Nowadays brand guidelines are more of an afterthought. Here is how the spacing works, these are the brand colors and please for the love of god don’t place the logo on a messy background. 99% will fit the same template. A lengthy corporate document one rarely wants to look.40 or 50 years ago this was not the case. Brand guidelines used to be beautiful pieces of work which carry the original vision and aesthetic of the author. A sign of an era where visual identities were crafted by world class artists.Some of the examples below were published as a book years later. I’ve included links for the graphic design junkies who need these in their bookshelves.
Source: Iconic brand guidelines and logo manuals from 60s, 70s and 80s