So it’s important to make sure that your brand is always presented in the best light, in a consistent and professional manner. That’s where a brand style guide comes in.

Brand style guides are an essential tool for any business that wants to maintain a consistent brand identity. It outlines the do’s and don’ts of your brand’s visual identity, from logo usage to typography to colour palette. This ensures that everyone who is creating materials for your brand – from designers to marketers to social media coordinators – is using the same formatting, tone and voice. This consistency creates a strong and recognisable brand that customers can trust.

Your style guide should be accessible to anyone who needs it, whether it lives online or in print. It should be clear, concise and easy to understand so that anyone can use it as a reference when they’re creating branded materials.

What should be included in your Brand Style Guide?

Every business is different, so every brand style guide will be different too. But there are some key elements that every guide should include:

An overview of your brand: What are your values? What is your mission statement? What are the personality traits of your ideal customer? Answering these questions will give you a good foundation for creating your guide.
A description of your target audience: Who are you trying to reach with your branding? This will help you determine the tone, voice and messaging you use in your materials.
Your logo usage guidelines: How and where can your logo be used? What colours can it be printed in? These guidelines will ensure that your logo is always used correctly, in a way that reinforces your branding.
Your typography guidelines: What fonts represent your brand? What font sizes should be used for headlines, subheads and body copy? Again, having set guidelines will ensure that all of your materials have a consistent look and feel.
Your colour palette: What colours represent your brand? When creating any type of visuals – from website graphics to print advertising – it’s important to use colours that reflect your branding. Creating a colour palette for your team to reference will make sure that all of your visuals are on-brand.
Your imagery guidelines: Do you have specific images or types of imagery that reflect your brand? Do you have any photography guidelines (e.g., only use images with people looking directly at the camera)? Having guidance on imagery usage will help ensure that all visuals support and reinforce your branding strategy.
Tone, voice and messaging guidelines: How should communications from your company sound? Formal or casual? Expert or approachable? These guidelines will ensure that all customer communications reflect the same tone and voice, creating a consistent experience for customers across all channels.
Social media guidelines: If you have specific social media branding requirements (e.g., using certain hashtags), be sure to include them in your guide so that everyone on your team is aware of them.
Templates and/or examples: Providing templates or examples of branded materials is always helpful so that team members have something to reference when they’re creating new materials. This could include everything from email signatures to PowerPoint templates to sample social media posts.

Creating a strong and recognisable brand requires consistency in how you present yourself to the world. A brand style guide outlines the do’s and don’ts of maintaining this consistency, from logo usage to typography to colour palette choices. Having a clear and accessible style guide helps ensure that everyone who represents your company – from designers to marketers to social media coordinators – understands how best to reproduce your brand.