Standards & Practices guide

[modus]

We're interested in coming up with a Standards & Practices guide for our studio. We're looking to come up with a guide that we can give to our freelancers so that we can allow them to be creative, but still match whatever look we are going for. Does anyone have any good samples of one they have used or come up with in the past?

I've seen some for broadcast outlets in the past, but can't find any now that I need them.

Some of the stuff I'm trying to outline are both technical details as well as creative details. I suppose the technical details are easy enough, but the specifications for aesthetics are harder to articulate.

Does anyone have any samples they'd be willing to share?

 

[keithlango]

In the web, print and product design world companies will typically have something called a Style Guide (Google Style Guide for a ton of examples). It's pretty much the Bible on colors, fonts, logos, placement-- all things pertaining to the proper and permissible use of their brand, characters and IP. All style guides will be primarily visual documents filled to overflowing with usage examples. The more thorough style guides will even include visual examples of what NOT to do with their brand, etc.

What you might consider doing is making your own kind of Style Guide for your studio, filled with examples of things you want to see and how to achieve them, as well as examples of things you don't want. It won't be exactly like anybody else's design document, but it will probably go a long way to making things easier for people to get what you want.

Hope that helped.