Nov 13, 2012read the 43 comments
Brand identity style guides from around the world
I’m always interested in how style guides are presented, so I compiled a reference list.
I thought you might be interested, too.
(Last updated: 11 June 2013)
- Adobe corporate brand guidelines (PDF)
- Alberta corporate identity manual
- Apple identity guidelines (PDF)
- Barbican identity guidelines (PDF)
- BASF summary of corporate design policy (PDF)
- Bath Spa University brand guidelines (PDF)
- Berkeley identity
- Best Buy brand identity
- Bitdefender brand guidelines
- Boston University brand identity standards
- Boy Scouts of America brand identity guide (PDF)
- British Council brand guidelines
- British Rail corporate identity manual
- Carnegie Mellon brand guidelines
- Channel 4 identity style guides
- Christopher Doyle identity guidelines
- Cisco logo usage and guidelines
- Columbia College Chicago brand identity manual
- Cornell University brand book
- Duke University style guide
- easyGroup brand manual (PDF)
- Edinburgh City brand identity guidelines (PDF)
- Esso Imperial Oil quick reference guide (PDF)
- Good Technology brand identity guide
- Google visual assets guidelines
- Haas School of Business identity standards style guide (PDF)
- Heineken company visual identity
- IEEE brand identity guidelines
- Kew Royal Botanic Gardens brand guidelines (PDF)
- Liberty University brand identity policy
- Lloyd’s brand
- Macmillan identity guide
- MasterCard brand center
- Microsoft corporate logo guidelines
- Mozilla Firefox branding
- NAMI identity guidelines
- National University of Singapore identity
- New York University identity and style guide
- NHS brand guidelines
- NYU-Poly identity style guide
- Ohio University brand standards
- Oregon State University brand identity guidelines
- Pacific University brand standards (PDF)
- Pearson logos and style guides
- Penguin logo guidelines
- Princeton University graphic identity (PDF)
- PRSA guidelines & logos
- Redfern brand identity guidelines (PDF)
- Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College style guide
- San Francisco International Airport identity program
- The Beano Comic brand guidelines (PDF)
- Skype brand book
- The Scout Association brand guidelines (PDF)
- The University of Texas brand guidelines
- University of Arkansas graphic identity style guide
- University of California brand guidelines
- University of Cambridge identity guidelines
- University of East Anglia brand identity guidelines (PDF)
- University of Louisville brand graphics policy (PDF)
- University of Northern Colorado identity style guide (PDF)
- University of Wisconsin-Madison brand identity guidelines
- Vanderbilt University graphic standards
- Virginia Tech identity standards
- Walmart brand guidelines (PDF)
- Yale University identity guidelines
If you know of any good examples, it’d be great if you drop a comment.
43 appreciated comments, click here to add one
Mikko
Hi, thanks for the awesome post!
Android has pretty decent brand&visual guidelines too:
http://developer.android.com/design/index.html
http://developer.android.com/distribute/googleplay/promote/brand.html
Nov 13th, 2012
andrei
This list is great!
Because you asked, here’s a short but crisp one, for a small but growing branding agency:
http://fabricadedesign.ro/guide/FDD_Brand_Guidelines.pdf
Nov 13th, 2012
Julio Fernandez
I have a few good ones for your consideration. Where can I email the PDF?
Nov 13th, 2012
Jason
Awesome reference resource. Thanks for sharing.
Nov 13th, 2012
John
Bath Spa University:
http://www2.bathspa.ac.uk/services/marketing/branding-new/bsu-brand-guidelines-2012-01-12.pdf
Nov 13th, 2012
Marie
Great! Thanks for sharing.
Even more design manuals.
Nov 13th, 2012
Paul
What a GREAT resource…thank you!
Nov 13th, 2012
Todrick
What a great list of examples. Thanks so much for sharing.
Nov 13th, 2012
Jeremy
Christopher Doyle – good call!
Nov 13th, 2012
trey
Awesome resources. Looooooveeeeeeeeee.
Nov 13th, 2012
Niall
Thanks for this, an excellent resource.
Would the Paul Rand book for NeXT be considered a “Brand Style Guide”?
Nov 13th, 2012
Sean
This is a fantastic collection of guides. Definitely bookmarking it. Thanks.
Nov 13th, 2012
Diky
Hi, David. This is great!
Many thanks for sharing. :)
Nov 14th, 2012
Stefan
Thanks a lot.
Here are even more: http://www.ci-portal.de/styleguides/
Nov 14th, 2012
Alina Wheeler
What an extraordinary reference. Thank you. What a smart way to protect and preserve an organization’s valuable asset.
Nov 14th, 2012
Josephine Jost-Crous
Thank you for sharing, some very useful references!
Nov 14th, 2012
number1
MasterCard – http://www.mastercardbrandcenter.com/us/index.shtml
Nov 14th, 2012
David Airey
Hi everyone. I’m glad the resource is of some use, and thanks a lot for the extra links. I’ve updated the post.
Nov 14th, 2012
Emilie
Amazing! Thank you so much, always looking for examples to show to students, this is great!
Nov 15th, 2012
Sean
I know I have posted above. But I was wondering if anyone here charges additionally for the style guide. I would include it on larger projects that are fully funded but not for smaller ones. Would be good to hear others on this.
Nov 15th, 2012
Jon
Thanks for this David – I can see a couple of weeks of heavy reading coming up!
@Sean – I always charge for style guides; separately for large jobs, inclusively for small ones.
Nov 15th, 2012
Josephine Jost-Crous
Below a couple more:
Ford:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3202151/Guidelines/42616353-Brandbook-Ford.pdf
Apple:
http://images.apple.com/legal/certification/docs/logo_guidelines.pdf
NASA:
http://imjustcreative.com/nasa-brand-identity-guidlines-circa-1976/2011/08/02/
Nov 15th, 2012
Adam
Wow amazing list, nice collection David.
Nov 15th, 2012
Kiki
Alright, if those other Universities are up there…
University of Maryland trademark style guide
http://www.trademarks.umd.edu/guidelines/um_visual_identity_guide.pdf
University of Maryland web style guide
http://www.umd.edu/web_guidelines/wrap/colors.cfm
Nov 16th, 2012
Hunter
David: This is good stuff… thanks. It’s definitely a great resource to share with our students.
Nov 16th, 2012
Nath
Amazing compilation!
Nov 16th, 2012
Bryan
University of Houston
http://www.uh.edu/policies/graphicstandards/graphic/index.php
Nov 16th, 2012
Evgeny
That’s very impressive.
If someone owns the HP new brand book, please share?
Thanx
Nov 16th, 2012
Brian
University of Louisville PDF
http://louisville.edu/ocm/brand/downloads/2012%20Brand%20Guidelines%20Policy.pdf/at_download/file
Nov 16th, 2012
Joseph Coates
This is great!
The University of Connecticut has a nice one designed by Peter Good.
http://www.logo.uconn.edu/
Web and link to PDF version. (Get the PDF version!)
Peter did a great job of differentiating the three identities a university typically has.
- The academic and marketing identity (what most would think of as the main identity).
- The athletics or mascot identity. Not designed by Peter and very clearly just for and controlled by the athletics department. It is one of the better animal identities because it is not growling or waving a fist or too cartoonish. Just a noble and faithful Husky dog!
- The integration of the identity into other areas, like the university hospital system or the presidents office.
UConn has a pretty simple color palette but, many academic systems also include extra Pantone colors to be used for marketing or just for the presidential or university seal (gold, etc.). I don’t consider the seal to be part of this but, it could be a fourth “symbol” as well. But only for presidents stationary and diplomas, etc.
Stanford University just redid their system too! It uses an altered version of a Gerard Unger typeface.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/identity/
I also like Vanderbilt University’s. Designed by the great Malcom Grear!
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/publicaffairs/cs/graphicstandards/
Nov 17th, 2012
bartek
Just great to find it all here, in one place.
Nov 18th, 2012
Lorevic
Anyone know the agencies/designers behind these beautiful, functional pieces of artwork? May have a project that needs some good loving. Skeptical that these were all done internally, but I’ve been known to be wrong before. Thanks!
Nov 20th, 2012
Milind
The Microsoft branding guidelines are for the old logo.
Nov 28th, 2012
Ethan
University of California: http://brand.universityofcalifornia.edu/
Nov 28th, 2012
Christopher Dowding
Thank you ever so much sir, such an excellent resource this is… & your website.
Nov 29th, 2012
Janne
Dutch site with long list of links on the right, some dated
http://hansstol.totaldesign.nl/nl/55.html
Dec 1st, 2012
Julian
TAOIN branding
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bwx_5WiASf9FZ2FzMUZzcVd6Sjg
Dec 1st, 2012
Andy
University of Colorado Boulder branding
http://brand.colorado.edu
Thanks for the list!!
Jan 22nd, 2013
lori
Wow! What an awesome resource – thanks so much!
Jan 25th, 2013
paulklein
I’m in the process of establishing a style guide for the City of Reno. This was a great blog post to come across for reference. Thank you!
Apr 8th, 2013
Samantha Peck
I wish I came across this while working on a brand book for a class I just finished up. Great collection of brand books, thanks!
May 10th, 2013
TonyG
Lowes corporate identity…
http://issuu.com/gabychev/docs/lowes_corporateidentity
May 31st, 2013
Alex Thomas
The Book of Redgate (BORG)…
http://www.red-gate.com/our-company/careers/book-of-red-gate
Jun 8th, 2013
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