"Burn your CD manual"

For years and decades it was the epitome of every brand design project, the pride and joy of the agency and the client: the corporate design manual. The reference work by which all those professionally involved with a company's brand should act and think. So much for the theory.

Dusty, too thick, unwieldy

The practice often looks different. In many companies, the CD Manual often has more of the reputation, appeal and usefulness of a phone book. And just like a telephone directory, many CD Manuals become somewhat outdated over time. A relic of a bygone era, once indispensable, now obsolete - in many ways. To really make an impact in the digital age, you need more of the right things and less of the wrong things. In the following, we have compiled the three most serious mistakes that many CD manuals unfortunately still make today.

Error #1: The content

In most CD manuals of today's companies, the holy three kings of the old branding world are enthroned: the letterhead, the photography style and the brochure column grid. In the past, these were often important guideposts for venerable print designers and photographers, who used these rules to develop the key defining contact points of brands of the day. But times have changed, and people's information consumption habits with them. Today, the importance of a beautiful letterhead to the brand experience left with the customer is rather negligible. Brochures are virtually no longer read. Imagery is often de facto unfeasible for modern companies that strive for editorial branding, for which a lot of content is needed quickly. On the other hand, what is completely missing in most of today's manuals are branding elements that are necessary for daily storytelling in moving images - animation behavior, an illustration style optimized for animability, music guidelines or audio logo.

Error #2: The depth

Besides the fact that many of today's CD manuals cover the wrong topics, the attention to detail in the definitions described in the various chapters is often remarkable. It is not uncommon to find pages of measurements of printed matter and construction drawings of logos; this was important in the past when print designers still sketched their maquettes by hand and logos were drawn for posters, but is actually redundant since the invention of templates and vector-based file formats. Moreover, in very few CD manuals is it possible for the reader to choose the level of detail of the information according to his needs, and that means reading not infrequently over 100 pages of rules and regulations. This in turn means that the manual is a) not read at all or b) only very superficially.

Error #3: The dosage form

Many manuals today are prepared in the form of PDF files. This is much better than a federal folder, because PDFs today are capable of user interaction and media enrichment. Explanatory animations or atmospheric brand identity films could be technically integrated, and important assets such as logos or downloads can easily be woven into a PDF via a download link. Unfortunately, this is rarely done, not least because the files with embedded media can sometimes become very heavy.

New approaches are needed

Better than a closed PDF package, however, is setting up and managing a brand management platform. Smaller updates can be made available to all users simultaneously at any time, downloads and online generators such as Web2Print modules simplify the handling of the most important brand assets considerably, and the latest generation of brand portals makes it possible to create user profiles in which users can put together their own brand construction kit and subscribe to topics that are relevant to them. Just like modern people are used to dealing with content.

Create impact despite goldfish

You can think it's good or bad, but it's a fact: People today no longer have any patience - researchers speak of an attention span of 8 seconds, which is one second less than a goldfish. They only absorb information if it a) is relevant to them right now and b) is presented in an intuitively understandable way. Everything else usually leads to not listening or not being understood. Anyone who has internalized this, and has also recognized that corporate design manuals only generate impact if they are understood by people, will approach the creation of their own differently in the future.

About the Author: Patrick Ensslin, Brand Experience Director, Member of the Executive Board at Hotz Brand Consultants. As a seasoned expert in audiovisual brand development with many years of experience in corporate branding, Patrick Ensslin is responsible for the conception and creation of unique brand experiences at all conceivable brand touchpoints at Hotz Brand Consultants. At the end of 2007, after 10 years of branding experience, Patrick founded the agency Sensorial Surroundings, specializing in motion graphics, film and sound design in the corporate sector.