The book of graphic standards, corporate or visual identity, i.e. CI ( SI ), if you really want to use modern, business abbreviations in English, is a document that every company that cares about itself and its presentation to clients should have.

So, it is best to say that the book of graphic standards is a set of standards and guidelines by which a company or brand communicates visually with its associates, clients and consumers.

For your business image, it is very important that people remember and recognize you very easily and quickly, so that you stand out from others, and perhaps the book of graphic standards will best help you in this.

Visual identity – love at first sight

How important visual identity is to large companies is best shown through one of the most famous examples where ” Pepsi ” allocated a million dollars for a redesign, i.e. a new book of graphic standards.

What should a graphic standards book contain?

• Logo (positive, negative, color and 3D)
• Color
• Typography
• Logo application according to format and background
• Business card, letterhead and envelope
• Email signatures
• Social networks
• Promotional material (Binders, notebooks, folders, pens, bags…)
• ID card
• Uniforms
• Car branding
• Branding of business space
• Packaging
• The rest

Of course, it is not necessary that every book of standards contains all these elements, and it is possible to supplement the book of standards with elements that characterize the field of business.

It should be noted that the book of standards should be constantly supplemented and certain elements periodically redesigned according to trends and needs.

The basic parts that every book of standards should contain and that should be changed as little as possible are:

Logo

You should not even draw attention to how it is the “signature” of your company and how important it is to create a good logo in the beginning. If you decide to redesign or change it later, you shouldn’t deviate much from the initial solution because your clients will have a hard time getting used to it, not to mention the money spent on additional campaigns and promotions. Access to ideas is also very important. Your logo should not primarily be beautiful because tastes are different. The most important thing for a logo is that it represents you, your business area in the best possible way and that, no matter how strange it sounds, it has “character”. To give the impression of how you wanted it to look, whether your clients and colleagues like it or not.

In the book of graphic standards, first of all, positive, negative, logo in color and 3D should be presented. It is not necessary, but it is certainly a bonus to emphasize how you came to the logo design and possibly draw attention to the hidden parts that you think are important to emphasize.

Color

Colors should be clearly defined in this section. So clearly indicate CMYK, RGB and Pantone colors. The information that your color is red, blue, orange, apricot, chestnut, rotten cherry… is certainly not enough.

So whether it is printed or displayed on the screen, you should choose which system will best display your color shade.

It is good to note that you need to standardize not only the colors of the logo, and if this is often the case, but also other colors that you will often use in your company.

• CMYK ( cyan , magenta , yellow and black) – color system for printing
• RGB ( red , green , blue ) – color system for the screen
• Pantone – colors that, in addition to the shade and standardized mixture, can also define special characteristics such as gloss, fluorescence…

Typography

Clear definition of all fonts and typographic elements. Apart from the fonts used for the logo, it would be necessary to define the fonts used for the slogan and for all other business documents, promotional material, and the website .

It is desirable to define the font size, line spacing, style, and the like where possible.

Logo application according to format and background

In this part of the graphic standards book, it should be defined how the logo is presented if the background is dark or light, if the background is a color already defined in the logo or if the format is a characteristic scale. Define how to use only a pictogram (thumbnail within the logo, initials), a combination of a pictogram and a typographic part (name), as well as a combination of a logo and a slogan.

Also, in this part, examples should be given and how you should not present your logo.

In this part, it is possible to define certain patterns. The best example are companies from the fashion industry such as ” Louis Vuitton “, ” Burberry “…

Business card, letterhead, envelope and e-mail signatures

In graphic design, the trends are that the rules are less and less respected and that creativity and originality are valued much more. On the other hand, there are still parts of business communication that should be respected. An example of this is a business card, letterhead, envelope and e-mail signature.

And if many try to experiment with these parts of the corporate identity, we even have to admit that they do it very well, our opinion is that here you should show all your professionalism and somehow instill confidence in clients and colleagues. This primarily refers to dimensions and content because otherwise these elements do not complete their function.

The rest

The other parts of the book of graphic standards, to return to the story from the beginning, are honestly not necessary, but they are certainly a bonus for the visual identity of your company. When we say that, first of all, I think that it is not important to define them immediately and once. It’s important to avoid the mistake that companies often make, which is falling into the trap of not adhering to their graphics standards book.

Maintaining a corporate or visual identity implies a planned assessment and development of the business image inside and outside your organization, by engaging your team in the application of standards, with the aim of contributing to the respect of employees by clients and associates as well as the respect of clients and associates by your company.

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