s and don’ts when it comes to their brand with some diagrams and examples that make it all pretty easy to understand at a glance. Don’t be afraid to throw in as many visuals as you can, visual examples help avoid any miscommunications, after all. Check out Don’t Use Me’s brand manual here.

 While you may benefit from a simpler design that puts the information in the forefront, don’t be afraid to experiment with using your own rules in your style guide. Check out this manual for Double Knot that uses the established colour scheme and typesetting rules right throughout the manual, making the manual itself a whole example of the brand rules. Have a read of it all via Stylo.

 Add some illustrations or icons to emphasize your brand. Check out the Yellow Notes Blue Brand Guidelines Presentation template.

 When it comes to creating a manual that covers a big brand, it can be tricky to include all aspects of it, not forgetting about all the sub-brands too. For a good example on how to cover all bases, check out this manual by the easyGroup. easyGroup covers a big handful of groups such as easyJet, easyMoney, easyAirtours etc. and each of these subgroups has been discussed and explained in this simple but detailed brand manual. Of course, the bigger the brand, the bigger the manual, so don’t leave out any important elements to keep the manual short. Check out the entire easyGroup manual over here.