Brand Guidelines: What They Are And How To Use Them
WHY ARE BRAND GUIDELINES SO IMPORTANT?
Before we go on about the importance of Brand Guidelines, an initial question may be, what are they anyway? A Brand Guidelines document is a set of rules on how to use your brand identity consistently across all platforms. These strategic guidelines are put in place so that your overall brand - from the visuals to the messaging - is showing up in the world in the most impactful way possible to those audiences you are trying to reach.
Establishing a brand image for a business is important, but arguably, what’s more important is what you do with it and that you do it consistently. To move up in awareness from recognition to recall to top of mind and, ultimately, preference in your audiences’ minds, brands need to build trust and provide a feeling of reliability. This can only be done through consistency. I’m going to warn you now you are going to see the word “consistent” many times in this blog post. So, if you learn anything from reading this, know that consistency is key.
WHAT IS INSIDE A BRAND GUIDELINES DOCUMENT?
While there are some items that go into almost every Brand Guidelines document, each project should be treated as unique. Clients come to us at different stages and with different needs therefore, each Brand Guidelines is tailored to address those needs.
1. MESSAGING
The value of Messaging, similar to logos, colors, and typography, is that it connects with your target audience(s) and differentiates you from your competitors. Creating a distinct voice and tone for your brand will set it apart and resonate with your target audience(s). The best way to ensure that a brand consistently uses its brand voice is to use the messaging in the Brand Guidelines.
Messaging may include:
Brand Story
About Copy
Voice & Tone Guardrails
Slogans/taglines
Riffs
2. LOGOS
We say it all the time, “your brand is not your logo,” as evidenced by the multi-page Brand Guidelines we create. However, a brand’s logo usage is incredibly important if you use it, you guessed it, consistently. There is never just one logo in a brand. There are:
Primary logos
Secondary logos
Icons
Novelty logos (For the purpose of merch and other fun, non-marketing applications)
The Primary logo is your default logo and when in doubt, use the primary because this is how your audience will recognize you. (Think Nike with Swoosh and Starbucks with Siren) Secondary logos and icons are more often used when the Primary logo may be too complex for a smaller application where the full logo would be too small to be legible. (Only the Swoosh and Siren by itself.)
In hopes that the logos provided are always used properly, we always include a Logo Mis-use page that lays out the dos and don’ts of logo usage. Some examples may be to not alter the typography, don’t stretch or squish the logo, don’t flip the elements, don’t use unapproved colors or alter the color placement.
3. COLORS
From Black & White to Rainbow, every brand has a color palette. What’s important to note is that if a brand is using a blue, not all blues are created equal. Think about the iconic Coca-Cola Red, Home Depot Orange, or Charli XCX’s Brat Green! These colors are recognizable even without any other brand elements because they’ve been used so consistently. The color palette page in a brand guidelines document will lay out specific codes for each color, including:
Pantone (Print)
CMYK (Print)
RGB (Digital)
HEX (Digital)
This will ensure that you’ll get the same color in every application. Similarly to logos, a color palette has primary colors, secondary colors, and accent colors.
4. TYPOGRAPHY
Typography systems are a way to create a hierarchy of how information is presented. Sometimes, brands have one font that they use for everything, and some brands have multiple fonts. In a Brand Guidelines document, there will be specifications for the following:
Headline fonts
Subheadline fonts
Body Copy fonts
Eyebrow fonts
Accent fonts
Headlines are the first piece of information to emphasize within any material. A subhead is used to call attention to subsections of content. An accent font is only used to call out a small piece of information. An eyebrow is used before a Headline to call out any additional context. In addition to listing the brand typography, we also add a page showing how to use the fonts together in context.
5. ADDITIONAL GRAPHICS
The Food & Bev brands we work with sometimes have needs for designed pieces that have a little more personality than that of a corporate brand. This may include the following:
Patterns
Borders
Graphic Riffs (from the messaging section)
Illustrations
Textures
These help further solidify a brand’s personality in interesting ways and standardize that personality.
6. APPLICATIONS
Being able to picture what a brand’s identity could look like without some real-life examples may be a tough task. This is why we always include an Applications section in the brand guidelines to show how everything listed in the document could be used in context. This may include merchandise, menu design examples, posters, packaging, etc. This is to ensure that whenever the brand guidelines are provided to a vendor, they know exactly how to use all of the assets provided. (P.S. We can always make those menus or cool merch items for you!)
