Face to face with the creative team – insights on the development of a brand manual
The creative Loopies, the ones that usually hide their pretty faces behind huge desktops, decided to step out of their protective environment. On Thursday, 24th of November, some of them gathered all their will and went to get acquainted with the students of the College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences.
Thrilled to meet the future designers, but a bit anxious about the encounter with so many knowledge seekers, three members of the creative department stepped on stage and shared part of their knowledge.
Our Creative Director, Marin Gava, was the first to speak up. His speech focused on what means to be a graphic designer in a marketing agency. He gave some insights on how does a typical work day looks like for a designer. From the morning coffee and the debriefing sessions to the actual design work, he covered the main tasks performed by a creative.
Next on, it was time for our Art Director, Andrei Ștețcu, to bewitch the audience with his infectiously charming personality. He started by explaining what is a brand manual and why it’s needed.
As a hint, we will let your know that the first so-called “brand manual” are the 10 commandments written by Moses. Why? Because even in the ancient times people still needed a set of rules to abide to. Just like, in today’s world, every company needs some rules to follow in order to maintain its brand consistency.
He told the students which are the 5 most important questions every designer has to answer when creating a brand manual:
[list color=”” icon=”im-icon-home”]
1. WHO will use it?
2. WHAT will be obtained by using it?
3. HOW will they use it?
4. WHERE will it be used?
5. WHY are these rules created?
[/list]
He also gave them tips on how to develop a brand manual. We won’t give you all of them, but we will mention a few. For the rest, you’ll have to contact Andrei. Here they are:
- Always choose a creative concept around which to develop the brand manual;
- Define one or two design directives;
- Create a clear structure for the brand manual;
- The copy is essential. A brand manual that is all design and no copy is useless;
- Create clear rules, but flexible enough to allow the designers to be creative;
- Create a do’s and don’ts section.
After he explained how a brand manual should be developed, it was time for one of our Senior Graphic Designers, Robert Gal, to be in the spotlight. He started by showcasing how to create or develop certain parts of the brand manual.
More exactly, he talked about:
- The safety zone;
- The minimum accepted logo size;
- The logo application rules;
- The logo colors;
- How to set the fonts.
In the end, he also mentioned how we developed the tagline and the logo for one of our clients, totcemisca.info, a news platform launched this summer. You can find more info about it in the study case we developed after the project’s completion. You can access it by clicking on this LINK.
The event ended with a Q&A session, where everyone had a chance to receive answers to his questions. The students took advantage of this, therefore they did not hesitate to ask whatever they needed to know.
If you didn’t had the chance to meet the creative Loopies and find more about what a brand manual is and why you need it, don’t worry. You can find the desired info by accessing our dedicated landing page, branding.loopaa.ro, or by downloading our brand manual. You can also contact us anytime!
Go ahead, don’t be shy!
Yours dedicated,
Loopaa
