What you Should Know About Brand Guidelines

A cousin of the traditional ‘mission’ and ‘vision’ statements, a brand purpose is a reminder of what you stand for.

In their brand guidelines, this is how Dell describes their brand purpose.

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Your brand personality, also referred to as its ‘voice’, ‘tone’ or ‘manner’, is a set of human characteristics that you attribute to your brand. The point is to appeal to your audience’s emotions and aspirations, to make your brand more relatable.

Some companies use a series of adjectives to describe their brand personality. Here is how Pepsi does it in their brand guidelines.

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Some brands have tricky names that are chronically mangled: Two-word names that are merged into one when they shouldn’t be, or vice versa. Lower-case letters that should be capitalized, or the other way around.

For example, is it Linkedin or LinkedIn? Google Talk or GoogleTalk? Mailchimp or MailChimp or Mail Chimp?

Here’s how WhatsApp uses their brand guidelines to clarify their naming usage.

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Your logo is one of the most important elements of your brand. Your brand guidelines should specify acceptable sizes for your logo, as well staging and spacing requirements.

Here is how Netflix details the appropriate sizing and spacing of their logo in their brand guidelines.

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A key attribute of a logo is its color. Your brand guidelines should outline your official logo color palette, as well as acceptable variations on different backgrounds.

Here is how Expedia does it.

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If you have a tagline, your guidelines should specify how it should be placed in relation to the logo.

This is how LG outlines the preferred positioning of their tagline. On a later page of their style guide, they show a horizontal alternative of the tagline and outline the circumstances under which it can be used.

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In your brand guidelines, make sure to list all the colors that can be used across all communications. Many companies have a primary color palette, as well as a secondary palette. Ideally, you should identify each color using the hexadecimal system for the Web, as well as RGB, CMYK and Pantone.

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Fonts can have a powerful impact on how your brand is perceived. Using too many fonts, or clashing fonts, can make your materials look like a dog’s breakfast. By contrast, beautiful font pairings can elevate your materials and create a recognizable brand. In your guidelines, make sure to set clear standards for which fonts and sizes can be used for different purposes.

In their brand guidelines, here is how Virgin presents their typefaces.

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Many brands have secondary marks or emblems that can be used only under certain circumstances. If this is your case, maker sure to detail those circumstances in your brand guidelines.

This is how McDonald’s does it.

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If your marketing materials are likely to include photos, your brand guidelines should help everyone involved select beautiful photos that convey the kind of feeling you’re shooting for.

Here is how Heineken does it in their brand guidelines.

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If you’re going to be using illustration in your materials, know that illustrations come in all sorts of styles, from flat, to outlined, to hand-drawn. To preserve consistency, you may want to describe acceptable styles in your brand guidelines, or even include a bank of illustrations to draw from.

Here is how BPR addressed the subject of illustrations in their brand guidelines.

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If you sell software programs or apps, you may want to include screen captures that can be used in training and marketing materials.

Here’s how WhatsApp covers the use of screen captures in their brand guidelines.

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If you use a particular layout style across your materials and you want it executed consistently every time, your brand guidelines can be very helpful.

Pepsi uses a very specific grid style in many of their materials. Here are the instructions they include in their guidelines.

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In your guidelines, you may want to include instructions on how to handle joint communications with partners.

Here is how Skype details the appropriate use of ampersands in their partnership communications.

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Sometimes nothing communicates your brand guidelines better than a Dos and Don’ts section that outlines which treatments are acceptable and which are not.

I found Dos and Don’ts in almost every style guide I explored. Here is an example from Fifa’s brand guidelines.

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