DO I NEED A BRAND GUIDE?
A company’s brand not only enhances recognition but also builds a relationship between them and a customer. A brand creates a distinct identity by leveraging a company’s logo, visual design, mission, and tone of voice. Consistency is an integral part of maintaining your brand integrity.
Brand Guidelines are a great tool to ensure your brand is consistent and make branding mistakes a thing of the past.
WHAT ARE BRAND GUIDELINES?
Brand Guidelines outline standards for colors, logos, imagery, voice, and more. These guidelines are a document that anyone can reference – both inside and outside of your organization.
Examples of what to include in your brand guidelines:
- Logo Usage
- Brand Colors
- Fonts
LOGO USAGE
A logo’s appearance should remain consistent across all digital and physical platforms. Establishing rules around your logo keeps it from being misinterpreted, modified, or added to. The main factors to consider with a logo are its orientation, color, and composition. See the example of the rules we have established for our company:
The standards that you create for logo usage may vary. If you’re feeling stuck, return to the three essentials of consistency – orientation, color, and composition.
BRAND COLORS
Outlining each of your brand colors and their different color formats makes creating visual assets easier. Color consistency is key, and a great way to ensure uniformity is by including the Hex, RGB, CMYK, and Pantone codes. See the example below of the guidelines we’ve laid out for our company:
FONTS
A crucial element of brand consistency is using a set of fonts for visual assets and marketing material. The guidelines should specify which fonts are used for which purposes. Most brands have a set of 2-3 fonts that are used. See the example below of the fonts our company uses and the scenarios we use them:
Each company can build out its brand guidelines to contain more information pertaining to social media, voice & tone, imagery, and more. Overall, brand guidelines should be a well-outlined reference point for all branding – for both your own designers and outsourced services. Without brand guidelines, those both inside and outside of your company will likely create brand confusion.
