Communicating your brand standards in a professional way is an important step to creating consistent and memorable branding.

Think of brand guidelines as the glue that holds your brand visually together. Without setting standards for your brand, your marketing efforts may fall short.

Below we’ll go through why you should prepare brand guidelines, what they should include, and who you should share the guidelines with.

Why should you have brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines, also called brand style guides, are documents that contain your brand’s identity standards all in one place. These guidelines will aid in creating visually consistent graphics that represent your brand.

Having a brand guide readily available not only gives you credibility as a business, but it also ensures that your brand will always look consistent, professional, and recognizable.

Without a brand guide, your creative team will be confronted with questions that could otherwise be answer if a brand guide had been provided. In some cases, creative decisions could be left up to interpretation by the designer – making the creative process lengthy and frustrating on both ends.

Handing over a brand guide to your creative team will give them an overview of your brand’s overall visual identity and serve as a starting point for any creative project.

What do brand guidelines include?

Brand guides include everything from logo variations to typography and photography standards. The amount of information you include can be as simple or detailed as you need.  

Here are some must haves to include in your new brand guide:

• LOGO
  Show all variations of your logo
• DO’s & DON’Ts
  Detail any branding do’s and don’ts
• COLORS
  Include your brand colors in CMYK and RGB
• TYPOGRAPHY
  List typography specifications for headings, subheadings, and body text
• PHOTOGRAPY
  Give examples of preferred photography styles or aesthetic
  (this can include stock images or your own professional photography)
• BRAND STORY
  Tell your story by including your slogan as well as your vision and mission statements

The list above is not all inclusive, but will make for a well rounded brand guide. Also, remember you can keep adding to your brand guide as your brand evolves and grows over time.

Who should you share your brand guidelines with?

Brand style guidelines should be shared with any creative professional, from creative freelancers to marketing agencies. If you have hired someone to do creative work on behalf of your brand – a brand guide is a must.

In general, you should supply your brand guidelines to:

• Graphic designers
• Web developers
• Video editors
• Print and sign shops
• Marketing agencies
• Internal staff and stakeholders

The key takeaway here is to make sure everyone in your creative team is on the same page with regards to your brand identity.

How to start your brand guide.

Create you brand guide using resources you already have access to, like Google Docs, or Microsoft Word. If you have access to the Adobe suite of apps, consider using Illustrator or InDesign.

GATHER ASSETS

Start by compiling all of your current creative assets – your logo and brand colors are a great place to start! Be sure to include your color palette in CMYK for print and RGB for digital.  

OUTLINE TYPOGRAPHY

Next think about the fonts you would like to use for all headlines, subheadings, and body text. Using the same typography set up for print and digital marketing is especially important for brand recognition.

CREATE AND SAVE

Organize your information compiled in one document – save it as a PDF and store it in your brand assets folder for easy access.

Need help?

No worries, there are many creatives ready to help. You can work with someone on your team, a freelance graphic designer, or a creative agency to help you come up with the perfect brand guide.

Stylimark Creative is here for you too – just reach out!