Brand guidelines are meant to keep your identity consistent wherever it appears. Too often they end up as a long PDF that few people open. The result is stretched logos, off-brand colours and messages that sound like five different companies. Good guidelines are less about rules and more about making the right choice the easy one.
Know who will use them
Designers, marketers, sales teams, partners and freelancers all need different things. A designer wants precise colour values and spacing rules. A salesperson wants to know which slide template to use and how to describe the company in two sentences. Consider creating a short core guide for everyone and more detailed sections for specialists.
Cover the essentials
Most useful guidelines include the following:
- A short summary of your positioning, personality and audience
- Logo versions, minimum sizes and clear space
- Colour palette with values for print and screen
- Typography, including fallback fonts for everyday documents
- Photography and illustration style, with examples
- Tone of voice principles and sample copy
- Common layouts and templates
Show more than you tell
People follow examples more readily than instructions. Include real applications such as social posts, email headers, adverts and presentations. Where mistakes are common, show a clear “do” and “don’t” side by side. Keep the language friendly and explain the reason behind important rules. People are more likely to respect a rule they understand.
Make them easy to find and use
A guideline no one can find is no help at all. Store it somewhere central and link to it from onboarding materials. Provide ready-made templates for the documents people create most often, so they do not have to start from scratch. Name files clearly and remove old versions to avoid confusion.
Keep them up to date
Brands evolve. Appoint someone to own the guidelines, collect questions and update them when new formats or channels appear. A short list of recent changes at the front helps people see what is new.
Clear, practical guidelines protect the investment you have made in your brand. If yours need a refresh or you are starting from scratch, the Northpeak team would be happy to talk.
