Brand guidelines

Brand guidelines turn a brand identity into rules other people can follow without asking the designer. Also called a brand book or style guide, they let a printer, a social media freelancer and a web developer produce material that looks like the same company.

They are not the same as a design system. Guidelines cover the brand across every medium, from vans to letterheads. A design system is narrower and deeper: the working components and rules for a digital product. A website's design system should follow the brand guidelines, not replace them.

How it works

A typical set of guidelines covers the logo and its versions, minimum sizes, clear space around it and forbidden alterations; the colour palette with exact values for screen and print; typefaces and how to use them; photography and illustration style; tone of voice with example phrases; and templates for common items. Good guidelines show correct and incorrect use side by side, because a picture of a stretched logo is clearer than a paragraph forbidding it.

They can be a PDF, but a web page is often easier to keep current and share. Either way, one person should own them and update them when the identity changes.

Guidelines work best when they include the files themselves, not just rules about them. A shared folder with logo files, font licences, colour values and templates, linked from the first page of the guide, means a supplier can apply the rules immediately. To test your own guidelines, give them to someone who has never worked with the business and ask them to make a simple social post. Every question they have to ask you points to a gap in the document.

Example

An accountancy firm uses a freelancer for social posts and a print shop for brochures. Without guidelines, the posts use a brighter blue and a different typeface, and the brochure squeezes the logo into a corner. A twelve-page guide with exact colour codes, two typefaces, logo spacing rules, three approved photo styles and five tone-of-voice examples fixes this, and new suppliers receive it on their first day.

The guide also settles questions the firm had been answering case by case. It states that the logo is never placed on busy photos, that photos of clients need written permission, and that the firm's name is always written in full, never abbreviated. When the print shop later asks whether the logo can be foil-printed, the answer is already there: only the one-colour version, in an approved finish.

Why it matters for your business

Guidelines save time and money every time someone new produces material, because they answer questions that would otherwise go back to the designer or the owner. They protect the investment made in the identity by keeping it consistent as the business grows. A one-person business may need only a single page listing logo files, colours and fonts; a firm with many suppliers or staff needs more detail and someone responsible for applying it.

Common mistakes

• Producing a long, beautiful brand book that nobody reads because it sits in one person's inbox.
• Listing colours without exact values for both screen and print.
• Covering the logo in detail but saying nothing about tone of voice or imagery.
• Never updating the guidelines after the website, products or audience change.

Questions people ask

What should brand guidelines include?

At minimum: logo versions and usage rules, colour values for screen and print, typefaces and sizes, imagery style and tone of voice. Useful additions are examples of correct and incorrect use, templates for social posts and documents, and the name of whoever approves new material. Keep it short enough that people will actually read it.

What is the difference between brand guidelines and a style guide?

The terms are often used interchangeably. Some teams use style guide to mean an editorial guide covering grammar, spelling and word choice, while brand guidelines cover the full visual and verbal identity. Others use style guide for a website's visual rules. Agree on what the document must cover rather than worrying about the name.

Do small businesses need brand guidelines?

A small business needs at least a simple one-page version listing logo files, colour codes, fonts and a few tone-of-voice rules. That is enough to keep a website, social posts and printed items consistent. A full brand book becomes worthwhile when several staff, freelancers or agencies produce material for the business.