Turn Brand Guidelines into Decision Rules
When updating brand guidelines means simply adding more examples, people facing a new situation often cannot find a page that applies.
Article Design Systems Property & Tourism
Tone of Voice Is Part of Identity
When an identity system governs only the visuals and leaves language to chance, a brand can look consistent yet sound like someone else. A stronger approach is to make tone of voice part of the identity system, with clear guidelines that put that decision into practice.
Key points
- An identity system should define how a brand speaks as well as how it looks.
- Leave this unchecked, and the same problem keeps returning: the brand looks consistent but sounds like someone else.
- Start by making tone-of-voice guidelines part of the identity system.
- Capture that decision in tone-of-voice guidelines, jointly owned by the brand and design teams.
- From then on, use one acceptance criterion: will a piece be sent back if its visuals are right but its tone is wrong?
01How Tone of Voice Translates into Practice
Putting tone of voice in a document does not make it part of the identity system. The first step in bringing it into practice is to embed its guidelines in the system itself.
If bringing the system into practice means merely shortening guidance that covers visuals alone, frontline teams face the same problem: the brand looks consistent but sounds like someone else.
Make tone-of-voice guidelines part of the identity system. Until then, the system still governs appearance while leaving language to chance.
02Where Tone of Voice Gets Distorted
Tone of voice is most often distorted when work is divided up. Each department takes a phrase it can use, without taking on the boundaries that come with it.
The result is an identity system that still governs only visuals, while teams struggle to explain why the brand looks consistent but sounds like someone else.
03The Smallest Usable Unit of Tone of Voice
The smallest usable unit of tone of voice is a judgment someone can apply on the spot. The guidelines should provide exactly that.
Frontline teams should be able to use the tone of voice without guessing what the brand team would think.
04The Tone of Voice Frontline Teams Receive
Whenever the system is updated, check one real application to see whether tone-of-voice guidance has slipped back into a system concerned only with visuals.
Rewriting is not necessarily a problem. The problem is failing to acknowledge when a rewrite changes the tone of voice.
05Who Exercises Judgment on Tone of Voice
The people using the guidelines need the authority to exercise judgment. Brand and design teams should jointly own the guidance, while giving frontline teams the right to reject work that falls outside it.
End the training with one question: will a piece be sent back if its visuals are right but its tone is wrong?
Framework
The Four Layers of Tone of Voice
From non-negotiable principles to tools people can use in practice, each layer answers one question, so tone of voice does not disappear into a system that governs only visuals.
L1Tone
This layer defines what is non-negotiable in tone of voice.
L2graphics
This layer turns tone of voice into criteria that can be checked.
L3Check Both
This layer defines how tone of voice can vary across contexts.
L4Return for Revision
This layer puts tone-of-voice guidance in users’ hands and makes the exceptions explicit.
Note: This diagram is a conceptual framework. It explains a way of thinking and is not statistical data. Source: Qingmei Future Insights.
Recommended actions
Action 01
Start from the site
Identify the moments when tone of voice is actually used within the identity system. Start there, rather than revising a system that only governs visuals.
Action 02
Keep it to one page
Use tone-of-voice guidelines in place of lengthy explanations. Keep only what supports the requirement: “Make tone of voice part of the identity system.”
Action 03
Judge it by one question
When updating the system, ask one question: will a piece be sent back if its visuals are right but its tone is wrong? If the answer is unclear, the decision has yet to take effect.
Action 04
Name the owner
The brand and design teams, together. Without an owner to maintain it, tone of voice will be quietly altered when conflicts arise.
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