Multiple Companies Collaborating on a Single Design Using Branding Guidelines

Question

I am working with a couple of companies in different industries where we will be making a single design for all companies where we are all represented equally in the design. We all have different branding guidelines.

1 of the companies is insisting we use their font choice, for my situation they want to use a specific font. Personally I don't want to use their font since I am the one putting it together and I have used a font I think is more appropriate for the design space. In retrospect, their request is to use Century Gothic and I would like to use Gotham Condensed Medium, so not too drastic.

Is this something I should fight? Say, since we are all equal in the design, part of each of our branding guidelines does not apply.

Answer 1

The keyword is brand.

If the collateral piece is not to be branded for a single company, then their brand guidelines do not apply to the entire piece because it's not their company's collateral.

A collaborative work needs to be collaborative and allow each entity (company) to feel their brand is represented well and accurately. Beyond that, the piece should be somewhat autonomous.

Using one company's guidelines to encompass the entire collaborative piece gives that brand a more notable presence in the design. If that's the goal then okay. If that's not the goal, I would actually suggest not using any typeface designated by any of the companies guidelines, but rather a wholly independent typeface.

Sidebar: I'm not a fan of Gotham at all. I find it rather pedestrian and in some instances unattractive. Gotham condensed even more so. The Hoefler version is okay, but just okay. The many knock-off versions can get pretty bad. It's not impossible that this particular company feels the same way about Gotham and may be asking you use their guideline's typeface because they just don't like Gotham.