What is the point of creating a graphic charter?

Definition and content of a graphic charter

One Graphic charter is a reference document that summarizes all the rules for using the graphic elements of a company, a brand or a project. La Graphic charter presents for example:

• The logo;
• The fonts to be used;
• Color codes;
• The illustrations;
• etc...

For any organization, the graphic charter is a very important document that lays the foundations for future communications. At each release of a communication element, we can thus refer to the charter to guarantee a unity design on all supports.

The graphic charter has a role for maintaining visual harmony as well in internally on media such as the employee welcome pack, the newsletter, the intranet... But also in external on posters, social networks, such as YouTube, LinkedIn yet Pinterest, and especially for websites.

Difference between graphic charter, iconographic charter and brand book

In a company and more generally, in all types of organization, several reference documents are sometimes confused. This is the case with these three terms: Graphic charter, iconographic charter and Brand book. These terms are not that foreign, but they do not refer to the same documents.

La Graphic charter, as we saw earlier, is a document that describes all of the graphic elements of a brand (logo, colors, fonts...).

La iconographic charter, on the other hand, is built when a brand has created icons as part of its communication strategy. More generally, we list in this document: images, bullets, emoticons, icons, videos... It is a reference document for a company that has developed an entire very strong visual universe. For example, tech companies that design an application with specific buttons and visual elements often have an iconographic charter.

Finally, the Brand book is a document that brings together all the elements around the brand, as a whole. That is to say: the graphic elements, iconographic, but also editorials (editorial style, tone...). It is a summary of graphic, iconographic and editorial charters. The brand book is a strategic document that also answers the main questions about posturing Of the brand, its values, its targets.

Why is drawing up a graphic chart essential?

Unified and coherent communication

Can you imagine the impact - or rather the lack of impact - of a company that would constantly communicate with new colors? How could the customer correctly identify this chameleon brand?

Sounds complicated! Moreover, today, a change of logo or color for a brand always elicits a lot of reactions and apprehensions. Especially for big brands: “Will our customers like and “follow us” even after this brand repositioning?”

Because thegraphic universe of a brand is of paramount importance for it to be recognized by its customers and partners!

The graphic charter is undeniably a tool that has allowed each company to become more consistent and consistent in its marketing actions. Indeed, the charter imposes graphic rules for all future communications and in particular makes it possible to design a unique and harmonious website.

The more a brand imposes its own graphic identity on all its supports, the more it demonstrates its credibility with its prospects.

Impose your personality and differentiate yourself

THEgraphic identity of a business is important because it reflects personality of the brand. Finally, the graphic elements of a brand speak about it without appearing to be one.

See, it's not for nothing that most French banks use blue, green or black in their logo. Sober colors that are essential in this field that is banking. These colors indicate that a bank must be honest, serious, discreet and reliable.

On the contrary, a company that offers toys for children will most likely display happy colors in its visual communication with quirky, light typography.

In short, the graphic charter is the visual representation of a brand's personality. It is a reflection of the positioning and values of a company. In addition, you can express your uniqueness in your visual identity.

Retain and impress the minds of customers

The graphic chart, and more generally, thevisual identity of a brand, allows you to reach your targets, at any time. It's very simple, the graphic charter is a tool, at the service of brands, so that they can be identified by their prospects and customers.

If a brand has chosen to differentiate itself in its market by offering an innovative service, for example, it can express this difference with its graphic charter.

This is the best way to attract customers and prospects to yourself: The uniqueness of a visual identity reflects the uniqueness of the brand.

In addition, in communication, there are many supports! Commercial brochure, flyers, POS... But also publications on social networks or on the web. Maintaining a unit on each of its supports allowsbe quickly recognized by its prospects and customers.

How do I create a graphic charter? The key steps

Prerequisites: know your market

First and foremost, a brand must know the market Which it targets:

• Who exactly are its targets?
• Is the market B2B, B2C, or both?
• What is the business sector?
• Who are the competitors already in place in this market?
• What is the sales area (national, international...)?

This is important to have real graphic coherence between the graphic elements of a brand and the target audience.

For example, in the case of a multilingual brand, you will have to think about the variations for the different countries. While keeping in mind that colors and graphic codes are different from country to country.

The second phase of prerequisites is to know what others, competitors and partners are doing. Not to copy what is already being done, no. But for fully understand the market and its codes in which this future company or brand will be inserted.

The idea here is to succeed in having an overview of the graphic universe of the sector and of competitors. In this way, it will be easier to offer something different and to assert its uniqueness as a brand.

Step 1: Define your vision and your personas

Knowing who you are talking to, precisely, is the whole purpose of this first step in creating a graphic charter.

In this context, we will seeking to know yourself as a brand, and to have a vision on his ideal customer. Indeed: it will be difficult to communicate well if you have not thought about what makes you unique.

To do this, it is possible to rely on the MVB template (Minimum Viable Brand), which is based on this series of questions:

1. Why or vision : What is the vision of the company? What problem can the brand solve? What messages are you trying to get across? Finally, what is the interest of the company?
2. How or mission : What are the solutions offered by the company? What is the mission of the company?
3. What or”Quoi”: What are the company's solutions (products and services offered)?
4. Who or”whom”: What is the company's target, who are its ideal customers? What are the needs of the target?

💡 To know everything about your ideal customer, you can do the personas exercise: Our guide to the B to B persona to discover here.

Step 2: choose your communication media

As soon as the graphic charter is designed, we can already choose the communication media that we are going to use to communicate.

In reality, not all brands have an interest in communicating on all media. It depends on the market, the target, the communication priorities and also the budget!

The first thing you'll rely on will be your website. But you can also use your graphic design on your social networks, for your newsletter, in the production of your videos and even for your business cards!

Step 3: create the brand's graphic universe

At this stage of creation, it's time to make choices. Little by little, you will build theidentity of your brand.

At the end of this third step, you will know your logo, your colors, your typography, the style of illustration that suits you.

Here are some tips for successfully completing this creative phase. First of all, the creating your logo is probably the trickiest step. The logo is the first point of appeal of a brand. In the graphic chart, you must:

• Present the different versions of the logo;
• Indicate the dimensions of the logo (minimum dimensions, proportions to be respected);
• Give instructions on how to use the logo with different colors;
• Illustrate different uses of the logo on several selected communication media.

Then it will be necessary choose your colors. This choice is also very important because colors add personality to a brand.

In your graphic chart, you should ideally focus on 3 to 4 primary colors. Note their Pantone, CMYK, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, RGB, and HEX code. You can then select 3 to 4 other secondary colors.

Then comes the Choice of fonts. These, in the same way as for colors, should express the values of the company. So choose a style that is consistent with the brand tone. You must choose one to three fonts that will be used on all physical or digital media.

Finally, a final section lists the rules for using visual elements such as photographs, illustrations, images or even infographics. You can indicate the dimensions to be respected, the style to be preferred (pictogram styles, photographic atmosphere...).

Step 4: don't overlook graphic constraints

In any graphic chart, it is also appropriate to indicate the constraints to be respected in the use of the logo, colors, typography, illustrations.

First, the concepts of constraints must reveal the maximum proportions to be respected. We can also present the prohibitions for all media.

It is not uncommon to see a set of “bad practices not to follow” on a graphic charter. Thus, we can illustrate what a bad use of the logo would be (in terms of spacing, colors, outlines, etc.).

Likewise, to illustrate graphic preferences, we can show what does not correspond to the graphic universe (image or illustration).

By illustrating the graphic constraints in this way, they are then easier to assimilate so as not to reproduce them.

The tools to help you create your graphic charter

Creative support tools

To create their graphic charter, all graphic designers and creatives are familiar with graphic design and interface software such as the suite Adobe (or Creative Cloud), Sketch or Figma.

Unsurprisingly, the Adobe suite is undoubtedly the most used tool by all designers. To create a graphic chart, precisely, you can use Photoshop, Adobe Indesign or Illustrator.

The tool Sketch, which is probably more accessible, is also very practical because it allows you to create interfaces and presentations simply. It is also praised for its very powerful vector design tool.

You might also like Figma, a collaborative design tool known precisely for the ease with which several people can work on this tool. He is recognized for the design of websites and applications and you can also design your graphic charter there.

The tools to get inspired

When developing a graphic charter, you may need to find inspiration. Not to copy, but simply to find nice combinations of colors, fonts, or logos.

In this case, several sites are perfectly suited:

• Behance : it is the reference when you are a creator, designer, graphic designer. This platform brings together numerous creations proposed by professionals or amateurs. You can discover trendy projects, projects that reinvent the design of major brands or even fictional brand logos... Something to be inspired by to create your logo or graphic charter;
• Canva : it is a powerful online creation tool, designed so that everyone can learn the ins and outs of graphic design without having the knowledge of reference software such as Photoshop. Well know that you can find many presentation templates, logos, typography duos or color palettes on Canva that will be perfectly useful for your charter;
• Pinterest : a hybrid tool between social network and search engine, Pinterest offers a great diversity of examples of graphic projects (logos, charters, assortments of fonts, etc.).

The tools to choose the right colors

The choice of colors for your graphic charter is complex: you have to choose the right main color, but also the right secondary colors. In short, colors must correctly reflect the spirit of the brand.

But these colors must also be well matched to each other to create a beautiful harmony. There are a number of tools that can help you do this:

• Coolors : it is a free color palette generator that allows you to choose colors for your graphic chart that will go well together;
• Paletton offers to find all the colors complementary and opposite to a color: just choose the desired main color and the tool will suggest others for a nice assortment;
• Color Hunt : every day, discover new trendy color palettes on this website. Graphic designers and designers only have to be inspired for their creations;
• Stylifi Me is a practical tool that allows you, for example, to collect the colors and fonts used on a website that you liked. All you have to do is enter the URL of the site and the various elements of the graphic charter are waiting to be discovered.

Typography tools

Fortunately for the success of your graphics charters, there are also tools to find new Typography !

Indeed, there is nothing sadder than to see that your brand uses fonts that are seen everywhere. You can try to find new and original ones on various sites: Dafont or 1001 fonts.

The catalog of Google Fonts also offers a very interesting choice for the design of websites for example.

If, during a visit to a website, you particularly like a font used, it is also possible to know which font is used there. Font Ninja is an extension that is installed on web browsers and that allows you to know the name of the font and the spacing used.

Likewise, to properly match two fonts, use the website Make pair : you will be able to browse through numerous examples of font combinations that go very well together!

The tools to find visuals

The graphic universe of a brand also involves the images or illustrations that it uses in its various communications.

If you do not have the possibility to take photos of your products/services/premises, there are image banks. Several of them stand out for their choice and the quality of the images found there: Unsplash, Pixabay or Freepik are good references.

The best thing, however, is to plan a shoot with personalized photos: this really makes a difference in the face of customers and prospects.