Brand guidelines. The strategic communications roadmap of your brand.
What’s included can vary, with some brands opting for a basic brand guidelines sheet, while others combine their brand strategy with their design guidelines. Regardless, they should, at the very least, provide a source for everyone to immediately understand how to represent your brand, clearly, consistently and appropriately.
What to include: The standard
Standard brand guidelines should contain at minimum, an overview of your assets:
- Logo + usage
- Colour palette
- Typeface / Spacing
Logo
How your logo should be displayed in different formats.
This may include restrictions to size, colours, and how your logo should be used on different backgrounds. At K.I.S.S we also provide examples on how the logo shouldn’t be displayed, to visually illustrate incorrect usage.
Colour palette
The colours of your brand.
These include primary colours and secondary colours to be used across your marketing. At K.I.S.S we include RGB and CMYK colour breakdowns, so colours stay consistent between different digital and print formats.
Typeface / Spacing
Typefaces and families, point sizes, and hierarchy of fonts in your brand.
Additional elements that may be included:
- Image style and icons your company uses on your website or marketing materials.
- Tone of voice to portray your brand’s values and personality.
If you want to avoid inconsistent variations of your logo appearing across your marketing, invest in some brand guidelines. Not only will this create consistency it will build a reliable and trustworthy brand.
Want to avoid version control with your brand?
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