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<!doctype html>
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<title>Geri Coady | Designer & Illustrator in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada | Blog</title>
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<a href="/" class="logo" title="Illustration, Design, and Photography in Newfoundland, Canada by Geri Coady"><h1>Illustration, Design, and Photography in Newfoundland, Canada by Geri Coady</h1></a>
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<h1>The Problem With Style Guides</h1>
<p>Posted in <a href="/blog/advertising">Advertising</a>, <a href="/blog/artanddesign">Art & Design</a>, <a href="/blog/webdesign">Web Design</a>, on <time pubdate datetime="2012-10-30T12:23:31-03:30">October 30, 2012</time></p>
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<p class="excerpt-lg">Last week, my friend <a href="http://rainypixels.com">Nishant Kothary</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/rainypixels/status/260867722357911553">tweeted</a> about how he had concluded that style guides are the “most useless design deliverables in existence.” Instead of discussing it over Twitter, we each decided to blog our thoughts. </p>
<p>I’ll say right away that I believe style guides for websites are headed down the right path and are an important asset. <a href="http://www.maban.co.uk/">Anna Debenham</a> wrote a <a href="http://24ways.org/2011/front-end-style-guides">great article</a> in last year’s 24 Ways about the benefits of front-end style guides. My problems with style guides stem from the traditional “graphic standards manuals” that are either written as though they are carved in stone and ruled with an iron first, or, style guides that seem like complete afterthoughts and aren’t enforced in any way at all.</p>
<q>While it’s very important to keep the most critical elements of a brand consistent across all materials, there should be more opportunity for discussion with the brand guardians if new ideas are proposed.</q>
<p>Style guides are intended to protect the integrity of the brand when in the hands of other designers. They’re meant to make workflow faster and to reduce the number of decisions a designer has to make. While the intentions are good, most style guides that I’ve worked with have created problems, too.</p>
<h2>Stifling Creativity</h2>
<p>Working at an advertising agency, I’ve had to work with many graphic standards manuals from large companies and organizations. Most guides share common elements like rules for approved typefaces, colour palettes, and logo usage; but others have been dozens and dozens of pages in length, spelling out every detail of what’s allowed and what’s forbidden. These guides can be so strict that it can be virtually impossible to introduce a little creativity. You might not be allowed to place a logo over a photograph, even if it’s perfectly legible. You might be forced to place a logo at the bottom right-hand side of a page every time, even though it might look better in your design if it was centered on the page. Often, you’ll need to send your work back for approval, and if you don’t adhere to the rules, it’ll be rejected. While it’s very important to keep the most critical elements of a brand consistent across all materials, there should be more opportunity for discussion with the brand guardians if new ideas are proposed.</p>
<p><img src="http://hellogeri.com/images/uploads/blog/blog_ucla_styleguide.jpg" alt="UCLA Style Guide" width="675" height="561" /></p>
<p>Style guides are intended to protect the integrity of the brand when in the hands of other designers. They’re meant to make workflow faster and to reduce the number of decisions a designer has to make. While the intentions are good, most style guides that I’ve worked with have created problems, too.</p>
<h2>Being a “Brand Guardian” Isn’t Easy</h2>
<p>If you’re publishing a style guide intended for use by designers and developers on a internal team, there’s a decent chance that it will be followed. The heavily-referenced <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/static/reference/styleguide/">Starbucks style guide</a> comes to mind, here. If you’re creating a style guide that’s going to be shared with people outside of the design department who may not even have design skills, things can quickly fall apart. One of the worst offenders I’ve seen for this are universities. </p>
<p>Here is a sample of some code. It is a fancy <code><blockquote></code>.</p>
<h2>Updates</h2>
<ol>
<li>She sat down on the grass and looked at her companions, and they sat down and looked at her, and Toto found that for the first time in his life he was too tired to chase a butterfly that flew past his head.</li>
<li>"Oh, I'm not afraid," replied the Scarecrow.</li>
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<h3>About Me</h3>
<p>I’m Geri Coady—a designer and illustrator living and working in St. John’s Newfoundland—the most easterly city in North America. I've got an eye for detail, a passion for the web, and I'm ready to work with clients worldwide. <a href="about">Want to learn more?</a></p>
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<h1>7 Comments</h1>
<article class="comment" id="r1245">
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<img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/414baf1998458160c4cb3c37f6876eb4" alt="Jacob Halton">
<ul>
<li>Jacob Halton</li>
<li><time pubdate datetime="2012-10-30T16:07:20-03:30">Oct 30/12 at 4:07PM</time></li>
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<div class="comment-body">
<p>A well designed brand style guide maintained by a good creative director/team will hold up the brand's integrity.</p>
<p>A style guide is meant to be just that, a guide. If you use it as some kind of "bible" for the brand, it'll just get stale and boring really fast.</p>
<p>To NOT have brand guidelines is asking for non-cohesive communication material and different variations on the brand depending on what designer is working on it. Then again, even a good brand guideline in the hands of a bad designer is worthless for anything more than maybe light consistency.</p>
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<article class="comment" id="r1274">
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<img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/482e98f1d5afb6d335ffb746e4f6ec57" alt="Ben">
<ul>
<li>Ben</li>
<li><time pubdate datetime="2012-11-07T04:27:04-03:30">Nov 7/12 at 4:27AM</time></li>
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<div class="comment-body">
<p>Thanks Geri, this is a nice round up and references quite a few sources I'm happy to know about.</p>
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<article class="comment" id="r1327">
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<img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/11ff4245cfa2e3c160f9bc9349a9bcfc" alt="Krishna Solanki">
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<li>Krishna Solanki</li>
<li><time pubdate datetime="2012-12-05T06:48:03-03:30">Dec 5/12 at 6:48AM</time></li>
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<p>Good read, some interesting thoughts, and definitely agree.. a style guide is just that—a guide! </p>
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<p>Accepting work from July 2013</p>
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<p><a href="/blog/archive">View All</a></p>
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<p><a href="#">Interlink</a></p>
<p>June 5–6, 2013</p>
<p>Vancouver, BC</p>
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<li class="toronto">
<p><a href="#">Future of Web Design</a></p>
<p>Oct. 8–9, 2013</p>
<p>New York, NY</p>
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<li class="halifax">
<p><a href="#">HPX Digital</a></p>
<p>Oct. 23–25, 2013</p>
<p>Halifax, NS</p>
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<p><a href="/speaking">Past Events</a></p>
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<h2>Pocket Guide to Colour Accessibility</h2>
<a href="http://www.fivesimplesteps.com/products/colour-accessibility"><img src="img/GeriCoady-ColourAccessibility.png" alt="Pocket Guide to Colour Accessibility by Geri Coady"></a>
<p>My new book, <em>Pocket Guide to Colour Accessibility</em>, will help you create beautiful designs that are accessible to people with colour-blindness. Grab a copy over at <a href="http://www.fivesimplesteps.com/products/colour-accessibility">Five Simple Steps!</a></p>
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