Brand manual: what it is, what it should include and the video section almost everyone forgets

What a brand manual is and what it is for

A brand manual, also called brand guidelines, a corporate identity manual or a style guide, is the document that brings together a brand's rules. It explains what the brand is, how it looks, how it speaks and how it is applied on every medium: the website, social media, stationery, the shop, videos, advertising.

It serves one very specific purpose: that anyone working with the brand uses it correctly without having to ask. The designer making a poster, the person running social media, the printer, the production company filming a video, the new salesperson preparing a presentation. They all open the manual and know which logo to use, which exact colour, which typeface and which tone.

Without a manual, you get what we often see when a brand comes to us: three versions of the logo, five shades of blue that are supposed to be the same, one typeface on the website and another on social media, and an Instagram that looks nothing like the shop. Each piece on its own may be fine, but together they build nothing.

The manual is the tool that protects the investment made in the brand. A well-designed identity that is applied badly loses much of its value within a few months.

Many large companies publish their manuals, which is why those of famous brands are searched so often. Looking at them helps you understand the structure, but your brand's manual has to answer to your media and your way of communicating, not a multinational's.

What a brand manual should include

These are the sections no brand manual should be without.

The brand essence. One or two pages on what the brand is: its purpose, its values, its personality and who it speaks to. It is what gives meaning to everything else.

The logo. Versions (main, horizontal, vertical, symbol alone), the clear space around it, the minimum size, its colour, black and white versions, and incorrect uses: distorting it, changing its colour, placing it on backgrounds where it cannot be read.

Colour. The primary and secondary colours, with their codes for screen and for print, and the proportion in which they are used. Whether the blue is the same everywhere depends on those codes being written down.

Typography. The typeface families, what each is used for (headings, body text, highlights) and which alternatives to use when the main one is not available, for example in an office document.

Tone of voice. How the brand speaks: close or formal, casual or polite forms of address, with humour or without, which words it uses and which it avoids. It is the most forgotten part and the one that shows most on social media.

Photography and imagery. The brand's photo style: light, framing, colours, people or product, and what is never done.

Applications. How everything above is applied to the brand's real media: business cards, website, social media, signage, uniforms, vehicles, the premises.

Today, you have to add a section that is almost never there and that we cover below: video.

The video section of the manual almost everyone forgets

Most brand manuals were written with paper in mind: the logo on a business card, the colour on a leaflet, the typeface in a press ad. But today most of what a brand publishes moves. Reels, website videos, social ads, in-store screens, podcasts. And almost no manual says how all of that should look.

The result is that every video is made its own way. One uses one typeface for captions, another a different one; one has electronic music and another acoustic; the logo appears animated in three different ways.

A current brand manual should have a video chapter with at least these points.

The animated logo. How it enters and leaves the screen and how long it lasts.

Captions and subtitles. Typeface, size, colour, position and animation for on-screen text, in horizontal and vertical formats.

The moving-image style. Type of shots, editing pace, colour treatment.

Sound. Which music fits and which does not, whether there is a sonic signature and how the brand's voice sounds.

Formats. How everything adapts to 16:9, 9:16 and square.

We explain this in detail in audiovisual branding: how a brand's identity is built in video, photo and sound. The manual is the document where all of that is written down so it does not depend on who edits the video.

Real examples: Sunriu.Team and Santos Studio

Two examples from our work in which the manual was central to the project.

Sunriu.Team is a collective of photographers specialising in concerts, festivals and music events. They needed a professional identity from scratch. We did the full branding: logo, colour palette, typefaces, applications across different media and a visual system that could grow with them, as well as designing and building their website. The idea was for the brand to work just as well on the website, on their social media and on a press pass hanging round someone's neck at a festival. You can see it in the Sunriu.Team case.

Santos Studio is a tattoo and barber studio that trusted us from day one. There the work went beyond the manual: naming, logo, visual identity, stationery, shop signage and photography of the space. And afterwards, running their social media presence, with weekly video production, photography of their work and art direction for every session, with more than a hundred and fifty pieces produced. You can see it in the Santos Studio case.

This second case shows what a manual is really for. When the same brand produces content every week for years, the written rules are what make reel number one hundred and fifty as recognisable as the first.

When a company needs a brand manual

Not every brand needs a hundred-page manual. But almost all need some version of one at these moments.

When the brand is born. It is the best time: the identity is designed and documented at once, and nobody has bad habits to correct.

When the brand grows. If several people or suppliers start working on it, such as a designer, a social media agency, a printer or a production company, the manual stops each of them interpreting it their own way.

When there is a rebrand. A redesign without a manual comes undone within months, because old and new materials coexist and nobody knows which one rules.

When the brand starts doing video seriously. If you are going to publish reels every week, launch a podcast or run campaigns, the video section of the manual saves hours on every piece and makes everything look like the same family.

For a small brand, a basic manual of ten or fifteen pages with the essentials may be enough: logo, colour, typography, tone, and photo and video style. What matters is not the size of the document but that it gets used. A manual nobody opens is useless, however beautiful.

A practical tip: keep a folder next to the manual with ready-to-use files, such as the logo in every format, the typefaces, social media templates and video captions. That is what people appreciate most day to day.

How we do it at Bostak Films

At Bostak Films we are a creative agency and a production company, and that changes how we make a brand manual. We do not make it with only paper in mind, because afterwards it is us, or the brand's team, who have to film, photograph and edit with it. That is why our manuals include the video section from the start: captions, animated logo, image style, sound and social media formats.

The process begins with a conversation about the brand and its audience, continues with designing the identity or tidying up the existing one, and ends with the manual and the folder of ready-to-use files. If the brand needs it, we then go on to produce content applying that same manual, which is the best proof that it works. The art direction for each piece starts from there, as we explain in what art direction is.

We work from our studio in Viladecans, next to Barcelona, with brands in Barcelona, the Baix Llobregat and the rest of Spain. See how we work as a creative agency in Barcelona. If your brand has no manual, or has one nobody uses, book a free diagnosis and we will look together at what it needs.

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