Brand Guidelines should include document mock-ups

Okay hear me out; this is not something I’d really clocked or considered until I worked in Government. We, as the design team, would often receive beautifully considered brand guidelines with pages-upon-pages of Business Cards, Tote Bags, Drink Bottles and Billboards. Then we’d attempt to translate that to a 30 page text document. Not exactly the same thing, right? 🙅🏼‍♀️ 

It made me realise that part of the strategy and research should be figuring out what will ACTUALLY be required in the roll-out. Documents might not be the most exciting assets for a design, but they’re pretty much always necessary in one format or another.

- If you’re working with a company that does a lot of reports, you should include example report pages in the guidelines.

- If you’re working with a company who always starts a project with a proposal, that should be in the guidelines.

Go on, give your brand a chance of actually lasting! 🏅