Where style guides fit process

If you’ve ever worked on a site that evolves over time or for one that has pre-existing brand guidelines, then you probably know a bit about style guides.

Chris Coyier has kindly named some common style guide strategies, and talked about pros and cons for each:

• The Sidelines: The style guide is done after the fact from production work.
• The Dictator: Production must be based on style guide elements.
• The Hippie Colony: “The Style Guide builds the website, but the website builds the Style Guide as well. It’s just one set of assets, packaged up in different ways.”
• The Exhaust: The style guide is built from production assets.

The Hippie method sounds nice, but I think practically and from a test standpoint, I’d lean toward the exhaust method. The article and little images are worthwhile if this interests you, as it did me. I really need to create a Post Status style guide; it’s becoming more evident as the new design ages.