There have been a lot of exciting changes at Lifetime Creations. This blog post is part of our "Business Growth Insider" series. Read our other posts here. Our hope is that by sharing our journey and experiences, you may be able to discover something useful to apply within your own business or organization.

Elizabeth is our Graphic Designer at Lifetime Creations and created our own brand manual. It's been an invaluable asset for us to use throughout our marketing efforts.

A brand manual is a useful tool that establishes and outlines how a company’s brand should be presented. It can be as extensive or as simple as you’d like, it’s just important that it fulfills its purpose of providing a go-to guide of your brand. It is beneficial for growing businesses, as it helps a company establish itself with its audience.

In 2017, as Lifetime Creations began rebranding, we researched and asked essential questions about our brand. Everything about our brand was then compiled into our brand manual. Here’s a quick outline of how we created our brand manual, and some questions we asked ourselves in the process:

1. Introduction of Brand
Who are you? What is your company’s purpose and what does your company value? Who is your target market?

2. Logo
How does this logo convey your company’s message? What was the thought process behind your logo?
- Variations: Do you have a secondary logo that can be used? Are there specific instances when you should use one or the other?
- Color: What colors can be used in the logo? In what instances?
- Misusage: What are examples of how the logo should never be used?

3. Colors
What colors can be used for your branding & marketing materials?
- Primary Colors: What are the main colors of your brand that can be used?
- Secondary Colors: What colors can be used in conjunction with your primary colors? What instances is it acceptable to use a secondary color instead of a primary color?
- Usage: How often can you use the primary colors vs. secondary colors?

4. Fonts
What fonts/font families can be used in your branding? In what instances should these fonts be used?
- Usage: Do headlines or different sections of copy have a specific font style? Can you provide examples of how the fonts would be used?
- Misusage: What are examples of how these font should never be used?

5. Other Information
Is there anything else you want to outline that may be useful or unique to your company?*

* Lifetime Creations’ brand manual includes sections on how our social media should be used, how our email marketing should be designed, and new product designs should be created.

Lifetime Creations is an online personalized gift retailer and promotional products distributor.