I understand the use of italics for emphasis such as 'I really didn't like him.' But what in other circumstances? For example, do you use italics for brand names?

Not for brand names. Italics for titles of books/newspapers/magazines/TV&Radio/albums, foreign words, ships/aircraft/vehicles, a 'word or phrase where it's the object of discussion' and a few others. Short poems, song titles, album tracks, story titles, go in quotation marks, not itals. I think titles of artworks too, but I can't remember. I always think you italicise pub names but you don't.

There's a full list ('foreign words' has lots of rules) in New Hart's Rules, and Judith Butcher's Copy-Editing is fairly comprehensive too.

You want to look as if you know the rules, but the more obscure corners are a copy-editor's job, not ours...

Emma

Thanks for that! In a short story I'm writing I use the latin for CV would that be in italics? Also, what about company names?

No, not company names. Roman for CV, I'd say, and Oxf. Dic for Writers and Editors says roman for Curriculum Vitae, too.

Emma