What is a style guide and why you need one
A style guide or brand guideline, is your essential guide that outlines the rules around your brand elements - how to use them and where.
They create consistency in your brand across your changes which BUILDS TRUST WITH YOUR AUDIENCE. They are also essential when you’re working within a team or engage with external providers, like website designers or graphic designers. To ensure, you’re all on the same page!
So what is included?
Rules for your logomarks - Having rules around your suite of logomarks will ensure the correct version is used on the correct application. For instance, your primary logo may not scale properly to be used as your social media profile image, so you would your submark or icon.
Colour palette breakdown codes - Colour appears differently across devices and programs. So having the correct colour breakdown on hand makes life so much easier (and your staff or designers aren’t having to guess!). For instance, creating graphics in Canva, you would use your HEX code. Or if you were sending a business card to print, you would need the CMYK code.
Font rules & hierarchy - A typography hierarchy will demonstrate which font to use for your headings (size, spacing, colour) and what to use for your main body text etc. Creating this hierarchy will give your audience the important information first, and clear direction for your call to actions (how to book or purchase). It should also explain where to download / purchase your fonts from and have both print and digital options that can be used on your website. Make sure you purchase or download a legitimate font (not a FREE font)!
Design examples of collateral - Examples of how your branding works across your digital and print applications will help create consistency when creating new graphics. This also includes how your brand elements work with images or illustrations.
Other elements to consider adding:
Photography style - what is the overall style of your images for your branding - do you have dark and moody images.
Graphic elements - do you have illustrations or patterns that are included, demonstrate how they will work with your branding elements.
Don’t have a Style Guide?
We’ve created a FREE Canva Brand Board (quick 1 page reference) to get you started. Click on the link below to add it to your Canva account.
Want your own brand guide?
If you are wanting brand guidelines for your business - we can help you with this. Get in touch with us and we can help create a custom brand around your existing logo.
