• brand strategy
• corporate identity
• name generation
• brand guidelines

A clearly defined brand identity can be used to drive alignment at every point of customer, supplier, employee and investor contact in your organisation. However, too often brand guidelines are a sterile set of rules that thwart creativity and strangle the implementation of the brand. Brand guidelines should inspire and excite, instilling belief in the brand and motivating people to embrace a shared vision rather than rage against the machine.

A necessary evil, a solid set of brand guidelines should allow anybody to efficiently obtain relevant instructions on how to apply the brand across any marketing communication material whilst also providing a degree of creative freedom. Do’s and don’ts are a waste of space, if a designer even thinks of stretching or distorting a logo in any way they're a lost cause! Brand guidelines supplied by Large typically contain the following:

Logo specification
Specifying such things as exclusion areas, how to use clear space, exclusion areas etc. will result in a high-quality definition with legibility across all applications.

Logo application
Specifying the primary colourway, black and white versions, single colour, application on a photographic background etc.

Colour palettes
Colour can be a huge asset. Brands should not be afraid to use colour but neither should they be slap-dash with its application. Pantone, CMYK, RGB and web colours will be specified.

Typography
To bring communication to life, the style of typography sets the tone of the brand. Titles, headings, body copy etc. will be specified.

Tone of voice
Arguably the single most important part of any brand guidelines, tone of voice is often overlooked. A brand personifies a faceless company or product, a conversational style is an essential indicator of personality.

Photography
Photography can be one of the most powerful ways of illustrating a brand. It should always be of a high quality – if your pictures don’t look good, you don’t look good.

Iconography
Icons allow a brand to put across a simple message at a glance and can be applied to all types of communication but work especially well on digital platforms.

Implementations
The brand guidelines end with a series of example implementations that demonstrate how a competent graphic designer or marketer can apply the guidelines across a wide range of communication materials.