The Elements (and ROI) of Document Styles

process

Apr 5

We’ve posted so much brand (and rebrand) work that we might be starting to lose count. But here’s the thing: Fundamentally, a brand must be consistent. You don’t have a brand if you can’t uniformly deploy your brand.

Just using the correct logo isn’t enough to stay on brand, either. A good brand identity also has collateral type (fonts) and colors—and there are usually rules about how those are used together.

When organizations are small—in headcount and outreach—it’s easy. Small teams working on a relatively small number of projects can maintain consistency. It’s even easier when those projects are simple, self-contained, and brief.

As organizations grow, they expand in many ways: reach, scope, and complexity. And that’s when a small team that relies on oral histories and institutional knowledge can begin to lose its way.

And, of course, that’s the worst possible time for how you present yourself to go off the rails. You’re finally really getting to the good stuff, and all of a sudden, Alex is using Papyrus on everything.

But how do you prevent this? You can’t subject Alex to the Ludovico Technique and make him review the brand guide. The good news is that “modern” software solved this problem back in 1985 when Aldus rolled out PageMaker.

Styles to the Rescue

Styles are instrumental because their whole purpose is to ensure consistency across a document. But they can’t do it alone; how you use them has a tremendous impact on their effectiveness.

There’s a case to be made that these early style efforts would go on to influence the development of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which manage the appearance of nearly any website you interact with today.

Declaring styles in your documents makes it clear that decisions have been made about your annual report section titles. Yeah, we’re looking at you and your Papyrus, Alex.

Case Study

A long-time client took on a recurring project from another organization. Project handoffs and team changes are precisely the situations perfect for inconsistency (and inefficiency!) to crop up.

Our client's team started fresh with InDesign—the right choice for a text-heavy document that would need to be updated regularly—and pulled together a highly functional document for end-users. Our client managed the detailed updates for a long time—and the finished product served their audience well. However, the process of producing those updated editions was quite time-consuming.

When the project came up for a rebrand, we offered to go in and apply the new brand to the primary printed piece as well.

Once we opened the InDesign files, we realized some production friction stemmed from style organization. It’s tough to know if you’ve applied the correct style when there are similarly named options to choose from.

Getting Hands On

Here’s some quick guidance on how to get the most from your styles.

Agree on Conventions

Much like developing a written style guide (we’re all pro-Oxford comma, right?), you need to plan for using styles. Having a common basis for using styles means that when new things come up, everyone is on the same page about adjusting and augmenting your styles.

Strict But Flexible

Yes, styles should be used consistently. But realize you’ll never get all the styles sorted out correctly on the first go. Be prepared to adapt as you encounter new elements you’ve not planned for or seen before.

Get Specific

You might be surprised at how many styles you need to cover everything—be thorough. Also, be specific in your naming.

I don’t think most people realize how important style specificity is! It makes a hell of a difference.

—Emily Combs

People using these things want to find the style they’re looking for and feel confident they’re using the right one. Consider a semantic naming scheme as part of the conventions.

Take a Minute

Does that look right? Does it look like the last one? Is there an element you’ve not had to apply a style to before? Do you need to create a new style? Ideally, put the thing out of sight overnight, come back with fresh eyes, and ask yourself those questions.

Are you in a hurry? We get it. Have a teammate (familiar with the brand) be your second set of eyes.

We’re detail focused here at HALO 22—and that attention goes beyond the finished product to include how something is made. That ‘how’ aspect is critical for ongoing and recurring projects. It allows us to maintain decades long consistency in journal covers.

Do you have a complex project print project in the works? Looking to rebrand and get more precise about how you pursue your goals? We’re ready if you are.