The Project Style Guide

Professional academic writers often use style guides. These guides help the writer ensure that every paragraph and every page follows the same rules for formatting and for citing information. Following these guidelines allows for all of the information to be unified. These same strategies can be applied to web site design, as well as other design projects. Having a professional style guide created before you begin making changes to a web site, or a print project, ensures that the layout and appearance of the content will be consistent from page to page.

When we begin working on a web design project, the first step is to communicate with the client in order to plan the overall desired look and function of the web site. This may be accomplished using a creative brief. Once the design concept has been approved, the next step is to create a style guide. This is something that we provide as part of all of our web design packages because it is so important to the overall process.

The style guide is created before any coding has begun. This guide is an integral resource for the programmers as well as the clients. First, the programmers use the style guide while they create the coding in order to ensure that the layout is consistent from page to page. Even if a different programmer works on a different area of the site, because the team has a strong style guide, the entire project will still be cohesive, sensible, and coherent.

We also include these style guides for print projects. Whether the print project is one page, or an entire catalog, it is still crucial to have a plan in place. For print projects, the style guide includes information about typography, color, and best practices.

The style guide remains significant even after the project is completed. If requested, we provide a guide in PDF format so it can be shared within your organization. Within this style guide, the client will find simple instructions regarding how to make edits in the future without effecting the unity and consistency of the web site. For example, if you needed to update contact or product information, you could easily do so without having to hire a professional programmer. Thanks to the help of the style guide we provided, you can quickly make these changes while keeping your design looking flawless.