What the heck are brand guidelines? And why do I need them?
Brand guidelines. Identity guidelines. Style guide. Brand book. Brand Bible… there are many names for the document your designer will hand you after creating your visual identity. They ensure that your brand is consistent across all touchpoints, from your website to your social media accounts, and everything in between.
It doesn’t matter what you call this document, but please understand that those guidelines are only referring to how your brand looks. Your brand doesn’t stop there.
If your brand was a person, your logo is just your face. It’s how you’re recognized on the surface. And consistency is crucial for building brand awareness and creating a strong visual identity.
Now, you and I both know that you’re more than just a pretty face. You have a personality and a heart. Not everyone loves you, but the people who matter do — your target market.
Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.
- Jeff Bezos, Amazon
People choose to spend time with you because of the way you make them feel when they’re around you. Customers choose to support you because they love what you stand for. That’s the deeper meaning of branding.
Having a set of defined brand identity guidelines is great. Think of it as having a capsule wardrobe for your company. They take the guesswork out of designing print materials and other brand elements, regardless of whether someone has worked with you for ten years or ten minutes.
So basically, if your business is suddenly unable to dress itself, there’s a rule saying it has to show up in a green shirt, blue jeans, and Blundstones and accessorize with only gold jewelry.
What’s included in a typical set of brand guidelines?
- Logos: full logos, including any secondary logos and icons created
- Colour palette: primary, secondary, and tertiary colours in CMYK, RGB, and Pantone
- Typography: font styles, sizes, and spacing for display, headings, and body copy.
- Other imagery: photo inspiration, illustrations, or artwork
- Logo usage rules: such as how much breathing room the image needs and how to make sure you’re using it the best you can
- If working with a copywriter, you may also have messaging/voice guidelines in there: how the brand uses language and emotion
Your brand fonts and hex codes will soon become as comfortable as your Blundstones. (Or Doc Martens… or Chuck Taylors.) But don’t forget to put in the work to define those other elements of your brand, too.
If you don’t have identity guidelines for your brand, now is the time to create them. Work with a professional designer to develop a style guide that covers all of the basics, from logo usage to color palettes to typography. Once you have your identity guidelines in place, make sure to use them consistently across all of your marketing materials. If that designer is me, I look forward to hearing from you!
