How to Create a Style Guide
How many times have you dispatched business cards to print and collected yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been thrilled to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then observed that the crucial tag line is nowhere to be found or your logo has been squashed.
There is only one way to avoid this from happening and that is to set up a style guide. Not only will a style guide aid you control the reproduction of your logo - it will also help you strengthen your brand recognition – which many argue is one of the strongest selling tools.
We have placed the below steps together for you as a starting point.
Step 1 : Outline the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to utilize in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?
Step 2 : Define what your output uses are. This is important because you will require different logos and file formats for example, black and white publication adverts in comparison to vehicle graphics.
Step 3 : Define the tone for the copy and content required. For example you may needcopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.
Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to attribute to the business and team.
Step 4 : Assure you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding sits on all the different pieces of collateral that may be repeated.
Step 5 : Confirm to insert any contributing logos or logos of business that are linked with you. It’s also important that you issue a copy of the layout to these companies to insure they agree with the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.
Step 6 : Make sure that grammar, spelling and contact details are correct.
Step 7 : Make sure that when suppliers are using the Style Guide they understand~know~discern~apprehend} that a proof needs to be dispatched~sent~mailed~commissioned}to you to be approved as correct.
Make your Style Guide finished and as tight as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly suggest a training session – whereby your design studio comes in and trains your staff on how to use the Style Guide and most importantly your brand.
For graphic design Brisbane, logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today. We help your brand build business.
Sphere: Related ContentProjectors: LCD Verses DLP (The downfall of DLP technology)
The typical question asked when purchasing a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: should I get an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, which stands for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, standing for ‘digital light processing’ are the two top projector imaging technologies. With so many company brands and types available, it can be difficult for the buyer to pick between both technologies. The fact is that LCD projectors offer superior image quality and colour accuracy. The next paragraph tells you why DLP projectors struggle with reproducing a similar rate of image quality.
Imagine a set of blinds in your household over your bedroom window. By twisting a rod you can make the shutters open or closed, according to if you want to let light in or not. And such is exactly how an LCD projector functions. Each pixel operates like an individual shutter on a set of blinds to either allow light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is formed of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as the experts like to call them. Each pixel element functions to either reflect light or block it.
How the light source is processed from the point at which the projector switches on to when the picture reaches your screen is ultimately important for image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors process white light from the lamp by splitting it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which direct the coloured light to 3 stand alone LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels form the elements of the image by shining each pixel on and off. The pixels are then simultaneously processed in a glass prism to form the projector image. Something important to understad about LCD projectors is that all three colours are projected onto your screen at once. The way a DLP projector works is very different and even the final product of how an image appears is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is sent through a rotating colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This method of projecting an image forms a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors mentioned above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to produce the image elements. The elements of the image are cast in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s vision will then put together each coloured element of the image into a complete image. From LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to form the top level of brightness and superb colour accuracy. In DLP, just one colour is available at once, and so causing lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some DLP developers have included a white segment into the colour wheel to improve general brightness, but this also detracts from colour accuracy.
I find in forums all the time that DLP has a higher contrast ratio and as such must be better quality. For those who do not know, the contrast ratio is a measure of a display system defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest white to that of the darkest black that the machine is capable of producing. DLP projectors do have high contrast specifications in comparison to the majority of LCD projectors. At a glance, this seems to be an advantage, however, in reality, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room when the projector is used. Do not be hoodwinked by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.
When the content you want to project needs moving images, DLP projection technology can also create image errors, or ‘artifacts’. The most typical artifact that a DLP projector displays with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is unavoidable in DLP systems because moving images change between the time red, blue and green colours are displayed. LCD projectors do not have this disadvantage because the colours are sent with the others. DLP builders have come up with 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to solve the colour break up problem, but the expense of these projectors make them hardly practical for most businesses and consumers.
Another point of difference between LCD and DLP is how they make up for the refractive qualities of light. Jump back to high school science, and recall when they taught you how the different colours of light refract varied amounts when passing through the same lens. The problem with DLP projectors is that they use the one same panel and the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously different and refract light at different levels. Often with a DLP projector, a superfluous yellow colour will come through above and an extra blue will appear below an image containing something as simple as a single black line. In manufacturing LCD projectors can be set to take away these effects on the projected image, as each colour is refracted on separate LCD panels.
The sole real advantage (excluding price) with taking a DLP projector is its smaller size and weight. However, this is only relevant with regard to portability and has to be traded off against the image superiority of LCD projectors. If the result of the picture quality is vital to you, then the solution is a no-brainer. Go with an LCD projector! LCD projectors will constantly show bright, colourful images with fewer image mistakes. If you need to find out more about LCD technology in more detail, have a look at this fantastic resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any other questions, go to Projector Central and send me an email.
Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager for Projector Central, Australia’s leading online provider for projectors. Based in Brisbane, Projector Central has served Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in Brisbane and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.
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