INTRODUCTION TO THE GRAPHIC CHARTER
The graphic charter is in a way the instructions for using the visual identity of a brand. It presents all of the print and web usage rules for your visual identity, whether internally with your employees or externally with your partners or service providers.
Whether rather simple or convoluted, its definition is not done lightly and requires (all the same!) Several hours of work. It is an important step in the life of a business.
WHAT IS A GRAPHIC CHARTER?
In short, it’s a folder of a few pages, which will define all the visual and typographical elements that will be related to your company: logo, reference colors, ancillary objects, fonts, etc.
The graphic charter is there to then explain precisely their uses for the creation of print and web media: business cards and letterhead of course, but also newsletter, landing page, call to action …
WHAT IS A GRAPHIC CHARTER FOR?
Above all, it allows you to maintain a certain harmony between all the media published by your company.
Thus, all your invoices, blog notes, or business cards will have the same use of your visual identity.
A well-defined and effective graphic charter should make it possible to identify your brand quickly, at first glance. To be sure, look to the achievements of large multinationals: Coca Cola? Societe Generale? Ferrero? What makes you easy to recognize them?
On a small scale, the graphic charter identifies you with customers and employees; on a large scale, it can help establish your brand with the general public.
This is where our last point comes in: a graphic charter also peddles a bunch of subtle and implied elements, which will create associations of implicit ideas in the minds of your interlocutors.
This is why it is interesting to carefully choose its colors, the overall graphic rendering, or the typography to have a harmonious rendering. But it is also very important to take care of the associations of ideas generated: they must be in accordance with your operating policy and/or the image you wish to convey.
WHAT DOES A GRAPHIC CHARTER CONTAIN?
A graphic charter can be more or less provided. You can also decide to make two,
- A graphic charter for print
- A graphic charter for the web
Here are the classic elements that can be found in any graphic charter:
The logo
A real identity photo of your company or your brand, it is often the centerpiece and the starting point of your charter.
The typographies
In this part are referenced the different typographies that you use as well as their uses according to the editorial hierarchy :
- Title
- Title
- Paragraph
- ..
Colors
Ideally, the fewer there are, the more easily they are remembered. We must therefore limit the number: no more than 3 or even maximum! It can be interesting to define in these the main color, really present in all your supports and graphic elements print and web.
The imaged attributes
The pictorial attributes represent your brand, complementing or replacing your logo. It can be a simplified logo, affixed to certain official stamps or more sober documents (RIB, invoices, etc.), or symbols that you want to associate with your brand such as for example the purple cow at Milka, or the little robot from Pixar.
The rules for using and inserting the different graphic elements
In the rules of use and insertion we find in particular the margins to be respected, the outlines, and the integration of the attribute in a text or another document. It can also be rules for the transition of the logo and graphic elements to black and white.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the creation of your graphic charter is an important task for which you must be rigorous. It represents your company or your brand and will facilitate its memorization. A true avatar in the eyes of the public, it is also useful within your company itself by facilitating exchanges with your service providers and what the Anglo-Saxons call “corporate design”. Employees who identify well with a brand, and have a good image (thanks to the implicit elements we talked about above).
It can be done in an “artisanal” way, but it will be all the more impactful when it is entrusted to image professionals. A relevant graphic charter is a good part of your successful communication strategy!
You have just created your company and you want to structure its visual identity? Are your graphic charter aging and do you want to update it?
