# What Should a Corporate VI Manual Include?

Source: https://www.jvds.cn/en/share/brand-design/vi-guideline-contents
Language: en
Published: 2026-09-18
Author: JVDS Design Studio

Open a corporate VI manual produced by a traditional advertising agency ten years ago, and its four or five hundred pages may give you a shock. Look more closely, though, and you may find a full thirty pages specifying “how to print the logo on an ashtray,” “how to lay out a wall calendar,” “how to format fax letterhead,” and “what the nameplate on the boss’s desk should look like.” These items, which almost never come into use in today’s digital workplace, take up more than half the manual. Meanwhile, there is not a single page for the **website component guidelines, WeChat Official Account and Xiaohongshu cover masters, online roadshow PPT templates, and short-video end cards** that the marketing team urgently needs every day!

At [JVDS](https://www.jvds.cn/en/works/brand-design), we believe a good VI manual should never be a decorative object sold by its page count or weight. It should be **a practical instruction manual that in-house designers, marketing and operations staff, and external suppliers can pick up and apply immediately without mistakes**.

![Logo](https://www.jvds.cn/upload/2026/0824/1787562297800-353303.webp)

## Part One: Basic Identity System (Basic System — the brand’s constitution, not a single page can be omitted)

Regardless of company size, the basic section must firmly establish the following 6 core rules and include vector source files organized into folders:

![App screen](https://www.jvds.cn/upload/2026/0824/1787562298896-390332.webp)

1. **Core brand logo guidelines**: Define the primary logo graphic; the standard construction proportions of horizontal, vertical, and minimal icon versions (for small avatars and favicons); the minimum permitted size, such as no smaller than `12mm` in print or `24px` on screen; and the protected clear space around it.
2. **Reversed versions for light and dark backgrounds, and prohibited uses (Do's & Don'ts)**: Clearly specify which logo version to use on dark backgrounds, complex photographic backgrounds, and for monochrome foil stamping/etching. Use clear red crosses to mark prohibited practices such as unauthorized stretching, adding shadows, changing colors, or substituting fonts.
3. **Brand color system and functional proportions (Color Roles)**: Provide not only CMYK (print), Pantone (spot color), RGB, and HEX (screen code) values for primary, secondary, and neutral background colors, but also a clearly defined **60-30-10 rule for the proportions of visual area**.
4. **Chinese and English typographic hierarchy (Typography)**: Specify licensed commercial fonts for headings, body text, numerals, and code—or open-source fonts free for commercial use, such as Source Han Sans, HarmonyOS Sans, and Inter—as well as type scales and line-height ratios for main headings, subheadings, and body text.
5. **Brand supporting graphics and layout grids (Supergraphic & Grid)**: Develop a set of distinctive graphics or container border rules that can be flexibly cropped and extended, ensuring strong brand recognition even in layouts where enlarging the logo is impractical.
6. **Photography and illustration tone guide (Imagery Style)**: Define warm or cool image tones, how people are portrayed, compositional whitespace, and line-weight standards for technical illustrations.

## Part Two: Application Identity System (Application System — tailored to industry needs, with filler removed)

![E-manual](https://www.jvds.cn/upload/2026/0824/1787562299974-801362.webp)

Avoid applying the same checklist to every industry. Assemble the application section according to the principle of “digital touchpoints first + a curated selection of frequently used physical materials”:

| Application category | Frequently used essentials for modern companies (high usage) | Optional items by industry (tailored to need) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **1. Digital media and social media presence** | Core website visual style and UI component guidelines; WeChat Official Account header images (2.35:1 with a 1:1 safe area) and long-form article layout masters; vertical WeChat Channels/Xiaohongshu covers (3:4); and official account avatars and background images for each platform | 2-second animated short-video end cards (Outro), virtual backgrounds for online meetings, and EDM marketing email templates |
| **2. Business stationery and roadshow presentations** | **16:9 widescreen PPT masters for corporate introductions and sales proposals** (15–20 page layouts covering the title page, contents, text-and-image pages, data charts, case studies, and closing page), Chinese and English business cards, staff badges and lanyards, and backgrounds for external-facing WeCom business cards | Standard Word/PDF header templates for contracts and quotations, email signatures (Email Signature), document envelopes, and mailing envelopes |
| **3. Product packaging and physical spaces** | Corporate reception feature walls, glass safety strips for meeting rooms, standard brochure/product catalog master layouts, and shopping bags | **Manufacturing/consumer goods**: Inner and outer packaging cartons, printed box dielines, equipment nameplate stickers, standard exhibition booths (3×3m/6×6m), and roll-up banners; **services/retail stores**: Wayfinding signs and gift boxes |

Remove all the filler pages that have long been left behind by the times and replace them with working templates whose text and images can be swapped in one click in Figma, PPT, and Canva. Only then will your VI manual truly become a productivity tool for the whole company.