The YouTube brand team developed an ambitious evolution of the company's brand standards, and needed to make a statement off the screen—in the real world. We created YouTube's first ever printed design manual. The book was distributed to employees and partners. The main challenge was to tell the history of YouTube while also reflecting how the diverse platform expresses itself through design. Through visual story-telling, the book celebrates the brand and covering chapters on the logo design, typography, color, iconography, illustration, photography, patterns, and shows how the design comes to life through YouTube's visual system.

The internet is ever changing, so we wanted to look back at YouTube's first 15 years and document a bit of our history and mark where we are today. We set out to publish the first archive of design at YouTube.

YouTube Standards is a visual catalog capturing the platform dynamic identity system across several brand elements. It shows how we present ourselves to the world. The book design is a hard bound book, with 4 color print, smyth sewn binding, and edge printing. The book spans 326 pages, divided into nine chapters, with each section leveraging different paper textures and colors (gloss, eggshell, smooth, pastel pink, pastel blue, light gray).

These chapters include an introductory photo essay, the history of YouTube, philosophy, logos, iconography, color, imagery, and visual system. The changes in paper throughout the book reflects the diversity, dynamism, and fluidity of YouTube's platform.

Through this book, we celebrate the brand, translating its values into physical form and lending some permanence to the internet's quintessentially ephemeral and digital experience. The YouTube Standards book is a visual reflection of how the platform is brought to life.