Branding Guidelines: What are they?

As part of the Visual Communication Brief, I need to create a Branding Guideline to submit with my book cover design.

We went through the basics of a "Branding Guideline" in class and then I went home and researched further into existing Branding Guidelines, as well as seeking out some advice on what to include in a Brand Guideline.

This website was extremely helpful, and provided me with links to example Branding Guidelines from a number of well known companies:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/21/designing-style-guidelines-for-brands-and-websites/

I've chosen to reference the Channel 4 "Style Guide" to explain my research on Branding Guidelines.

Colour

Channel 4's colour guidelines

http://www.channel4.com/about_c4/styleguide/downloads/C4StyleGuide1.1.pdf

The above is taken from Channel 4's publicly available "style guide", and defines the colours that should be used on their material. This applies across the board, on their website, adverts and any other promotional material.

They've included the CYMK, RGB, Hexadecimal and Pantone details of each colour, as well as featuring the colour itself. This not only gives a visual representation of each colour, but ensures each colour can be applied to any format - screen or print - across platforms.  

This has been presented in an aesthetically pleasing way using a rainbow-effect style gradually moving through each shade. This can easily be printed off and used as a simple reference guide for someone needing to use it to create material for Channel 4. 

Font

Channel 4 has it's own font, and it has referenced to this font in their Branding Guideline. Then they have provided examples of each style that can be applied to the font to create different variations and defined when and where these variations should be used.

The example above shows the 'C4 Headline' style. Channel 4 has defined where the font should be used (large titles, extensively on posters) the size the font should be (14pt and above) any specific design elements that apply to the font (e.g. when used in print, the only type face that should be in a box) and any other rules to follow (Always use correct upper and lower case lettering). 

The entire alphabet and varying symbols have been used to show what each letter/symbol looks like when the typeface is applied to it, which like the Colours section provides a visual reference for the user. 

Also defined is the minimum type size, suitability for each type style, "leading" (distance between lines of type) for both Headlines and Body text and how to calculate that. 

Text colour is also defined, and any allowances that can be made are mentioned too. Otherwise, you should follow the rules defined in the "colour" section of the guideline.

Writing Copy

Even though it may not apply to my Branding Guideline, another common thing is to define any "writing copy" that should be followed when designing things for a brand.
Specifics Include:

• When to use upper or lower case
• Variations of writing the company/title name
• How are numbers written? E.g. numbers 1 - 10 to be written out ("one", "seven") and anything further to be written in figures ("19"). Specifics within this - e.g. as above "All numbers at the beginning of sentences should be written out".
• How are dates written?
• Punctuation specifics.

Logo

Defined is an explanation of the logo, a minimum size it should be displayed for print (10mm) and web (30 pixels deep) and a maximum size (none). 

The position of the logo is explained, and an example is shown. An explanation of that decision is also provided.

Rules on the display of the logo are explained - can it be edited in any way? can the user add an outline? can the user incorporate text into the logo? Answers any questions about the manipulation of the logo.