A brand style guide is essentially the guidelines to ensure your business’s brand is consistent in feel and look. This allows employees and independent contractors alike understand how to represent your brand to the world.
Why Do You Need One?
There are a few reasons to establish and follow a brand style guide. First of all, this helps to establish and hold the identity of your brand. This guide is also a great asset for being consistent with your brand and the creative aspects of your company that are associated to it. In general, this guide helps keep the message your brand is portraying related to the goals of the company.
6 Key Elements in a Style Guide
- Brand story – This will include key brand components, such as vision, mission, values, personality, and audience.
- Logo – The guidelines for the logo (dos/don’ts of size, space, etc) will ensure the logo works in different settings.
- Brand color palette – This determines the color schemes used throughout your brand, and works to develop consistency.
- Typography and font guidelines – Usually companies will decide on one or more set fonts used throughout their brand, also to establish consistency.
- Image guidelines – This particular guide, which usually has several samples, will help the company employees understand the dos/don’ts to image selection.
- Brand voice – This ensures the affect the brand has on the audience, and how they view the company wholly.
Brand is a key aspect in marketing your business, and consistency in the brand relies on the style guide.
References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/propointgraphics/2016/07/24/brand-style-guides/?sh=5742ca9661a5
https://99designs.com/blog/logo-branding/how-to-create-a-brand-style-guide/
