When delivering an expertly designed brand identity for a client, guidelines are an essential component — they ensure consistency and coherence by showing clients how to present brand assets across all touchpoints. However, creating these guidelines can be very time-consuming for busy design studios and agencies juggling multiple projects.
Brandpad, an online platform that serves as a centralised hub for guidelines and assets, was created to streamline and simplify the brand guideline creation process. Hailed as a “game-changer” for design studios, we were curious to hear directly from designers and see how the platform has aided their brand identity projects. Eager to learn more about what they offer? We spoke more to them earlier this year about their two new services.
“We needed a painless, good-looking way to create some online brand guidelines for a client,” North Design’s Director Stephen Gilmore tells us. The London-based branding agency took notice of Brandpad when they saw it being used for a similar client (MoMA) to theirs, “and the folk running it happened to be based in the same city as our project (Oslo),” Gilmore notes.
“We first used Brandpad for MUNCH, a new contemporary art museum set on Oslo’s waterfront, centred around the world’s largest collection of art by Edvard Munch.” The original museum had outgrown its original premises and moved to a new location in the city’s harbour district, with 11 exhibition halls spread over seven floors. To accompany the new bespoke building, Munchmuseet’s new graphic system, designed by the London agency, centres around a custom typeface created in collaboration with type foundry Radim Peško. This, Gilmore continues, was delivered across all digital and physical outputs and comprised a number of custom brand assets.
To execute this, North Design used one of the Brandpad guidelines templates, which they then modified to their specific needs. “It was very simple and intuitive for us to quickly get the guidelines online,” Gilmore adds. By streamlining the handover process, the adaptable system was made intuitive and accessible for the museum’s in-house design team to use and implement for future use.
“When considering an online guidelines service it is important to judge the stability of the platform going forward,” Gilmore says. “Will it continue to be supported and updated? Can I trust that my client’s guidelines will be reliably and securely hosted in the coming years?” For them, he responds, Brandpad has established a strong track record, giving the agency confidence in these areas. Reflecting on the project, Gilmore emphasises that “it was tremendously helpful to have a quick and easy way to distribute and maintain our brand assets.” He credits Brandpad’s success to their approach, which was created by designers, for designers. “Others have tried to copy but no one has matched their open and flexible approach,” he concludes.
Thank you North Design for sharing your insight with us!
Interested to know what Brandpad could do for your brand? Hit the links below to find out more, or you can browse more of our resource features.
brandpad.io
