Hornblower: Brand Style Guide

My Role

Brand Strategy, Stakeholder Research

The Problem

Disclaimer: I am biased, but a brand style guide is one of the most important documents a company can have. When I joined Hornblower, their style guide only communicated design guidelines. No voice. No values. No, “is it on board or onboard?” (The question I was asked the most my time there). These guidelines are essential in creating a strong cohesive brand.

The Solution

Long story short, I created all of that.

How? So glad you asked!

I conducted a discovery session with the leadership on the corporate team, as well as directors at each port to learn about the Hornblower brand from their perspective. This consisted of questionnaires, in-person interviews, and brand personality exercises.

Taking this research, I worked directly with stakeholders to define their brand values and finalize their messaging. After establishing the core brand, I conducted an audit of our current copy to see where our biggest inconsistencies were. Sometimes we used the Oxford comma, sometimes we didn’t. The audit revealed what the majority was, which was then added to the guide. To my relief, the Oxford comma won.

Results

The new brand guidelines allowed Hornblower to move towards a more consistent, cohesive brand with a defined voice. It now serves as the go-to for creative development at a corporate and port level.

Personality workshop notes

Clips from style guide

Key Takeaways

When you have a lot of stakeholders, it can easily turn into a situation of too many voices in the room. I started by interviewing each stakeholder individually, then highlighted similarities in each one. This gave me a starting point to bring stakeholders into group meetings, knowing I could effectively guide the conversation.