What are Brand Guidelines?
At its most basic level, your brand identity is how you want your audience to perceive your brand. Once you have this established, your Brand Guidelines will help cement this across everything that you do.
If you work across multiple departments, third party contractors, freelancers and agencies, having a definitive Brand Guidelines document is a simple way to ensure that your brand is consistent across all touchpoints, as well as saving you time and money in the long run.
A Brand Guidelines document is a compilation of all your standard visual and written assets, as well as information on the background and values of your brand that will help to inform creative, copy and content. Your finalised Brand Guidelines will be like the Bible of your brand. It should be easily shared and accessible to all in the company and all that work for you. It is essential that it is referenced when producing any and all artwork, creative or marketing collateral. It should also be regularly reviewed and updated as your company, brand, or sub-brands evolve and change over time.
Why are Brand Guidelines important?
Guidelines are essential for the success of brand, messages and content. They help to ensure that there is no inconsistency, contradiction or miscommunication when speaking to your customers or audience. Inconsistencies in branding and messaging can seem sloppy, confusing, or off-putting. A set style and tone fosters confidence, authenticity, trust, and reliability. Consistency is key.
How to create brand guidelines
You may want to look objectively at your company by speaking to a selection of employees and also customers as to their perception of the company’s current brand. If you have a set of values or brand pillars, that’s a good place to start. Most companies will also have a logo as par for the course. Review these carefully. What do they say? What do they mean? What do they imply? And do they all work well together? It’s not just what they say but also how they say it. Do they align with how you want to be seen in the market? How do they compare with what your competitors are doing?
Once you have these questions figured out you should make a list of all the most essential elements you will need to include and over what mediums.
All companies and brands, big or small, old or new, should have a conclusive and robust Brand Guidelines document in order to present a consistent brand identity to their target audience. Depending on your needs, this could consist of just a few pages of basic, standard information or it could run into dozens of pages of in-depth material and instructions.
The timeline for creating a Brand Guidelines document will vary for each company and whether you already have a set of guidelines that just need updating or you’re starting from scratch.
What to include in your Brand Guidelines
Logo
The logo – the central touchpoint on which the rest of your brand is built. Get your logo right and the rest will fall into place.
This section of your Brand Guidelines will often be the most important and most consistently referred to, as your logo should be included on all marketing materials. You should include your standard company logo, as well as all possible iterations – black and white, white on black, black on white, with or without straplines/taglines, horizontal, vertical, individual icons, etc.
You may even have a secondary logo for use in circumstances when the standard one is impractical or won’t fit – such as social media. State what logos are to be used where and in what context.
Be specific about the sizing and proportions and even the space around the logo. You may want to include a list of dos and don’ts.
Colour Palette
Colours are an essential element to your Brand identity. Your primary colours will most likely be pulled from those used in your logo, and/or a selection of three or four colours that compliment your logo. When choosing colours you must consider what they convey and how they will be used.
You will also want to include a secondary colour palette that is usually a selection of hues based on the primary palette. Indicate when the primary palette and when the secondary palette are to be used.
Record all colours in this section and detail with PANTONE, CYMK (print), RGB and HEX codes (digital) to ensure that the correct colours are always referenced.
Fonts and Typography
Similar to the Logo and Colour Palette sections, the Fonts and Typography section of the Guidelines will include all fonts associated with your brand. As well as information on usage, such as what fonts are used for which types of collateral, and what mediums. You may use different fonts, weights and sizes for headings, sub-headings, body copy etc. so be as specific as possible.
Some brands have set rules such as how and when to use capitals and numericals and even standardised practices for grammar and punctuation. Maybe your company name is always to be in bold or capitals?
In your document remember to list the reasonings behind your choices, alignment, spacing and if there are alternative fonts that can be used in certain circumstances.
Imagery and Icons
You may already have a basic idea of how you would like to visually represent your brand, but it is very important that the images and photography that you use be consistent to create a true visual identity for your brand that flows through all materials and on all mediums.
Will you use illustration? Does your illustration style work alongside photography or will your visual identity be solely illustrative? Do the colours in your logo and colour palette lend themselves to an illustrative style?
If using photography, will it be reportage or lifestyle? Candid or posed? Professional or casual? Will you rely on a bank of stock images or invest in regular professional photoshoots?
When are Icons relevant to use, and where? Is there a specific style or colour(s) to be used? Do they need to be kept at a specific size? Icons are regularly used on things such as social media icons, mobile apps, websites and documentation, so it’s important that rules are in place for their usage.
Tone of Voice
First person or third person, capitals or non capitals, ‘&’ or ‘and’, numerical or written numbers, length of sentences, choices of words. These are all small things that may seem trivial in the long run but they all add up to a tonally consistent voice that will help to recognise and identify your brand as you.
To best convey your chosen tone, use examples of how you may say things and how you definitely wouldn’t. Include words or phrases to use or not to use and information of formatting and structure.
Your mission and values will help set the tone too; are you friendly and easy going, or professional and knowledgeable?
Examples
In order to fully convey all these rules and guidelines you may want to end your Brand Guidelines with some live examples of assets and collateral. These should encompass a range from internal to external, printed to digital, to fully show the breadth of materials.
Other Elements
Other, non-essential elements that you may wish to include are:
- A positioning statement
- A brand Statement
- Vision & Values
- Brand USP
- Key messages
If you’d like to chat about Brand Guidelines and brand development, we’d love to help. Get in touch on 01204 493382 or [email protected]
