Introducing Standards, a web-based tool that simplifies the creation, updating, and distribution of brand style guides. Could this application end the reign of PDF brand manuals?
For many in the design community, the tedium of the traditional brand guideline PDF is well-known. Continuous changes necessitate frequent redistribution, leading to a scramble to find the most up-to-date file with the accurate guidelines to follow. It can quickly devolve into chaos.
Challenging this antiquated method, Hamish Smyth developed Standards, a revolutionary tool that empowers users to craft, publish, and circulate high-quality brand guidelines akin to those found on websites. The most appealing aspect? There’s no requirement for personal website ownership or coding knowledge to start.
Standards provides a platform for designers and clients to collaborate on brand guidelines that are hosted online. Credit: Standards
With Standards, you can enable clients and team members to access the guidelines in a central location. Any modifications are reflected in real-time. The platform also supports the integration of dynamic elements such as animations, videos, photographs, and color palettes, allowing you to emphasize key components of the brand guidelines.
Standards doesn’t sacrifice accuracy for convenience. Users can rely on it to provide all the detailed features of a traditional PDF, minus the outdated information and nonfunctional hyperlinks.
For those having trouble picturing how Standards works in action, the platform’s website showcases stellar examples. The brand guidelines for SkillShare and RISD are showcases worth exploring and are among the ones I favor the most.
