Principle of Order

The concept of a principle of order should be important to any corporate design. It may not be a distinctive chapter in every manual but there are always hints of it included in other parts.

Clear Space

Most corporate designs define rules for clear space. It is the space that has to be empty and cannot be violated. It can be defined for almost any visual element of the corporate design but the most common is to define it for the Logo. Usually, it defines that nothing can be put inside a radius of one x-height.

Grid

A grid is a consistent system for placing objects. In print and graphic design where there is nondynamic content and a nondynamic format a grid works on 3 levels: At the unit level of cells, at the column level and at the row level. In dynamic design most of the time, it just works on the unit and the column level because the vertical length of content can be changing. Sometimes companies define a general grid for all their applications but it is more common to have similar but different layout grids for different uses.