Airstream Style Guide
Once Element Three’s style guide was in place, Executive Creative Director Darren Halbig and I determined that a smart next step would be to create similar style guides for some of the marketing firm’s other top clients. Airstream, one of the world leaders in travel trailers, had been one of those top clients for years, so they were an obvious choice for the treatment.
Why was this necessary? It wasn’t necessarily for the firm’s own team, though it also turned out to be helpful for them. While a style guide would be nice to have when checking whether the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed, it was far more useful due to the way in which the team had to use outside talent in addition to the more-or-less permanent team Element Three had working with Airstream.
With a major client, there’s major work. Sometimes you simply have to bring in outside help, like freelancers, to get the job done right. And while freelancers are obviously skilled, they’ll lack the familiarity with the quirks of a brand that a full-time employee would have. Hence, a style guide.
Since the overarching principles of style at the firm had already been codified, the process of building a style guide for our Airstream work focused on two things in particular: differences between the style guide I’d built for Element Three and preferences of the client, and the brand and tone of voice particular to Airstream.
In addition to the fact that there were certain terms of use to be aware of—use “floor plan” rather than “floorplan,” all towables are called “travel trailers”—anyone new to writing for the Airstream brand needed to be able to match the way Airstream is supposed to feel. Inspirational, not focused on trailer stats. Never cocky or arrogant, but carrying the level of confidence in quality that’s been earned by nearly a century of American iconhood.
In short, the style guide needed to cover basically everything that a newly onboarded writer would need to make sure the first thing they wrote didn’t come back drenched in red ink.
