Create your basic identity guide

If you are anything like me and you have your personal logo for use on your website or whatever, you probably just have one version saved in an AI document. You open it whenever needed and adapt it on the fly to whatever you might be using it for. I did the same thing for years.

However, with the new Signalnoise project I’m working on I realized that wasn’t going to cut it. I will be needing to send my logo to other people for use across a few different mediums, on different colors, using a different colors, etc and I would be spending a lot of time asking these questions and creating the logo per task. That eats up a lot of time, so I spent a little while thinking about my identity and creating different versions for use in these situations, in the form of a basic identity AI document.

Some of you might have learned about Brand Standards Manuals in school, where you create a book of rules and regulations on how the logo will be used. You might not need to do it to that extent for your personal identity, but it’s good general practice to think about these alternate variations of your identity and create them in one document. Not only will it point out problems (like color variations), but it will create a nice accessible library you can grab quickly or send to those who might need it. Think about things like: will you be printing on black or white? Will your logo be 1-color or full color? Will there be a wordmark or just an icon? It’s interesting stuff, and will certainly strengthen your personal identity.

Need a hand? Download the Signalnoise Basic Identity (AI, CS4) and have a look.