Many companies use a corporate identity manual among internal documents. This book, more or less extensive, is important to maintain a straight corporate identity, without variations that may affect customers.
But what exactly is a corporate identity manual? What benefits does it offer? How do you create one? If you want to learn everything about this document, simply take a look at the guide we've prepared for you.
What is a corporate identity manual
The first thing you need to know is what the term corporate identity manual refers to. In this case, we are talking about a business document that establishes the rules and guidelines to be followed in the company to offer and maintain a visual identity to customers as well as workers.
In other words, it establishes the essence of the brand's graphic elements and how to apply them , both online and offline. Elements such as the logo style, colors, typography, etc.
These manuals can be very basic, especially for small businesses, or large extensive manuals in large companies. And who uses them? Well, companies such as Vodafone, Endesa, Adidas ... They establish the guidelines to follow, not only with logos, but in many other elements such as advertisements in the media, products, catalogs, stationery, television advertisements, social networks, decoration of shops, etc.
Corporate identity manual vs brand manual
Have you ever thought that the corporate identity manual and the brand manual are the same? For sure YES. But the reality is quite different.
Both seem to deal with the same thing, but they're not. While the corporate identity manual focuses on the graphic aspects of the brand, its visual identity, the brand manual doesn't just stick to the "basics" but delves much deeper, even reflecting aspects that can't be "touched" such as corporate values, tone of voice, and how to communicate with potential clients, etc.
So, when it comes to building one document and another, although they can go hand in hand, the corporate identity manual really remains only on the basis of what the brand name.
Benefits
Not many companies have a corporate identity manual and, nevertheless, the existence of one, as well as the use of it, has many benefits that, perhaps, you have not realized. We summarize them:
You will save time and resources with the corporate identity manual
Imagine that you hire a person. You give her a tour of the company and tell her everything she needs to know about corporate identity… That takes time, and also the person who teaches her everything cannot work during the time she visits this worker.
But what if a new worker arrived the following week? You would again waste several hours of your time, and with it resources that you could be using for other things.
A corporate identity manual allows you to waste less time , make only a brief presentation, and provide the information needed to perform your job properly for the company.
You have greater consistency
Often, especially with the passage of time, people tend to forget the rules that were followed at the beginning. It is as if we gave a wide sleeve to certain aspects, and that, in the end, takes its toll on the company.
Therefore, to avoid this, having the rules and communications through a corporate identity manual helps to not forget them and to have an equitable "measuring stick" for everyone.
You give a better image to customers
Because by having a corporate identity manual you are telling customers that you care about the smooth running of the business and that you communicate with your employees so that they are aware of everything they need to know about the company.
How to create a corporate identity manual
Focusing on how you should make a corporate identity manual, the first thing you should be clear about is the type of information you will need to prepare it.
In this case, it needs to be clearly defined, because we are talking about elements that shouldn't change every so often (since the goal is for customers to associate the brand, not to change it every other day):
- Logo.
- Color palette.
- Typographies.
- Icons and symbols.
- Image Bank.
- Additional features.
- Applications.
All of this is basic in a corporate identity manual, but what about the structure? We break it down for you.
The structure of the corporate identity manual
This document must follow an order so that all the information is well understood and there are no doubts or problems when applying it in the works or in any application that is carried out (television, press, billboards, etc.).
The structure would be the following:
Introduction of the corporate identity manual
In which it talks about the philosophy, values, personality and tone of the brand that it has. It is important to make this section clear as it is the basis for understanding the reason for everything else.
Logo
The logo is a fundamental part of the brand's graphic identity. Therefore, this manual defines its design, colors, and intended uses.
Some aspects that must be reflected are, for example, the space that must be left around the logo so that it does not look too loaded, or the maximum and minimum of the logo without making it stop reading or look too blurry.
Also here there may be a section for variations of the logo, in order to see how it would look with different colors, formats, etc.
Colours
Although we have mentioned before that the colors are already covered in the logo, in this case it delves into the colors, specifically the color values, which can be established between three: RGB, CMYK, HEX or Pantone (the latter is the most used because it allows the color that is used to be the one that is actually printed, in the same tonality).
Composition:
The composition section establishes the basic rules that the design must have so that it is in accordance with what the brand wants to achieve visually.
Icons
In addition to the logo, icons and other elements are important and must follow the overall style of the logo. Therefore, this section specifies aspects such as their size, their colors when idle and when pressed, whether they will have sound, whether their text will change, and so on.
Images
In this case, we're talking about the image bank that the company will have of the brand itself. This can include photographs, but also illustrations, drawings, etc. All of them must be high quality and properly edited to enhance the brand's image.
Typography
Finally, we have the typography, that is, the type of font that will be used in the branding. Important aspects to detail here include font size, spacing, whether dark and/or light backgrounds will be used, whether there will be headings (H1, H2, H3…) and paragraphs or just paragraphs, etc.
If the company is large, in addition to these points in the corporate identity manual, other specific ones are included for each of the applications that have: for press media, magazines, web advertisements, television, social networks, etc.
Is it clearer to you now what the corporate identity manual is?