I recently did a couple of talks and workshops on why it’m important to have brand guidelines, whether you’re a mega brand, SME or single-owner business. In this article I explain the key takeaways from the talks.
1. What are Brand Guidelines?
Brand Guidelines – also commonly referred to as Style Guide or Brand Book – are essentially a set of rules that explain how your brand looks and behaves. Comprehensive guidelines should contain sections on:
One of the reasons you need a style guide is that they help create a strong brand identity. Consistency is key. Furthermore, strong and consistent branding helps clarify what your business stands for, allowing your business to communicate your purpose, your personality, and your promises.
1. Standards & rules
Brand Guidelines are composed of rules on how to use your brand’s visual elements. An in-depth guidelines document will also detail the brand strategy and standards. These standards and rules provide a valuable tool for you, your employees or suppliers to keep the brand cohesive.
2. Consistent comms
By having set standards and rules, it becomes possible to communicate a consistent brand identity. Consistency is important in making your brand recognisable and reliable. It ultimately communicates that your brand takes pride in the details.
3. Instant recognition
Keeping your brand consistent allows it to be more immediately recognisable within your industry and with your target audience. You have 9 seconds to make an impression, make sure that your brand is instantly recognisable.
4. Perceived value
When a brand’s identity is cohesive, it increases the brand’s perceived value. Consistency allows your brand to appear more professional and reliable. By implementing Brand Guidelines, you make it easier to maintain the quality and integrity of your brand’s image.
3. Brand Guidelines examples
Click on the logos below to see how detailed some of the big brands’ style guides can be.
However, most of us are not a mega brand, so what’s needed for a mid-size company? Here’s an example of a brand guidelines document for a mid-size business. It shows just some of the pages of a 40-page document. There’s enough detail both in the brand strategy and identity to keep the brand on-point. It’s an ideal document to send out to external suppliers to commission design work.
But, what if you’re a single-owner business and just want something to help you keep your brand on point? Below you can see a couple of examples of simpler brand documents and links to the full PDFs. A succinct document – just a few pages with all the info a small business owner needs in order to sign up to Canva and get their brand noticed.
This website uses cookies to give you the best experience. READ MOREACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.