Discussing brands with new clients
It gets me every time a new business approaches us for a website or a piece of packaging or even an advertising campaign. “We’re open to ideas but our logo designer has created a brand guide for us so there are certain things you can’t do.”
A what? You have a what guide? Ok. Let’s take this from the beginning. You have a product and you have a logo. You may have some awareness of that logo and that product; you may have lots of awareness. But you almost certainly don’t have a brand. Coca-cola have a brand. Nike have a brand. EA Sports have a brand (we’d love to, thanks for asking) but you, do not, have, a, brand. Spend another couple of hundred million, wait twenty years and produce work that is consistent and then you might own a brand. For now, let’s get people just noticing you and let’s sell your apples shall we?
Ok, maybe the initial meeting shouldn’t go down in quite that way 
The point, however, is to be honest about a product’s position. There is no point straight-jacketing in its own “brand” guidelines when a less restrictive approach could lead to something far more exciting with with more potential for the product to actually become a brand way down the line.