A brand guide, not a brand dictator

Previously, I called the most effective brand systems hippie dictators.

They're dictators because a good, useful system has to be incredibly clear and unapologetic about protecting and reinforcing the brand.

But they're also hippies because somehow, they are also annoyingly flexible and laid back

To reach this oxymoronic pinnacle brand design state of hippie dictator, a company has to identify the constant and variable aspects of its branding.

Then, this information needs to be documented in a brand manual or usage guide. 

The constants are easy to document. They are basically the rules.

But the inherent flexibility of the variables makes them tricky to document.

A smart brand manual will show acceptable and appropriate examples of the branding's flexibility and variation.

This is more like establishing a spectrum than a set of rules. 

"Kirby appears to operate with an open-form-based visual system, which enables the incorporation of new elements in the rules, driven by Kirby’s fundamentally simple components that create his body."

The variations of Nintendo's Kirby character retain at least the minimum amount of constants to be recognizable as Kirby while also taking on the constants of the things he's variating with. 

So, minimum amount of Kirby-ness + minimum amount of other-ness = an on-brand Kirby variation

 ✌️Rvw

PS. I think I have one more Kirby post in me. Coming soon...