What brand guidelines are
Brand guidelines are a short reference that shows how your brand looks and sounds: your logo files and how to use them, your colours, your fonts, your tone of voice and a few rules shown on real examples. Anyone making something for you, from a sign maker to a new staff member writing a social post, can follow them and get it right the first time.
They're sometimes called a style guide or a brand book. The name doesn't matter. What matters is that one document answers the questions that otherwise get answered differently every time.
When a small business needs them
Not every business needs a formal set on day one. You probably do if any of these sound familiar:
More than one person makes things for you: a designer, a printer, a web developer, staff doing social posts.
You're about to launch a website, open a second location, order uniforms or brand your vehicles.
Your logo exists in five slightly different versions and nobody is sure which one is right.
You've just had a new logo designed and want it used properly from the start.
Resellers, franchisees or partners need to use your brand.
If you're a sole trader working with one designer, a single page with your logo files, colours and fonts will still save you time and money.
What to include
Logo files and how to use them
Every version you'll need: full colour, one colour, reversed for dark backgrounds, and any horizontal, stacked or icon-only versions. Then the rules: how much clear space to leave around it, the smallest size it can be used at, and a few examples of what not to do, such as stretching it, recolouring it or putting it on a busy photo.
Colours for print, screen and vinyl
Your colours need values for each place they appear:
CMYK for printed items like business cards and flyers.
Pantone references if you use spot colours or need a colour to match across different materials.
RGB and HEX for your website, social posts and ads.
Vinyl colour matches for signage and vehicle lettering. Cut vinyl comes in set colours, so choose the closest match once and write it down.
Our guide to brand colours that work in print covers how to choose a palette that holds up on every surface.
Fonts and type
Your heading and body fonts, how they're used, and the fallback fonts to use in email, Word or Canva when the brand fonts aren't available.
Tone of voice
How your business sounds. A few words that describe it, words to use and words to avoid, and a short before-and-after example. This is what keeps a social post, a website page and a reply to a review sounding like the same people.
Photography and imagery
The kind of photos that suit your brand: real team members, your premises and your work, the lighting and framing you prefer, and whether illustrations or icons have a set style.
Usage examples
The page people use most. Show the brand on real things: a shopfront sign, a vehicle door, a uniform, a social post, an email header. Seeing it applied answers questions the rules can't.
File tip: keep your logo as vector files (AI, EPS, SVG or PDF) as well as PNGs. A logo that only exists as a JPEG pulled from a website can't be scaled up cleanly for a sign or cut from vinyl for a window.
Keep it short enough to use
A tidy set of brand guidelines is usually a handful of pages. A forty-page brand book that nobody opens protects nothing. Write for the people who'll actually use it: your printer, your designer, your office manager and whoever posts to Instagram on a Friday.
Rule of thumb: if a supplier can't find your logo file and colour values in under a minute, your guidelines are too long or stored in the wrong place.
How to use them day to day
Send them with every brief, to every supplier, every time.
Keep the guidelines and all your logo files in one shared place that everyone can reach.
Check new work against them before it's approved: signage, uniforms, ads, the website.
Review them once a year, or whenever something changes, such as a new service line or a new location.
Guidelines are not a rebrand
Brand guidelines don't mean starting again. Most businesses already have a brand that works; it just isn't written down. Good guidelines take what you have, tidy what needs tidying (the logo that only exists as a screenshot, the three shades of blue) and record how to use it well. If your brand does need more than tidying, that's a brand identity job, and guidelines come at the end of it.
Common questions
How long should brand guidelines be?
Long enough to cover logos, colours, fonts, tone and a few real examples. For most small businesses that's a handful of pages.
Can I write my own?
Yes. Use the headings in this guide as your contents page, fill in what you know, and ask your designer for the logo files and colour values you're missing.
Who should own the files?
You should. The guidelines and every logo file should be yours to keep and share with anyone who makes something for your business.
Want them put together for you? Our brand guidelines service pulls your logos, colours matched to print, fonts, tone of voice and usage rules into one reference you own. It's included in both Marketing Plans.
