What Should Brand Guidelines Include?

A printer gets a logo as a screenshot, a freelancer picks a blue that is close but not the same, and a new hire writes a proposal in a font nobody chose. Each choice is small, and together they make a business look like several different companies. Brand guidelines exist to stop that drift.

This guide explains what brand guidelines are, what a useful set contains, and how to keep them short enough that people use them. It draws on how Digital Hub scopes brand guidelines inside its branding work.

What are brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines are a document that records how a brand looks and sounds, so anyone producing material for the business can do it correctly without asking the designer. They cover the logo, the colors, the typefaces, the style of images and the tone of voice, and they show examples of right and wrong use.

The document is a working tool, not a brochure. Its reader is the person about to make something: a printer, a social media manager, a sales rep building a presentation. If that person can find the answer in under a minute, the guidelines are doing their job.

Why do brand guidelines matter?

Brand guidelines matter because consistency is what makes a brand recognizable. A customer meets a business in many places: a website, a signboard, a social post, a delivery box, an invoice. When these look related, the customer recognizes the business faster and trusts it more. When they do not, each place feels like a separate company.

Guidelines also save time. Without them, every new designer or supplier starts from scratch, and the owner approves the same decisions again and again. With them, the decisions are made once and written down.

Guidelines matter most at the moment a business starts to hand work to other people. A founder who designs everything personally can keep a brand consistent from memory. The first employee, freelancer or agency changes that, and the document takes over the memory’s job.

What should brand guidelines include?

A useful set of brand guidelines includes the brand’s purpose and positioning, the logo and its rules, the colors, the typefaces, the imagery style, the tone of voice, layouts or templates, and examples of correct and incorrect use. Each section answers a question the reader would otherwise have to ask.

A short statement of positioning

Start with a short statement of who the brand is for, what it promises and how it differs from the alternatives. This is the output of brand strategy, and it gives every later rule a reason. A reader who understands the reason can make a sensible choice in a case the guidelines did not cover.

The logo and how to use it

Show the logo in its main form and in any alternative versions, such as a stacked layout, a single-color version or a small icon. State how much clear space must surround it and the smallest size it may be printed or shown. Add a short list of things not to do, such as stretching, recoloring or placing it on a busy background.

The color palette

List each color with its exact values for screens and for print, and say what each color is for. A palette with a primary color, a few supporting colors and a note on which combinations are readable prevents most color mistakes. Give the values in the formats your suppliers will ask for.

Typefaces

Name the typefaces for headings and body text, and say where to get them and what to use when they are not available, such as in an email or a shared document. Show a sample hierarchy so the reader can see how headings, subheadings and body text relate.

Imagery

Describe the style of photographs, illustrations or icons that suit the brand, and give a few examples. A line about what to avoid is often more useful than a line about what to choose, because it rules out the images most likely to look wrong.

Tone of voice

Describe how the brand writes and speaks. A few adjectives are not enough. Show a sentence written in the brand’s voice next to a sentence that is not, so the reader can hear the difference. Cover how to address the customer and which words to use or avoid.

Layouts and templates

If the business produces the same documents repeatedly, such as presentations, letterheads or social posts, include templates or layout rules for them. A template removes the need to remember the rules at all.

Examples of right and wrong use

Examples are the part of the guidelines people read first. A page of correct and incorrect applications teaches faster than any paragraph of description.

How long should brand guidelines be?

Brand guidelines should be as short as the business can manage while still answering the questions people ask. A small business may need only a handful of pages. A company with many products, markets or suppliers may need more. Length is not a measure of quality, and a document nobody opens protects nothing.

A good test is to hand the guidelines to someone outside the design process and ask them to produce a simple item, such as a social post. If they can do it correctly using only the document, it is long enough.

When do brand guidelines get made?

Brand guidelines are made after the identity exists, because they describe it. At Digital Hub, brand guidelines are one of the eight deliverables in the Branding service, along with brand strategy and positioning, naming, logo and visual identity, collateral and stationery, packaging design, rebrands, and social and marketing creative. Guidelines usually follow the identity and are scoped with it.

On timing, Digital Hub’s typical full branding project, from the name through to packaging, takes 35 to 45 days. Brand strategy on its own typically takes 1 to 2 weeks, and a logo and visual identity on its own about 1 week. These are normal ranges, not best cases, and scope moves them.

What Digital Hub’s process adds is the handover. The work is handed over with a walkthrough, so the client’s own team can use it. For guidelines, that means the people who will apply the rules are shown how, not just given a file.

What mistakes make brand guidelines fail?

Brand guidelines fail for a few predictable reasons.

• They are too long. A hundred-page document is never opened. Keep to what people need.
• They have no examples. Rules without pictures are read once and forgotten.
• They describe the logo but not the voice. A brand that looks consistent and sounds inconsistent still feels like several companies.
• Nobody owns them. Guidelines need one person who answers questions and updates the document when the brand changes.
• They live in one place nobody can find. Put the file where the team already looks, and tell suppliers where it is.

How do you roll out brand guidelines?

Rolling out brand guidelines means getting them into the hands of everyone who produces material, and making the correct files easy to find. Send the guidelines to staff, freelancers and suppliers together with the logo files and templates, and name the person to ask when something is unclear.

Then use them. Check the next few pieces of material against the guidelines, and fix the first mistakes while they are small. A brand holds together through repeated small corrections, not through one launch.

What should you do before writing brand guidelines?

Before writing, gather what already exists. Collect every place the brand appears today: the website, social profiles, signage, packaging, documents, invoices and presentations. Lay them side by side and note where they differ. The differences show which rules the guidelines most need to state.

Then decide the basics. Settle who owns the brand day to day, who approves new uses, and where the master files will live. Guidelines that name an owner get updated, and guidelines that do not are forgotten.

Finally, decide who the document is for. A guide for a printer differs from one for a social media manager, so a short main document with a quick-reference sheet for each audience often works better than one long file.

Do brand guidelines need to change over time?

Brand guidelines should change when the brand changes, and not otherwise. A new product line, a new market or a refreshed logo all call for an update. Keep a version number and a date on the document, keep the old versions, and tell everyone who uses the guidelines when a new one is issued.

Small additions are normal. A business that starts a new kind of social channel, for example, may add a page on how the brand looks there. The aim is for the document to match what the business actually does, so that the rules stay credible.

Where do brand guidelines fit in a branding project?

Brand guidelines sit at the end of the design work and the start of its use. Strategy decides what the brand stands for, the identity gives it a visible form, and the guidelines let the business apply that form without the designer. If you are planning a logo and visual identity project, ask for the guidelines to be scoped with it, so the rules exist on the day the identity launches.

The same principle applies to a website, which needs the brand’s colors, type and voice settled before design starts. The article on how long it takes to build a website explains why that early clarity shortens the schedule. The full range of branding work is on the Branding page.