Have you ever wondered what should go into a style guide? I did. It’s such a broad topic – does it mean typography, design, color or the actual reporting and writing? Luckily, Rebecca Pendergast, assistant managing editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education. in Washington D.C. is an expert in this area and she will be writing on this topic for us.
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We’ve heard from some folks that they’re at a loss for what should go into a style guide. At each blog post, I’d like to highlight an element to consider when compiling a guide.
Please feel free to add your thoughts and descriptions or examples of what you’ve done or seen. Also, throw out some ideas of elements in style guides or questions to help me to focus on what you’d like to share and learn.
A style guide is an important piece to help organizations carry out consistent, clean and correct design. It presents the company’s or publication’s standards for design. It gives guidelines for typography, color, templates, libraries, white space, photos, page layouts and many other things the creator deems important to communicate to users.
A guide is helpful to paginators and designers so that they can consistently follow the design of the publication. A guide can specify the locations of assets on the server, and also contain basic instructions on pagination software and procedures.
In creating a guide, my first thought is always of the folks who will be using it and what they will need to know to help them do their job. It needs to give them a visual representation of the elements they’ll be using (i.e. headlines, cutlines, etc.), but also give them the specs (style sheet names along with specs) to help them put it into perspective. It should contain a quick reference to help them on deadline, but also enough information to give them the big picture of design standards for that publication or project.
OK, there’s a start. Let me know your thoughts.