The Importance of Building a Brand Guide

Mar 10, 2022 | Branding

Author: Ashley Smith, Marketing Strategist

What is a branding guide and what purpose does it serve?

A branding guide provides a rulebook outlining uses for all different creative aspects of your brand and business. Clear and consistent marketing is easy to achieve with the help of a branding guide, the information can be incorporated on websites, advertising, social media platforms and more!

What should a branding guide include?

Branding guides should encompass anything your company needs to stay on-brand through any medium. There are six primary things that should be included in the branding guide:

  • Story: A brand story gives insight into who this brand is and what this brand is about. Everything after this should complement the reasoning, values, and personality behind the brand.
  • Logo: The logo is the first thing potential customers see and can be a good window into the brand’s personality. Logos should be scalable and easily recognizable on many different mediums.
  • Color palette: Consumers subconsciously judge a company within 90 seconds of seeing their colors alone. Color is one memorable company attribute, think of Spotify’s green or Coca-Cola’s red. Outlining the palette’s color codes in both RGB and CMYK makes color matching seamless.
  • Font pairings: Just as color can determine the way your brand feels, so can font. A font made up of all capital letters may come across as assertive and confident, while something lowercase may come across playful. Cohesive fonts are another way to make your brand memorable.
  • Tone: Outlining tone of voice is useful for portraying the brand’s personality across all forms of media and interactions. Duolingo is a great example of a consistent tone of voice, their brand personality is highlighted in website interactions, emails, and social media posts.
  • Guidelines: Consistent photography can create a cohesive collection of photography to use at any time on social media, websites, or blog posts.

Depending on the needs and offerings of the brand, the following might also be included:

  • Logo & Product Mock-ups: Including any instances where the logo may be produced
  • Additional Visuals: Patterns, icons, or textures commonly found within the brand or visual style should be included.

How do you go about building a brand guide?

There are lots of software options available to make the process of building a brand guide easier. Some of these options include:

  • Canva: There are template options on Canva to customize and create a basic branding guide. The Pro version also offers a way to plug portions of your branding kit such as your logo, colors, and fonts into their platform to make template customization seamless.
  • Colors: This color palette generator gives hundreds of premade palettes and allows for custom color palette creations with options to copy color codes or lock in a color while randomizing the rest.
  • Font Joy: This site provides examples of font pairs and allows for endless combination possibilities.

Branding Guide Examples

Spotify: Spotify created their branding guide on a webpage to outline colors and logo usages.

Coca-Cola Zero: Coca-Cola Zero’s branding guide highlights all logo variations and information needed for all advertising needs.

Herban Kitchen : Herban Kitchen incorporates patterns and textures into their branding guide along with other unique elements like their services and floorplan.