What Is a Brand Guide?

A brand guide (sometimes called brand guidelines, a brand book, or a brand manual) usually opens with the brand’s mission statement and core values, then documents each component of the identity:

• Logos. The primary logo and every approved variation, plus usage rules: how much clear space to leave around the logo, the minimum size it can be displayed at, and examples of misuse, such as stretching or recoloring it.
• Color palette. The exact colors the brand uses, defined with hex codes and RGB and CMYK values so they reproduce consistently on screens and in print.
• Type. The approved fonts, plus typography rules for sizing, spacing, and hierarchy.
• Tone. The brand’s voice and the preferred tone for copy and visual elements, ideally with a short do-and-don’t example.
• Imagery. The photography style, illustration approach, and iconography that fit the brand, with on-brand and off-brand examples.

A useful guide entry is specific. Instead of “our blue,” a palette entry reads: primary blue, hex #0057B8, RGB 0 87 184, CMYK 100 53 0 28. Instead of “don’t crowd the logo,” a logo entry reads: leave clear space equal to the logomark’s height on all sides, and never display the logo smaller than 24 pixels tall. Rules that precise leave nothing to interpretation.

Why brand guidelines matter

A brand guide replaces judgment calls with documented rules. Without one, every employee, freelancer, and agency guesses: logos get stretched to fit the space available, colors drift off-palette from one channel to the next, and 3 different fonts turn up across the website, the newsletter, and the sales deck. Each mismatch is small, but together they erode the recognition a brand exists to build. With a guide, everyone who produces an asset (a landing page, a social post, a trade-show banner) works from the same rules, so the brand looks and sounds the same everywhere it appears.

Brand guide vs. style guide

“Brand guide” and “brand style guide” usually name the same comprehensive document, so treat those two as synonyms. The distinction that matters is with the editorial style guide, sometimes called a content style guide, which covers a narrower slice:

• Brand guide (or brand style guide). The comprehensive document: mission, values, visual identity, verbal identity, and the usage rules for all of it.
• Editorial style guide. The writing-focused document: grammar, terminology, and formatting conventions for copy. It often lives as one chapter inside the broader brand guide.

You’ll also see “brand book” and “brand manual” on the cover of the comprehensive document. Naming varies from company to company, so judge any document by what it covers, not by its label.

Examples of published brand guidelines

Many organizations publish their guidelines publicly, which makes them a free education in how thorough a guide can be:

• NASA’s 1976 Graphics Standards Manual (NHB 1430.2) is still available as a free PDF on nasa.gov, 50 years after it was written.
• Uber’s brand guidelines are published on the web rather than as a PDF, which gives everyone working with the brand one canonical location and lets Uber update the rules without distributing a new file.
• Mailchimp’s Content Style Guide documents the written half (voice, tone, grammar, and word choice) and is published under a Creative Commons license so other teams can adapt it.

How to create a brand guide

You don’t need a design team to write the first version. Work through these steps in order, top to bottom:

• Collect what already exists: logo files, the website, past campaigns, and any informal rules people follow today.
• Write down the mission statement and core values that the visual and verbal choices should express.
• Document every logo variation, with clear-space and minimum-size rules.
• Specify the color palette with exact hex, RGB, and CMYK values.
• Set the typefaces, plus the type hierarchy for headings and body text.
• Define voice and tone, with at least one do-and-don’t example sentence.
• Publish the guide in one place that employees, agencies, and partners can all reach.

Start small. A one-page guide with your logo files, exact palette codes, 2 typefaces, and 3 adjectives that describe your voice can prevent common logo, color, typography, and voice inconsistencies, and you can expand it as questions come up. For the verbal half, our guide to building a brand voice walks through 6 steps for defining yours.