Knowing why the space is there

Every brand book has a rule about the empty space around the logo. Leave this much clear on every side. Never place it on a busy photograph. Never stretch it.

There are two ways to hold a rule like that.

The first is to obey it. The designer measures the margin, checks the colour codes and sends the file. When the brief fits the book, this works perfectly well. When it does not, the designer is stuck. A tiny banner, a shop sign read from a moving car, a pack printed in a hurry on cheap board: the book has no page for any of them, so the rule either gets broken clumsily or followed into something that does not work.

The second is to know why the rule exists. The space is there so the mark can be recognised in a glance, with nothing leaning on it. Once you know that, the tiny banner is not a crisis. You can see which part of the rule carries the weight and which part was written with a poster in mind. You can bend it on purpose, and the result still does the job the rule was protecting.

The first kind of person is useful, and easy to replace. Anyone holding the same book produces the same file. The second kind can keep working where the book runs out, can improve the book, and can tell a rule worth defending from one that has quietly gone stale.

Most guidelines are written as instructions. The good ones are read as reasons.