06/06/2015
What should a client be looking for when commissioning branding agencies to create brand usage guidelines?
In todays modern day and age of cutting edge internet technology and design software, a branding agency should be capable of designing and developing, compelling interfaces which include, navigational tools, download links to logos, artwork template files, image libraries and videos etc.
By designing interfaces that include navigation and download links, the end user (Advertising agency, In-house design team and suppliers) can navigate from page to page and will have the ability to download individual components of the brand directly to his or her desktop, eliminating the need for artwork CDs or adding measurements to each artwork template.
Content
The content depends on the needs of the client, from our experience we have learnt, a brand usage guidelines manual is a continuous evolving piece of work that over a duration of time needs to be updated to the clients specific requirements. Clients that invest in brand guidelines manuals as part of a branding programme often find a year later the guidelines are no longer relevant or do not cover branding issues in real life marketing situations.
Delivery Method
To deliver a highly effective and easily accessible brand usage guidelines manual to a large organisation depends on the client needs and requirements, for example, for a bank, a web based solution, using a private VPN to host the site to protect the content could be beneficial, and or smaller organisations, a programable pdf solution can be an option, again with a built in navigation with artwork files uploaded to an FTP site where they can be stored and easily accessed and updated.
Budget
All work under taken by a branding agency is obviously governed by the budget, clients have to understand work at this level does not come cheap as senior experts have to be involved, but in the long run if the clients invests over a duration of time, a consistent, and effective brand usage guidelines manual can be designed and developed which will help the clients marketing team, advertising agencies, and suppliers re produce the brand consistently over a longer duration of time with easy access to artwork template files and a memorable user experience.