When I started at Lightspeed in 2012, no brand guidelines had been used for at least three years. Under a manager with no marketing experience (promoted from the Customer Service department), I based all brand design on the company website. The site had been built in 2010 and not touched since. Soon a marketing director was hired, and we built a look and feel by taking the 2008 brand guidelines and the website and modernizing the look best we could. Codifying standards or templates was overtly discouraged during my 7-year tenure.
When we convinced management that a website re-design was needed to modernize the business (2017), we needed to provide brand guidelines to the agency making the site. I organized and led meetings to decide the new look and feel for the brand, then I created this document for the agency. After the site launched in 2018, I was able to add landing page examples and the new print collateral I’d developed. This guide was also given to freelance designers, video editors, and the IT guy for website maintenance.
Ann Hammer 