Guidelines
Brand Guidelines And Brand Books In Abu Dhabi
Guidelines are the least glamorous part of a brand and the part that determines whether any of the rest of it survives.
Everything else you commission is a moment. The logo is approved, the campaign runs, the website launches. Guidelines are the mechanism that keeps those moments consistent with one another for the next five years, across teams and suppliers who were not in the room when the decisions were made.
What Guidelines Are Actually Worth
Lucidpress research found that companies presenting a consistent brand report revenue lifts of up to 33%. That figure is often quoted as though consistency were a matter of discipline. It is not. It is a matter of documentation.
The same research found that 81% of companies ship off brand content, and almost none of them intend to. It happens because the design agency, the video house, the events contractor and the coordinator updating a deck at short notice each made a reasonable guess, and nobody had written down the answer.
For your business, guidelines are what convert a design investment into a return. For your reputation, they are what makes the company look like one organisation instead of several. And for how the business runs, they end the recurring cost of every supplier asking the same questions and inventing different answers.
more revenue from consistent branding
Source: Lucidpress
Why Most Brand Guidelines Fail
They are built to be admired rather than used. Ninety pages of beautifully set rationale, a philosophy section, and somewhere around page sixty the answer to the question the reader actually had.
The person opening your guidelines is usually not a designer. It is a marketing coordinator at five o'clock on a Thursday who needs to know whether the logo can sit on a dark background and what the correct blue is. If the document does not answer that within thirty seconds, they will make a decision themselves, and their decision becomes your brand.
We write guidelines to be used quickly by people under pressure. The rationale is there for those who want it, but it never stands between the reader and the answer.
What We Deliver
- Logo usage. Every version, every lockup, clear space, minimum sizes, and an explicit list of what must not be done.
- Colour. Primary and secondary palettes with values for print, screen, fabric and paint, rather than a set of hex codes alone.
- Typography. Latin and Arabic type chosen to pair rather than merely coexist, with a full hierarchy and licensing notes.
- Arabic and bilingual rules. How the two scripts sit together, which leads in which context, and how layouts work right to left.
- Imagery and art direction. What your photography looks like, with real examples of both correct and incorrect use.
- Voice and tone. How the brand sounds in both languages, with before and after examples rather than adjectives.
- Applications. Stationery, presentations, social templates, signage, vehicle livery and whatever else your organisation produces.
- Templates. The working files, so that following the guidelines is easier than ignoring them.
- Formats. A print ready PDF, a shareable digital version, and an optional online brand hub for organisations with many suppliers.
Bilingual Guidelines, Documented Equally
Most guidelines in this region cover the English brand thoroughly and add a short Arabic section at the back. Everyone producing Arabic material then improvises, which is exactly where inconsistency begins, because Arabic is where the least has been specified and a great deal is being produced.
We document both languages to the same depth, and write the guidelines themselves in Arabic and English, so the Arabic speaking half of your organisation is following rules rather than interpreting them.
Written By People Who Have To Follow Them
There is a particular kind of guideline written by a studio that never has to live with it. It specifies things that cannot be produced, omits the situations that arise weekly, and answers questions nobody asked.
Ours are written by a studio that also runs social media, produces video, writes annual reports and builds websites. Every rule has been tested against the reality of producing that work at volume. And if you later hand us the channels, the guidelines are applied by their authors rather than interpreted by strangers.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Mostly emphasis. A brand book usually leads with the story, the positioning and the reason the brand exists, and is often used to align people internally or present the brand externally. Guidelines are the operating manual. Many organisations need both, and we frequently deliver them as one document with two clear halves.
As long as your organisation is complex, and no longer. A small business may need twenty pages. A government entity with dozens of suppliers and sub brands may need well over a hundred. Length driven by anything other than genuine need makes the document less likely to be used.
Yes, and it is a common request. We audit what exists, document what is working, and resolve the contradictions that have accumulated. It is often the least expensive way to fix an inconsistent brand without rebranding it.
Yes, written in Arabic rather than translated, and documenting Arabic usage to the same depth as English.
Make compliance easier than the alternative. That means templates people actually want to use, a document that answers questions in seconds, and a single place to find the correct files without emailing anyone. We build all three.
For organisations with many suppliers, yes. A hosted hub holding the current assets and rules removes the single biggest cause of off brand output, which is somebody using a file they found in an old email.
Send Us Your Current Guidelines
We will tell you what they cover, what they are missing, and where your brand is most likely drifting right now. An honest read within 24 hours.
Request a guidelines review