Brand guidelines, also called a brand style guide or brand book, are a document that sets out how a business presents itself. They record the logo and how to use it, the exact colours, the fonts, the style of photos, and how the business writes. Anyone making a website, flyer, van wrap or social post can follow them and get a result that clearly belongs to the same company.
What goes into a useful set of guidelines
- Logo rules. The main version, a simplified or icon version, colour and single-colour variants, minimum size, clear space around it, and examples of what not to do (stretching, recolouring, adding shadows).
- Colours. The palette with exact values: hex and RGB for screens, CMYK and often Pantone for print.
- Typography. Heading and body fonts, weights, and fallbacks for when the brand font is unavailable, such as in email.
- Imagery. The look of photos and illustrations: natural light or studio, people or products, filters to avoid.
- Voice and tone. How the business sounds, with sample phrases, words to use and words to avoid.
Example: a one-page guide for a cleaning company
A cleaning company with three staff does not need a 60-page book. Its guide fits on one page: logo in navy on white or white on navy, never on photos; navy, white and a bright teal accent with hex and CMYK values; Montserrat for headings and Open Sans for text; photos of real staff in uniform, no stock smiles; friendly, plain sentences, always "we" and never "the company". The web designer, the sign maker and the person running Instagram all get the same page.
When brand guidelines become worth writing
The moment anyone other than you creates material for the business: a freelancer building the website, a printer, a new hire posting on social media. Without written rules, each person guesses, and small differences add up until the business looks like several businesses. For digital products, the guidelines feed into a design system, which turns them into reusable interface components.
Brand guideline mistakes
- Not supplying the files. A guide that names the logo but does not link to the SVG and PNG files leads to blurry screenshots of logos.
- Print-only colour values. Missing RGB or hex values means each web designer approximates the colour.
- Fonts you have no licence for online. Check the web licence or pick a free alternative.
- Writing it once and forgetting it. Update the guide when the logo or palette changes.
Related terms
- Color palette: the colour section of the guide.
- Typography: how the chosen fonts should be set.
- Design system: the interface-level version for apps and sites.
- Hex code: the format for screen colour values.