Ask three agencies for a brandbook and you may get three different things. One sends a twelve-page logo manual. Another sends a thick PDF of colours, typefaces and business card templates. The third sends a document that opens by asking who the brand is for and what it promises.
In the way we divide things in this glossary, only the third is a brandbook. The first is logo guidelines, the second a visual identity manual. A brandbook contains the visual rules, plus the brand’s strategy and the way it speaks. Before you order one, ask to see the table of contents.
What’s inside
- Strategy: who the brand is for, what it promises, how it differs from the competition.
- Voice: tone of voice, vocabulary, examples of good and bad messages.
- Visual identity: logo, colours, typography, graphic elements and photography, with rules for using them.
- Applications: material templates, sometimes a brand character, also called a brand hero.
When it makes sense
A brandbook earns its keep when many people speak for the brand at once: sales reps, branches, distributors, several agencies, new staff. Each of them makes small decisions every day. Which sentence should open a proposal. Which photo should go with a post. Whether to address a customer formally or by first name. Without written rules, everyone decides differently and the brand starts to blur.
The document alone isn’t enough. A ready-made template protects a brand better than a rule on page forty. For the MultiSport Foundation, the brandbook came with templates and a pair of brand hero characters who encourage people to get moving.
