Brand guidelines should cover the logo and its clear space, misuse examples, colour values for print and screen, typography, imagery direction, tone of voice basics, templates, and a page on file naming and where the assets live. For a small organization that runs 12 to 40 pages. This post goes through the document section by section and explains who ends up reading it, because the readers decide how much detail each section needs.
If you’re still weighing whether you need a full identity at all, read “Do I Need a Logo or a Full Brand Identity?” first. This post assumes you have the pieces and need the manual.
Who reads brand guidelines
The document is mostly for the people who touch your brand without you in the room:
- Printers, who need Pantone and CMYK values, minimum sizes, and the right file format for the press
- Web developers, who need hex or RGB values, web font files or a fallback, and SVG logos
- Staff, who build slide decks, sign emails and post to social media, and need templates more than theory
- Agencies and freelancers, who join for one project and need to get up to speed in an hour
Each group looks for a different page, so the table of contents matters more than the cover.
Section by section
Logo and clear space
Show the primary logo, then the variations: horizontal, stacked, icon-only, and one-colour versions in black, in white, and reversed out of a colour. For each, state the minimum size in millimetres for print and pixels for screen. Define clear space, the empty margin around the logo, as a fraction of the logo’s own height so it scales with the logo. Show which version goes on light backgrounds, dark backgrounds and photographs.
Misuse examples
A page of “don’t do this” settles more arguments than any other page. Show the logo stretched, recoloured, rotated, with a drop shadow, on a busy photo, with the tagline moved, and at a size too small to read. Eight to twelve examples, each crossed out, is plenty. People rarely misuse a logo on purpose; usually the document didn’t show them the line.
Colour values for print and screen
List the primary and secondary palettes with values for each colour in Pantone (coated and uncoated if they differ), CMYK, RGB and hex. Note which colours cover large areas and which are accents. If the palette allows tints, show the permitted percentages. If a colour needs to meet accessibility contrast on the web, name the text colour that pairs with it.
Typography and hierarchy
Name the typefaces, the weights in use, and where to get them: the foundry, the licence type, and whether staff can install them. Show a hierarchy of heading, subheading, body and caption, with sizes and line spacing for print and for web. Include a fallback font for email and shared documents, since the brand font won’t be on the recipient’s computer.
Imagery and photography direction
Describe the photographs and illustrations that fit: natural light or studio, people or product, candid or posed, colour treatment, cropping style. Show four to six examples that fit and two that don’t.
Tone of voice basics
Keep this to two pages. State the personality in a few words, then show a paragraph written in the voice and the same paragraph written wrong. Add a short list: words you use, words you avoid, how you write your own name, and whether you use the Oxford comma. Staff writing email signatures and social posts use this page most.
Templates and applications
Show the identity applied to the things your organization uses: business card, letterhead, email signature, slide template, social post templates, signage, and packaging if you have it. Supply the working files as well as the pictures. Staff open a slide template far more often than they read a rule.
File naming and where to find assets
This is the last page and the one that gets opened most. List the file formats supplied (AI, EPS, SVG, PDF, PNG), explain which format goes to which use, and give the folder location or shared drive link. Set a naming convention so that “logo_final_v3_NEW.png” stops happening. Name the person who owns the brand files and can answer questions.
How long should the document be?
For a small organization, 12 to 40 pages. Under 12 and it’s probably missing colour values or misuse examples. Over 40 and your staff stop reading. Large organizations produce hundred-page guidelines because they have hundreds of applications; a five-person consultancy doesn’t.
Some associations produce annual reports, event materials and member communications year after year, often through different hands, so their guidelines lean on the templates section. A product business leans on packaging applications and print colour values instead.
Keeping it current
Guidelines fall out of date when the organization adds a product line, changes a sub-brand, or moves to a new website platform. Review the document once a year. Most updates run a page or two, and a designer can turn them around quickly as a small add-on. A stale guideline is worse than none, because people stop trusting it and go back to guessing.
How we approach this at Eggbeater
Brand guidelines are part of our full identity package, alongside the logo suite, colour palette with print and screen values, typography and applications. We write them at the end of the Design phase of our 4D workflow, once the identity is settled, and we shape them around the questions Vancouver printers and web developers have asked us over 25 years. If you have an existing identity and no guidelines, we can write a guidelines document for it on its own. Either way, we price the work as a project: one number for the scope we agree on, so you know the cost before we start.
Have an identity and no manual?
Contact us and we can review your logo files, whatever colour values exist, and a couple of printed pieces. We’ll tell you what a guidelines document would need to cover for your organization, and come back with a project price and an outline of what’s in it.
Still Have Questions?
How much does it cost to have brand guidelines written for an existing logo?
Brand guidelines for an existing logo cost less than a full identity, because the design decisions are already made and the work is documenting them and filling the gaps. The size of the job depends on how much already exists: settled colour values, a full set of logo variations and licensed fonts make it a smaller project, while missing pieces, such as a one-colour logo version, add design work on top. At Eggbeater we quote a fixed project price for a guidelines document after a short scoping conversation.
Can I write my own brand guidelines?
You can write your own brand guidelines if the logo files, colour values and fonts are already settled. The parts that need a designer are the technical ones: matching Pantone, CMYK and hex values so print and web agree, building the logo variations, and drawing the misuse examples. A hybrid works well, with a designer supplying those pages and you writing the tone of voice section.
What is the difference between brand guidelines and a brand style guide?
Brand guidelines and a brand style guide are the same document under different names, and both cover logo, colour, typography and usage rules. Some organizations use “style guide” for the writing side only, such as spelling, capitalization and tone, and keep “brand guidelines” for the visual side. Ask which one a supplier means before they quote on it. A brand book is the longer, often printed, version that adds brand story and values.
Do brand guidelines need to include social media templates?
Brand guidelines should include social media templates if anyone other than the designer posts for the organization, which covers most businesses. Supply editable templates in the tool your staff use, such as Canva or Figma, sized for the platforms you post on, and show two or three examples of each: an announcement, a quote and a photo post. A rule about logo placement on a post gets ignored; a template gets used.
What happens if a printer or supplier ignores the brand guidelines?
If a printer or supplier ignores the brand guidelines, the fix is a proof check before the run, and the guidelines give you the reference to check against. Ask for a printed proof or a PDF proof on every job and compare the colour values, logo version and clear space to the document. If the proof is wrong, the supplier corrects it before printing. Without guidelines, both sides are guessing about what “wrong” means.
Do I need brand guidelines before designing packaging or a website?
You do not need finished brand guidelines before designing packaging or a website, but you do need the pieces they document: logo files in vector format, colour values for print and screen, and licensed fonts. A designer can work from those and write the guidelines at the end, with the new applications included. Our post “Do I Need a Logo or a Full Brand Identity?” covers which pieces a small business needs first.
…and if you’ve still got questions, let us know!
