We designed these guidelines to be a helpful resource, not a pain in the neck. We get it—nobody likes lots of rules, but if we follow them together:

The why statement is primarily an internal message, meant to help guide our work together and shape our vision for the future of Brightformat. We don’t want to water it down or let it get stale, so rather than using it in all our marketing or communications, we primarily want to use it in internal and long-term applications.

Great places to use our “why”:

• Trainings
• Employee handbooks
• Company-wide meetings
• Reports, documents

Less-than-great places to use our “why”:

• General marketing materials or branding
• Specific marketing campaigns
• Packaging

How can we connect with the customer’s needs?

• What are they worried about and how can we address their concern
• What are they excited about and how can we speak to their goals
• What’s their definition of success here?

How can we make this step in the process more fun?

• What’s the right way to present options?
• How can we make this delivery celebratory?
• What would make this installation more exciting?

How could we do this in an unexpected way?

• Are there creative ways we could cut production costs?
• Are there new technologies or techniques we could use for this project?

Colors vary greatly based on application. Colors displayed on this page follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and were selected specifically to be legible for various color perceptions.

Keep it brief
Fifteen minutes should be a ballpark maximum length for a tour. This gives people a full picture of capabilities but doesn’t risk losing attention. A great experience is more important than thorough information.

Ask questions and relate to their context
Try to approach these conversations more like a first date than like a job interview. The goal should be getting to know the other person, using the tour to learn about the customer’s world and needs.

Tailor the conversation to the audience
Present with an outline, not a script. Go further with whatever is getting a response, and breeze through anything that’s not connecting.

Give context to samples with stories
A typical piece and a really innovative piece can look pretty similar on the table. If you can tell some stories of how the project came together to produce the sample someone is holding, it makes the example far more memorable and interesting for the audience.

Educate without condescension
Some customers are experts, but for many people, the production side of design and communications may be very foreign. Explaining technologies and techniques without talking down to people can be one of the most valuable ways to build credibility and a foundation for partnership.

Safety first
Obviously, we don’t allow open-toed shoes or clothes that could otherwise be dangerous around the machinery we use. This is the only hard and fast rule on the list, but it’s here for every employee’s safety.

Look the part, but bring your personality
We wear simple t-shirts with our branding because it creates a good impression for visitng customers and helps remind us that we’re all working together. We want you to feel like your uniform is unique to you though, so we encourage everybody to choose their own fun motto/phrase for the back.

Please don’t make us need to write stricter guidelines
We don’t want to get deep in the details on what you can or can’t wear. We trust our employees to exercise good judgment around what’s appropriate for the workplace, and in turn, you can trust us to not be a pain about it.

Maximizing brand impact
Whether we’re doing a full show-and-tell with samples or just dropping off a revised proof, we create a positive impression, with appearance and demeanor in person or packaging and communication otherwise.

Make it personal and real
Representing the personality of the brand can be easy in a conversation, but if that’s not possible—little touches like adding a handwritten note or sending an extra message to inform the customer can help build the relationship.

Take the time to check the details
From making sure the van is clean to looking over the packaging and ensuring there’s packing slip, delivery is the right time to double-check things. This can be a big moment for clients and details make a difference.

Check it again
It’s a lot more efficient to double-check things than it is to fix a mistake or send another package. When things always arrive in the right packaging with the right contents and documentation, it makes us look really good.

Give it a personal touch
Attaching a mint is one small way we make our work a little more personal, but adding a handwritten note can make a huge difference, and helps build a relationship more than the best-written email.

Communicate before and after
People expect notifications for shipments today, so sending a message before shipping out a sample or project can give them a helpful heads up, and a follow-up message shows you’re paying attention to the relationship and making sure they’re satisfied.

Look the part
Whether the team is all from Brightformat or hired contractors, using a crew uniform is key to a professional impression and organized process.

Clarify the chain of communication
Make sure that there is a Brightformat point person for questions, and that everyone on site (and the client) knows to communicate through that person.

Communicate early and often
Help the client feel confident about what’s going on by providing updates with photos and info strategically throughout the process. These regular check-ins also make it easier to catch and solve problems.

Be careful and thorough
Paying attention to detail and double-checking saves time in the long run. Completing the install includes cleaning the space to create a great reveal.

Multiple mediums
Using both a video walkthrough and a printed piece (with a PDF online), we can ensure that people never feel confused about how to put their pieces together. Like IKEA or Lego, this makes the process of assembly straightforward and fun.

Instructions as marketing
Placing the video in a prominent place on the website can serve several purposes by explaining how the product works to prospective customers, demonstrating how easy it is to use, and sharing Brightformat’s personality.

Aligning our message
Taking the time to really think through the way we explain the product for these instructions can create a consistent message across the company.

1. New customer introductions
This interaction is focused on providing customers with a full experience of what Brighformat has to offer through exploration of previous work, a tour of the facility, and a conversation on the impact the customer hopes to create.

2. Trends + opportunities conversations
This interaction represents a conversation with customers or staff about emerging technologies, formats, and expressions, helping to explain the advantages or challenges that each poses.

3. Project reviews and prototyping
This interaction includes kicking off or reviewing progress for a project by discussing different directions and possibilities, with prepared examples and prototypes to serve as the centerpiece for discussion.

One message, one call to action
Keeping things simple in terms of message can be the key to engagement. Putting in extra effort to get to the core of the message and desired response can help your customers get there more quickly too.

When you tell a story, make it easy to follow
Storytelling takes some intuition and creativity, but making sure there’s a clear character and following the arc of how they overcame an obstacle or found a creative solution helps people engage with your narrative.

Spark a little joy for people
Emails and mailers are mostly boring and disposable. Anything you can do to make this moment fun or interesting makes the piece much more noticable, memorable, and valuable. Prioritize the “smile factor.” 

Make it about people
This one sounds obvious, but one of the easiest ways to make a story more engaging is just providing a character to follow. The character could be you, the client, or even just the people of an organization. Only talking about “what was made” for a project feels empty without a person involved.

Focus on change
Good stories show how people (or organizations) change. The best way to tie things together is to explain how a conflict was resolved or obstacle was overcome. Conflicts don’t need to be life and death—it could be as simple as wanting to create a great experience and not knowing how.

Premise, insight, change
Rules are made to be broken, but this is a simple structure to follow: a beginning that explains the premise and conflict, a middle that shows insight/creativity, and an end that concludes with what changed.

“Around the plant”
This is casual posts of fun or interesting moments throughout the plant. This form of content is already being executed well, and just needs to be kept up.

Employee highlights
This is humanizing the brand and giving special attention to employees who are joining, leaving, transitioning to another role, or more.

Project “behind the scenes”
This informal content shows creative problem-solving or capabilities at any stage in the process, from planning to installation or delivery.

Project “final results”
This more formal content showcases projects with artistic photography and a fuller description of project goals and outcomes, including quotes, statistics, or other pieces of evidence that demonstrate the impact of the work.

Use a consistent voice
Whether someone is just finding your phone number, evaluating you as a potential vendor, or wanting to check up on your newest projects, it’s important that the brand voice characteristics come through loud and clear.

Prioritize quality visuals
For samples, installations, capabilities, and more, the quality of the visuals you use to present your work can make or break someone’s impression. Good lighting, proper framing, and sufficient resolution are key.

Use people purposefully in images
Including people in shots can be helpful for making things friendlier and providing scale—but having someone’s shoe or finger poke into the shot doesn’t add much. Add life to images with faces, hands, and poses instead.

Brand identity
These videos are meant to simply flesh out the brand personality of Brightformat, from fun videos for holidays to profiles of employees.

Installation or final production videos
These videos would be just showing off the final stages of cool projects or pieces, giving people a sense of Brighformat’s best work.

Project story videos
These project stories would take a more narrative approach, including interviews, context, prototypes, and final results.

Educational or instructional videos
These videos would support product offerings while simultaneously highlighting product features or printing capabilities.