Manuals 2. Design & Identity Guidelines

Manuals 2 is a comprehensive study of corporate identity manuals from the golden era of identity design.

As a companion volume to Manuals 1, Manuals 2 is a carefully-curated collection of 20th-century style guides, or as Steven Heller calls them – “sacred texts, revered for how they help shift graphic design from simply an intuitive practice to a rigorously strategic one”.

In today's landscape, designers and, increasingly, non-designers rely on digital templates to implement brand identities – fast, accurate and easily updatable, these digital manuals are now obligatory. But, in the eyes of many, we have lost something in the transition to digital style guides, and there is a growing recognition that the great printed standards manuals from the pre-digital era deserve a better fate than to be junked. Manuals 2 makes a strong case for their survival and continued appreciation.