The Brand Book or Corporate Identity Manual: An Essential Tool for Any Brand

The brand book is an indispensable tool for any brand. It is the best guide for ensuring effective communication at a global level and will establish brand guidelines at all levels.

A brand book is essential when creating a new brand, but it is also highly necessary for established brands and projects that have been in operation for years. It’s always a good time to step back and truly value the brand, ensuring its proper use.

There are different types of brand book projects, ranging from more ambitious manuals, where the brand is heavily committed to consistency, image, and transparency, and aims to reflect everything in a brand book as comprehensive as possible that covers all the characteristics and needs of the brand. There are also simpler visual identity manuals, where the brand book becomes a visual guide for how to use and apply the brand in various applications, ensuring that the brand doesn’t get distorted in its use and remains consistent over time, regardless of who is working with it.

Both types of brand books, and all their intermediate steps, are valid and useful, considering the intended purpose they were created for. Not all companies can initially undertake such a large-scale project, and a more focused brand book, limited to the visual needs at the initial stage, can at least resolve the application of the brand.

If you were to ask us, our initial assessment would be that to create a truly useful brand book, one that serves as a proper brand manual and establishes the foundation while covering the key points of the brand, it is important to invest a little more at the outset to start the project with all the necessary resources.

To create a solid, well-founded brand book that genuinely helps to reflect the brand globally, there are a few key elements that this manual should include:

BRAND DEFINITION:

• Mission
• Vision
• Values
• History

IDEAL CLIENT DEFINITION (BUYER PERSONA)

VISUAL IDENTITY:

• Logo
  • Versions and uses
• Colors
• Typography family
• Image style

VERBAL IDENTITY:

• Claim
• Tone and voice
• Messages

BRAND MATERIALS AND APPLICATIONS

Reflecting these elements would make the brand manual a truly useful tool.

If we want to work on it in more depth, and if the company requires it due to its size, scope, needs, or future growth, other elements such as strategy, brand architecture, co-branding, sponsorships, etc., could be addressed.

As we mentioned, the brand book of a company can be as extensive as the brand needs, and the role of the creative professional is to adapt to the client’s needs at the point where the company currently stands.