The more experienced I become as a graphic designer, the more I rely on dynamic branding systems. Traditionally, branding is created with logos, fonts, colors, spacing, imagery, language, rules, and it’s wrapped up into a neat little package of a style guide. 1/

This is the process we millennial designers have been taught and it’s been the industry standard for like 50 years. NASA released a brand style guide in 1975, not too long after the US landed on the moon for the first time. Before the internet existed. It was a printed manual. 2/

But it’s getting harder to design in this linear way using brand style guides because design exists everywhere in every type of media... media that didn’t exist when style guides became the standard. I’ve found myself needing more fluidity. 3/

If your style guide is rigid, your brand will become boring. You get bogged down by rules. Never evolving with the changing times. Sure, you can always redesign your brand and its style guide. But if you want your brand to last you need to have the ability for flexibility. 4/

I have found that thinking in terms of systems has helped tremendously. The business as a whole is a system, including each subset of the business (marketing campaigns, website, packaging, etc.). This system must be cohesive to work and must be the sum of all parts. 5/

So how does that relate to branding? Well, it has everything to do with branding. Each facet of your brand is also a system. A logo is a system. A font is a system. They can be manipulated and modified but still function as part of a whole. Like replacing parts of a car. 6/

I know this is getting stupidly conceptual but stick with me. Let’s talk about fonts as an example. In most style guides a specific font is selected for specific uses. Ex: use x font at y size for headlines. That’s dumb because font sizes are different for web vs print. 7/

You would have to create specific rules for each type of media you design for. Even within the same type of media you have differences. A font size will change if you’re designing for a booklet vs designing for a billboard, even though they’re both considered print media. 8/

There are a million little things like this in design. The favicon for your website? Yeah, there’s no way your normal logo with text will fit or be readable there. You need a simple insignia as a favicon. Which means your logo needs multiple forms. All media is different. 9/

So rather than set hard rules for fonts, use the font as a system. Define which font to use but don’t put limitations on it. Allow it room to be manipulated and modified. Hell, I don’t even think making rules like “all headlines use x font” is helpful anymore. 10/

Or even deciding the weight of a font. Defining which weight to use will give you a headache. Thin fonts don’t work well for print, especially if you’re using a web press for printing. You get weird bleeding effects. But online? Thin fonts look beautiful on screens. 11/

Little things like this make it difficult to create hard rules, which is why I don’t like working in this linear way. When you treat a font as a system, you understand that you’re operating within a certain boundary (the chosen font itself) but it can be modified. 12/

If you’re worried that your branding won’t look cohesive with no hard rules in place, don’t be. If you built the foundation of your system properly you won’t have this issue. There is still a cohesion. You’re still using the same fonts across the whole brand. 13/

How do you build your system properly? By getting the fundamentals right. By selecting the right fonts that convey the vibe you want, that have multiple weights to accommodate any type of media, that are functional regardless of where you put them. 14/

The beginning, when you’re creating the fundamentals, is where you need to be specific. This is where your design knowledge is crucial. But after you create your boundaries? Go wild within your boundaries. Hell, you should even be testing your boundaries. See how far to push. 15/

I often find I do my best work when I’m testing the boundaries of my systems. But that’s the point, I CAN test it. It’s a system, not a rule I must abide to. I have the flexibility to change without losing my brand’s aesthetic in the process. Hopefully this made sense. 16/

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk about why I think brand guidelines are outdated. 17/17