Where Do Standards Manuals Go When They Die?
Written by Jason A. Tselentis on 'underconsideration / speak up'

Standards manuals for corporate collateral fit someplace between utopia and purgatory. Designers spend a great deal of time crafting the look and feel for a company, and even stratagize how a transition could take place after the release of a new logo (take UPS for example). Once a priceless image is created, it can be applied to a wide range of communication media. In the end, designers release everything for implementation and hand a book to the client for them to carry on the work. I just don’t buy it.

Standards manuals demonstrate how a company's visual elements are applied to advertisements, websites, printed stationery, posters, presentations, coffee cups, signage, and more. They're intended to be easy to follow recipes for those working on the communications after the design agency completes their work. The idea being that the designers did all of the leg work—all the grunt work—now it's up to the institution to move forward. Leaving them a style guide gives them a blueprint of sorts. When I've been involved in a branding, rebranding, or retooling of an institutional image, they take the style guide, flip through the book, and say Thanks. Well, nothing's going to guarantee that they'll follow the directions, just like nothing guarantees you won't substitute margarine for butter when baking a cake. The three to five pages of logo don'ts will eventually be done by an entry level designer or administrative assistant, who wants to do something creative.

Following up with the client will happen over the course of a year. Oftentimes, they're handling things very well on their own with the help of the standards manual. I won't see the logo placed in an ellipse or rhombus. But eventually, they get sloppy. Usually, this happens with the very best of intentions with time, money, or staffing as excuses. “We left you the style guide for help,” I tell them. “Oh. That's right, sorry,” they reply. (…)

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