For another example of just how meticulous certain brands are, here’s an entire style guide dedicated to Sony’s tagline “like.no.other”. This manual runs down clearance space, positioning, sizing, background and type colour combinations, dimensions, it goes into unbelievable detail about each facet of the tagline, putting great importance on its construction and display. Check out this manual if you want to see just how in-depth the big brands like Sony get with their branding. You can find it over on Issuu.
Sometimes it’s best to just say it large and loud. This style guide by Stihl puts the main instructions for each page in simple terms and huge type, making each direction impossible to ignore. By using simple colloquial language like “Use this colour with this colour”, nothing is lost in translation and any reader would get the general idea of how to maintain the brand by just flipping through the pages. By using real and easy to follow visual examples, this guide is one that makes brand consistency easy. Check it out via Behance.
This is another set of brand guidelines that keep things ultra simple and extremely minimal while still communicating the foundations of the brand. If you’re looking for another example of a brand starter kit, you can’t go wrong with this one. With the logo, colours, type and iconography/patterning specified, the main brand is established. While such a simple set of guidelines may not work for every company (as many require detail), in this case, the minimal elements leave a little flexibility in the branding and applications. To check out these application examples and the project in more detail head over to Behance.
The Swedish Armed Forces has a detailed brand guidelines that includes a section explaining the concept and thought behind the main logo and the sub-brand logos. This manual also delves deeply into imagery–both the way it should be shot, and the colours, but also the subject matter that should be depicted as a part of the brand values–for example on the “don’t” list is “images that romanticize war”. Have a read through and a look at the detailed instructions over at Issuu.
This is another brand manual that puts content in the forefront, with simple and comprehensive visuals and complementary explanations and descriptions, this is another simply designed but cohesive and detailed brand manual. Be sure to check out the pages on vehicle livery that ensure every angle of the vehicle is represented and exemplified with attention to detail. Check the whole thing out at Visual Bits.
Are you designing for a more corporate-oriented brand? If so, have you considered specifying how some of the visual assets should look? From graphs and diagrams to charts and tables, if you will be presenting it to consumers or business partners, perhaps consider tieing it somehow into your style guide to keep it all cohesive, professional and branded. Check out this manual for Truth that specifies just this. Using the signature pink and sleek graphics, this manual has exemplified how each type of visual asset should look and work, which is guaranteed to make that process a lot easier for the brand in the long run. Have a closer look over at Mash Creative.
Business can be both professional and creative. Try the Dark Purple and Pink Circle Brand Guideline Presentation template.
There are a lot of arguments about whether or not printed brand manuals are a dying art. While the argument is strong on either side, some brands have opted for digital and publically accessible versions. One example is Twitter who have made their style guide accessible to everybody. A smart move on Twitter’s part, as their brand is applied just about everywhere over the internet, and while it’s not always applied in the right way, by providing the brand rules, they have a higher chance of having it presented right. Visit Twitter’s branding website page right here.
Università della Svizzera Italiana has an intricate brand mark that is built on specific degrees of rotation and alignment, all of which are specified in this brand manual. Using a grid to explain the alignment of elements, each element of this brand is highlighted and given reason. This manual is also given a comprehensive introduction that outlines the fundamentals and values of the brand which keeps the brand focused. Check it out via the official Moving Brands site.
Yet another imagined brand manual for a brand ‘rethink’, this time, it’s for the airline Varig. This manual presents the rethought brand in a simple and concise way, specifying brand applications, uniforms, communications, logos, signatures, patterns, the whole nine yards. An airline has a lot of communications and branding opportunities within it, and this imagined example covers many of those bases with a beautifully designed and incredibly well thought out style guide. Have a read of it in whole via Abduzeedo.
Looking for a piece of style guide inspiration that walks the line between fun and trustworthy? Well, check out Walmart’s style guide. Walmart’s manual is colourful and dynamic while still maintaining their trustworthy and professional retailer vibe. This manual covers all the bases of Walmart’s brand and looks good while doing it – yet another example of a brand manual that practises what it preaches by using their signature colours and type within the manual itself. Download the guide to flip through at your leisure over here.
Let your information breathe. When it comes to creating your brand manual, ensure that you include plenty of examples, but not to the point where the manual becomes overcrowded. Why? In short, overcrowded pages don’t get read. Check out this manual for Yogen Früz that spaces out the examples and information over various spreads to make for a design layout that puts the focus on the content. Read the manual in full over here.
Download Free Background TemplatesWhether you’re creating a business model, statistical report or step-by-step guide, find the perfect starting point from our range of free infographic templates. All of our infographic templates come preloaded with relevant content, so you’re never stuck staring at a blank canvas. That means it’s easy to get started and modify a template until it’s just like that picture you had in your head.
Add custom charts, graphs and diagrams to visualize complex data, statistics or trends. Apply your brand colors and fonts with a quick click using My Brand Kit. Choose from over 40,000 icons with thousands of diverse options to reflect a range of skin tones and cultural backgrounds. Browse over three million high-quality, royalty-free photos and add an extra layer of professionalism to any design. There are countless ways to customize an infographic template in Venngage and do your ideas justice — no design skills necessary.
With Venngage’s selection of over 10,000 professionally designed templates, anyone can create an infographic in under an hour. Simply choose an infographic template that catches your eye and customize it to suit your needs with our user-friendly, drag-and-drop editor. Come back weekly to explore new templates and find what you need, every time.
Though you can customize our infographic templates for any industry, they’re naturally suited to more sophisticated business communications. From timeline infographic templates to comparisons, processes and tutorials, tell an engaging story by creating your own infographics online. Do it all yourself with easily customizable, visually engaging infographic templates. And make sure the information you share is not only consumed, but retained.
Share your infographics, your way
Once you make an infographic, you have options. Collaborate with your team by sharing an editable link to your design. Get feedback through annotated comments, right in Venngage. Or, skip right to distribution! Once your infographic is ready to go, share it online or download it as a high-resolution PNG, PDF or interactive PDF.
Whatever format you’re looking for, Venngage is the best infographic maker to get the job done. With millions of daily users around the world and hundreds of new, research-backed infographic templates added to our collection monthly, Venngage is the perfect solution for busy professionals who need to create, without the headache.
A quick-reference guide is any documentation that provides a one- or two-page set of condensed instructions on how to use a product. They can be highly detailed or very simple, depending on what’s needed.
Nearly every product requires some kind of documentation to help customers understand how to use it. Depending on the product, sometimes those user guides or product manuals can be hundreds of pages long with pages full of long blocks of text.
In other words, they can be pretty daunting, especially for new users.
If your product doesn’t require a huge manual, a quick-reference guide may be all the documentation you need.
Essential elements to creating a great quick-reference or quick-start guide
The more of these blogs I write, the more I become aware of consistent themes. Creating the content your audience wants (and not necessarily what you want to tell them) is one of the most consistent.
As noted in this article about how to create more effective customer education content, there are a number of ways to figure out exactly what that is, including online forums, customer surveys, or even from your own technical support staff.
Regardless of how you get it, delivering content your customers want and need will go a long way in ensuring the success of your quick-reference materials.
The whole point of a quick-reference guide is to make information easily and readily accessible, so be sure it’s simple to understand.
Avoid huge blocks of text as much as possible Instead, use visual elements such as screenshots with markup, icons, or product photos — and just enough text to ensure your points are clear.
Keep it to one or two pages. Don’t try to cover everything from your full user manual. Think about it — a quick-reference guide that needs a table of contents probably isn’t all that quick.
Choose the most important information to accomplish a particular task or that otherwise conveys what you want to show. Boil down complex concepts into their most basic form.
Know what to leave in and what to leave out. Remember, you can always create another quick-reference guide to cover other important topics.
If your quick-reference guide isn’t visually appealing and easy to follow, your users won’t find it useful.
You don’t have to create a total work of art to make a good quick reference guide. Sometimes a simple screenshot annotated with arrows, text, etc. can be enough to get someone the information they need.
Download Free Background TemplatesI feel like I can’t emphasize this enough: Your quick-reference guide just won’t be as effective, engaging, and useful as it can be without good images, icons, screenshots, or other visual elements.
Images draw the eye and help provide anchor points to your content, helping your users quickly and easily identify important points of information.
In fact, our Value of Visuals research found that people learn better with images and text vs. text alone.
Infographic showing that 58% of people believe they remember information better when it's visual, that 67% of people complete tasks better when instructions are provided with visuals or video, and that employees absorb information 7% faster when communications are visual.
You can learn all about how valuable visual communication can be with this awesome infographic.
And, have you ever heard the terms a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, it turns out the best way to show something is to actually SHOW it.
A good image can convey a ton of information and help reduce the text density of your content and make it more user-friendly.
Our friends at Venngage have some more information on the importance of visual content.
Quick-reference guide dos and don’ts
Not all quick-reference guides will be as simple as the one I created. Some will need more text, others will need more images. Some will need more complex layouts. Depending on the subject, it may be longer.
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