Looking to build a brand out of your website? Do You Own A Startup Company that needs to be marketed? It is time to make a statement through your Online Presence and website towards the world. Spice up your website with a definite guide to style. Style Guide is the defined process that your website follows when managing its own campaigns and content. It also determines a specific set of regulations that your website will follow when marketing your products or services. Let us focus on “Why” Do We Need a Style Guide?” And “The Initial Steps of Creating One”.
If you are just starting things, you might as well think, “Let’s get past the Style guide Thing.” But truth to be told, a style guide IS necessary when you look at the bigger picture. One can log the little details of the website of the company, the marketing technique of the products on website and rules in a file through the initial years to create a basic manuscript. Imagine a new person joins in and you have to teach everything to him through your memory. If by any chance, you leave a tiny but important detail out, you’d be responsible for the impact. Instead, you can hand him down the manuscript or the manual you wrote. It would serve as a self-teaching material for him.
Talking of Style guides, they might differ depending upon the brand but the basic elements are the same. Taking marketing into consideration, Fonts, Colors, copywriting rules, the logo and specific conditions for website of a company are few basics.
When you are marketing a brand, try to use a specific set of fonts online and offline too. It helps to build up the image of the brand. For example, Movie Bistro uses Arial font for all its stories online. Besides the font types, the sizes of the fonts are also important.
Color speaks hugely of a brand. Try and develop signature colors through your websites logos and offline marketing manuals. You can use CYMK or RGB compositions if you like. Different schemes are good for different brands. For example, a tropical travel agency would prefer light colors and beaches to be a part of their brochures or website templates.
Be specific and super specific about the logo you are using. Right from its basic design, the color compositions, the image size in the logo to the empty space that surrounds the thing. If you are willing to have a precise style guide, you might as well consider designing an alternative for your main logo or a part of the original to use on its stead.
Many brands use a certain type of effects on their photos or designs. They have become so common and favorite that the effects have become the identity of the brand itself. Be sure to use something uncanny for your brand and make a list of common icons that you use to market it. It is always a best practice to keep these things organized.
The points that I have highlighted thus far, meant for both website and your print section. But there are few elements which are applicable for websites alone. A specific set of do’s and don’ts should be maintained for buttons, menu styles, the order of pages and little details.
With the basic things pointed out, you’ll need to keep the company age in mind when finalizing the style guide. Separate sets of standards need to be maintained for printed and online presence. A specific guide should be there on how to progress on social media sites and more.
