Most marketers, right about now: 

Record scratch Wait, brand guidelines? What’s that?

Looks like someone missed the memo. But you—oh, you know better. 😉 When you hear “brand guidelines,” you’re thinking of a guidebook that keeps your designers, developers, and writers in sync, making sure your brand voice is on point across every channel.

But, hey—this is just a hypothetical. You haven’t read our article on brand style guides yet, so you’re still a little in the dark. Don’t worry, we’ve got you. Let’s dive in and explore what goes into a killer style guide, why it’s essential for consistency, and all the other juicy details you’ll need!

What are brand guidelines?

Let’s shed light on these elusive brand guidelines. Also nicknamed brand or style guides, they contain rules and guidelines regarding your brand’s personality and how it should sound, act, and look to the world. 

Their goal is to make sure everyone creating content for your brand — stakeholders, employees, and associates — achieves consistency about its principles and mission, no matter the social media channel used to promote the content. 

For example, you can include your brand’s color palette or typography, but it can also include the preferred language and tone of voice. 

Usually, you can create a simple PDF to house your guidelines, but some companies switch to an online knowledge base that everyone can access. 

But what exactly should you include in your brand guidelines? Let’s see…

What’s typically included in brand guidelines?

To make your brand unforgettable, consistency is key. It’s not just about a logo or slogan—your brand identity is the full package, from your mission statement to your color palette. Every detail shapes how people perceive and connect with your brand.

In this section, we’ll break down the essentials of a strong brand identity: mission, vision, tone of voice, logo usage, and more. These guidelines will help ensure your brand communicates clearly and consistently across all platforms. Let’s dive in!

Brand identity

Here’s where you explain everything about your brand. What makes it tick? Yes, it exists so you can sell your products (and make money, of course). But you have to look deeper into the heart and soul of your brand and discover your identity.

Defining it will help align your content with your audience’s expectations and values and shape the entire customer experience. 

When it comes to describing your identity, there are a few components to keep track of: 

• Mission statement — It’s your raison d’etre and why you created your company in the first place. Finding a purpose will guide your brand’s direction and efforts toward achieving your business goals.
• Brand values — These are your brand’s core principles, aka what you as a company believe in. Shaping them guides your employees' behavior, decisions, and actions and builds trust with your audience by showing what your brand stands for. 
• Vision statement — What are your brand’s plans for the future? While you have a vague idea of what you wanna do with your life, you need to outline your brand’s long-term aspirations carefully. Doing so ensures your people — freelancers and employees alike — work toward the same dream. 

Brand tone and voice

This refers to how your brand speaks to people, from its language to the tone of voice (fun and cheerful vs. authoritative and professional). 

You might not think it’s important to think about the tone of voice and things like brand fonts, text sizes, etc., but having a clear way to speak and write will make your brand more recognizable to your target audience.

Think of Nike with its simple ‘Just do it.’ 

A single phrase perfectly captures Nike’s messaging, which encourages people to push their boundaries and overcome obstacles. Moreover, it makes Nike a recognizable brand. 

Having clear rules about tone and voice ensures that your video, audio, and written content stays consistent on all platforms, regardless of whether it’s a ticket response or an email marketing campaign. 

Logo

Every brand has a recognizable logo, from McDonalds to Apple to Pixar. But they all have one thing in common: they have brand guidelines explaining logo usage. 

You might ask yourself why you should care about this. Well, there’s a good reason: because you don’t want people to use your logo incorrectly, like changing its colors or not respecting its boundaries. 

Not respecting the usage of your logo confuses people; they’ll recognize the shape of your logo but not the colors, which makes them go 😵‍💫.

Here’s a list of what you should include in your brand kit: 

• Color variations — You can have different color schemes for a logo, like full color, black, or white. Make sure to include all the variations in your brand guidelines so people know when and how to use each one. 
• Formats — Include the full logo, the text logo, or the single-line version in your guide and explain when to use each of them. Try to add examples of each format so your creative team has an idea of its usage. 

You should also include a section with use cases (dos and don’ts) which is a place where you demonstrate the correct (and incorrect) use of your logo. For instance, you can show the correct spacing between your logo’s letters. Or how it should look in a post on Facebook. 

Doing this also lets people know where your logo shouldn’t be placed. 

Color palette

Colors are what sets your logo and brand apart, boosting brand recognition. Why? Because our minds store and memorize visual content better than shapes or words. 

Plus, colors evoke emotions. Yes, we do have favorites, but there’s a universal law that says certain colors create a mood. 

For example, PayPal uses light and dark blue, which makes you feel safe and secure but also suggests professionalism and security. KFC commands your attention by using red, but the white suggests simplicity and affordability. 

See? 

That’s why it’s critical to include your color palettes, from primary to secondary colors, in your brand guidelines. This will bring consistency to your content and designs. 

Don’t forget to include the color codes in the relevant formats: CMYK, RGB, and HEX codes). This lets your creative team use the correct colors when creating content for print or digital. 

Imagery

Saving the best for last, a great brand style guide should contain information about image design elements, iconography, and photo types. In short, your guide should contain best practices on how your brand uses images to build its visual identity. 

A visual identity makes your brand stand out from the crowd and the competition. 

So, keep your image style consistent across all touchpoints by adding these components to your guide: 

• The types of images you use, from illustrations to patterns to design elements. 
• Sorting your images into categories, like product, headshots, industry, etc. 
• The preferred color scheme for your images. 
• Rules for stock images and when to use them. 

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There are so many things to include in your brand identity guidelines that you’re probably wondering if it’s worth the effort. 

Okay, let’s give you some context…

Why are brand guidelines important?

Communication. That’s it, that’s the whole point. 💯

Brand guidelines are important because they ensure your message, values, and identity are communicated correctly to your target audience and employees. 

Not only do you promote a recognizable brand identity but you also remain in your consumer’s mind. As a result, deciding on your brand’s mission, values, and personality helps guide how the brand is perceived by your audience, as well as create a cohesive image. 

Plus, it keeps your logos, colors, fonts, imagery, and tone of voice consistent across all platforms and channels. Consistency reinforces brand recognition and trust but also enhances customer experience. 

But what a style guide does best is keep everyone on the same page. Since your designers, marketers, and other stakeholders get instructions on how to use brand assets correctly, it minimizes the risk of misinterpretation or misuse of brand elements.

Now, let’s take a deeper look at the benefits of brand guidelines. 

What are the benefits of brand guidelines?

Let’s see: 🤔

• Improves consistency — The best brand guidelines ensure that your content team or external partners create materials that look and sound the same on all channels. This helps people recognize the brand, which in return yields trust. 
• Enhances efficiency — Like in arts and crafts, it’s way easier to follow instructions than to figure out what to do. If your people (designers, marketers, stakeholders) have rules to follow when crafting brand assets, they can work faster and more efficiently. 
• Builds brand recognition — You’re trying to distinguish yourself from other brands and make your personality unique. However, if you’re fun and goofy on Instagram, but serious and boring on Facebook, people might get confused about who you are as a brand. Consistent visuals, behavior, and voice help people recognize your brand. It also looks professional. 
• Boosts collaboration — Since anyone on your team can access the brand guidelines, it gives them a sense of ownership. This means that employees feel more confident that they can create the perfect materials independently. 
• Mitigates risks — Even an improper use of a logo can harm your brand and its reputation. Style guides can prevent such misuse and ensure that no one is abusing your brand’s identity.

I think you’re ready to create your own brand style guide. So, let’s go through the steps you need to take in the next section. 

How to create a brand style guide

It’s time to take your playdough and start shaping your brand style guide. 

And don’t worry. 😉 It’s easy once you get the hang of it, so let’s take a look at the steps: 

Determine your brand identity

Let’s try an exercise.

Who are you?

You don’t have to tell me your name, age, or if you have pets. Instead, I want to hear all about what defines your brand’s identity, such as your mission, values, voice, and audience. 

Outlining these things will help me paint a better picture of your company — basically, it’s how you want to be perceived by your audience. But it also sets your brand apart from others, so make sure to include everything that makes you you. 

Identify your brand logo

Memorable. Timeless. Identifiable.

☝️ This is how your brand should be. It needs to stick in people’s minds so that whenever they see your brand on other sites, they’ll instantly recognize it and might just interact with it.

Think about your brand’s visual elements, from logo design to social media posts, and detail its use. Don’t be shy with the specifics: include variations, minimum size, use of white space; anything goes! 

Choose your color palette

What’s your brand’s signature color? Oh, it doesn’t have one? Well, it should because a signature color can cause an 80% increase in customer recognition of your brand. 

Even if people don’t see your logo, they should recognize your brand by its color. For example, it’s easy to think of Starbucks when you see its signature green color. Or Google by its baby blue, green, yellow, and red. 

So, make sure you create the same impression by choosing a color palette that suits your brand’s personality and values. For instance, if you want to attract people’s attention, choose red. But purple is the way to go if you want to create a mysterious aura around your brand. 

Think carefully about the primary, secondary, and accent colors. And make sure to include the RGB, HEX, and CMYK codes in the style guide. 

Determine your typography 

The way your brand’s name looks helps people identify your brand. 

For example, whenever you see this 👉 Think different, Apple might instantly come to mind. VOGUE uses Didot, a highly popular font that’s instantly recognizable for the brand. 

Do you see how important it is to have a typeface? Choosing one will make your brand stand out from others; when you have one, make sure to include it in the style guide. Add everything about it, from fonts, font sizes, spacing, weight, sizes, and styles in headings, body text, etc. 

You can also include the arrangements of lettering and other style elements used in digital or paper materials, so people know exactly how to use it to maximize brand recognition.

Establish your brand’s tone and voice

Don’t be afraid to speak up and use your brand’s voice to show off your great personality. So, first off, find your voice.

Detail everything about the language, vocabulary, and style of your brand communications with the general public. This way, everyone involved knows how to write materials that best represent your business. 

For example, Ceros’s tone is: 

• Friendly (you can always talk to us)
• Authoritative (when needed) 
• Thought-provoking (packed with insights) 
• Infused with humor and wit (don’t forget audacity)
• Challenging conventions (we’re up for a little heresy)

Wherever you look — on LinkedIn or on the site — Ceros’s voice is the same, helping build trust and increasing brand recognition. So, make sure to find your own voice, whether it’s professional or more conversational. 

Choose your imagery guidelines

Another key thing to add to your brand guidelines is the use of your images, photography, icons, illustrations, etc. It should include stuff like composition, tone, and other elements, to make sure the aesthetic of your images is consistent everywhere. 

Use a brand toolkit template

Guess what? You don’t have to create a style guide from scratch. There are hundreds of templates available online that can inspire you, such as this one from Ceros: 

It contains everything a great style guide should, like colors, typography, and icons; all you need to do is copy this template and edit everything that needs to be edited. 

***

Unfortunately, not all brand guidelines come out the same. It’s easy to make mistakes (some costly). We’ve gathered all these mistakes in one place so you can take a good look at them. 

Mistakes to avoid when creating a brand style guide

Before you get to this…

Source: Tenor

…you must avoid all of this 👇: 

• Lack of clarity — “Yeah, just use this font,” your brand guidelines say. But there are three fonts outlined in the guide, so your people might just look at it like, “Huh?” When they wrongly use a font, they’ll be the ones in trouble but who’s really at fault?

So, avoid vague descriptions and don’t leave too much room for interpretation. Be as specific as possible about font sizes, image use, or color codes, to remove ambiguity. 

• Not covering all brand elements — Every component (logo use, voice and tone, color palettes, typography) is essential. No soldier left behind, as they say. If you don’t include them in your guide, it leads to inconsistencies in your brand’s representation. Make sure everything is covered properly. 
• Ignoring flexibility — When making the style guide, don’t be a stick-in-the-mud and rigidly follow every rule. Allow room for adjustments and creativity while maintaining the core elements of your brand; otherwise, it might hinder your adaptability as your brand evolves. 
• Overcomplicating the guide — Look, I know I’ve said to keep things clear and write everything down but don’t go overboard! A complicated guide can be difficult for people to follow, so keep it user-friendly, using a clear structure and straightforward instructions. 
• Neglecting different platforms — You should adapt your guidelines for various channels, such as social media, web, or print. Failing to do so can lead to a lack of cohesion, so make sure to specify how your brand should appear in different contexts. 
• Not including visual examples — Only providing textual explanations might make your brand guidelines harder to follow (and boring, let’s be honest). Make sure to include visual examples (like incorrect and correct font usage) to reinforce the rules.

Alright, so you know how to create the best style guide ever. Awesome! But how do you distribute it to your people?

Good question. Let’s find out! 

How to manage and distribute your brand guidelines

So, you want to make sure that your team has access to the latest info. Here’s how to do it: 

• Share and implement your guidelines — First off, you should select a brand-building tool that allows your content team to easily access the style guide. Not only can you give access to everyone involved, but you can also make sure your guidelines are relevant. One such tool is Ceros’s Studio, which allows stakeholders to check the guidelines and collaborate during the entire process. Check it out!

• Gather feedback and update accordingly — Style guides aren’t just for now. As things in your company change (maybe you’re revamping the logo) you should constantly update the guide to reflect the current reality. You can also collect feedback from users frequently to see what you can revise and improve, so you keep content fresh and relevant. 

There are many things to keep in mind when creating your style guide, so I don’t blame you if you’re feeling rather overwhelmed. 

To calm you down (everything’s okay!) let’s look at some of the best brand guidelines examples around.

5 brand style guidelines to inspire you

If you’re looking for inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. 

Here are five style guide examples from popular brands that you’ll simply adore.  

1. Spotify

Spotify’s design and branding guidelines are a wonder to behold. They contain everything you need to know about how to use Spotify branding, from the use of logo and colors to attribution and naming restrictions. 

The instructions are easy to follow, especially since they contain examples of what to do and what not to do. 

2. Netflix

Netflix’s style guide is all about the logo and its usage. It has rules about how to use the famous N symbol, from color codes to clear space to readability. 

The brand guidelines contain many examples of dos and don'ts: how to use the logo next to partners, things to avoid (like stretching the logo), and even some real-life application examples.

3. Haworth

Take your style guide a step further and make it interactive like these Haworth brand guidelines. They include everything from the visual identity to corporate materials to voice and links let you navigate to a specific section.

In fact, this example feels like navigating a website. But it’s structured in such a way that it’s intuitive and easy to navigate, even if it contains a lot of information about your brand.

4. Pluralsight

Pluralsight’s brand guide is another interactive one that will blow your mind away. You start by clicking on the section that interests you the most and read about the use of logos, voice and tone, typography, and more.

The instructions are clear and straightforward, complemented by examples of the correct use of brand elements. 

5. Capita

The last example comes from Capita, with a style guide that has videos and animations and whatnot. Just like any other brand guidelines, Capita’s detail everything about the brand’s logo, photography, and icons, so people working with this brand know how to use all these assets to the max. 

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Hopefully, these examples convinced you that you need a style guide. I’ve got nothing else to teach you, so let’s wrap it up.

How Ceros helps you create eye-catching brand guidelines

In the world of brand guidelines, you need to stand out from the crowd and create a truly memorable brand identity. 

The only way to achieve your dreams is with the right tool, which in this case can be none other than Ceros.

Ceros is a platform that allows you to create interactive content that stands out from the crowd, including style guides. Through an intuitive template, you can easily craft your style guide however you want, so you can benefit from consistency, relevance, and effectiveness. 

If this sounds good, schedule a demo with Ceros today.