Every outstanding brand features a top-notch brand guide style. To ensure that the brand machine works correctly, create a simple booklet listing a brand’s unique colors, typefaces, logos, photos, patterns, taglines, and other components. Whether you’re starting from scratch with a brand or giving a consumer a visual makeover, there’s a lot to learn from the techniques of the experts.
We’ll look at some stunning and thorough style guide examples to encourage you to start making your own and to show you why you shouldn’t put yours on the back burner.
What are Brand Guidelines?
The content, design, and overall appearance of a company’s branding are governed by brand rules, sometimes referred to as brand style guides. The content of a logo, blog, website, advertisement, and other marketing materials can be determined by brand guidelines.
Think of the most well-known brands that come to mind. Most likely, one of the following factors has taught you to identify them:
- The messaging is consistent in both writing and visuals.
- All of the assets have the same brand colors.
- It sounds like familiar language.
- Although not rigid, it is cohesive and extremely well-organized.
- However, ITS advised standing back and establishing your brand’s goal statement and buyer profiles before you sit down to develop your branding standards.
Mission Statement for Brand Guide Styles
The mission statement of your brand guidelines guarantees that all of your material is interacting with your audience and pursuing the same objective. Additionally, it can direct your slogan, ad copy, visual assets, blog, and sponsored material.
For example, this is how HubSpot defines its mission:
Brand Guidelines: Persona of the Buyer
Your blog material, ad language, and visual media are guided by your buyer persona and brand guidelines, which can help your organization generate valuable leads and consumers.
The buyer persona template is quite appealing. It lists the main concerns, queries, and situations in which they would ask for assistance. It’s more than just a sales boss at a rapidly expanding tech business.
The Components of a Brand Guide: Styles
A logo is just one aspect of a brand style guide, but it’s not the only one. It graphically captures the essence of your brand, including the goal of your company.
Here are some essential components that, in my opinion, make or break a brand style guide, along with links to in-depth publications for additional information or direction:
- Logo. One of the most effective ways to gauge how people view your brand is through logos. We have a nine-step guide to help you get started.
- Palette of colors. Every element of your design is impacted by your brand’s color scheme, but user experience and visual impact are particularly affected. We have a ton of palettes that will inspire you.
- Typography. Any website’s typography is essential since it makes sure that all of its text-based material is easy to read and comprehend. We won’t notice if a website’s typography is effective. The likelihood is that we will leave the page if it doesn’t work.
- Iconography and imagery. Ensure the best possible user experience with these icon best practices.
- Voice of the brand. Use our free brand-building guide to create your ideal brand voice.
Best Brand Style Guide Examples
The Mailchimp
View the complete brand guide for Mailchimp.
One thing that I enjoy about the guide is how much it sounds like Mailchimp. It is easy to follow, personable, and a touch quirky, neither corporate nor robotic. Even seemingly little things, like Mailchimp’s lowercase “c,” have a backstory.
A closer look reveals that Mailchimp’s brand rules include the fundamentals of logo, color, and typography. The guidelines are as follows: Never alter the files, always pair the winking Freddie image with the Mailchimp wordmark, and allow it room to breathe.
The hero color is Cavendish Yellow, the contrast is peppercorn, and there is a different version of the logo for dark backgrounds.
Slack
- What to like: It outlines acceptable video content, how to utilize drawings and photos, and how the Slack brand can appear in co-branded contexts (quite useful for partners and collaborations).
- A closer examination: Rules regarding logo usage, space, color variations, and blatant instances of misuse are all part of Slack’s brand guidelines.
Accessibility-safe versions, suitable backdrop colors, and other lockups (horizontal, stacked) are also available. It gives precise hex and RGB values for core and secondary colors and specifies typographic options (Hellix and system alternatives).
Beyond aesthetics, there is a legal portion that includes trademark and naming guidelines, as well as stringent guidelines for using the Slack name, product user interface, and screenshots.
FedEx
FedEx’s clean and consistent branding is highly commendable, and this fast reference guide explains just how they do it. The recognizable orange and purple wordmark, including color changes based on the service.
For instance, FedEx Freight uses red, FedEx Ground uses green, and so on, but the logo’s shape and spacing remain constant.
A closer examination: It’s quite useful. Despite being a brief guide, it covers everything from digital use to large sizes like building signage and vehicle decals. It demonstrates that maintaining a brand’s aesthetic appeal across all touchpoints doesn’t require a comprehensive guidebook.
Additionally, there are typographic guidelines, clear-space guidelines, and examples of improper logo usage.
HERE Technologies
Because it is so similar to HubSpot’s brand design guide while also being entirely separate, it immediately appealed to me.
- What to like: It’s purpose-driven and goes beyond regulations. The brand feels consistent across all contexts since every visual decision is connected to strategy. Another benefit is the clarity surrounding co-branding. Integrating partners without sacrificing the essential identity is simple to understand.
- A closer examination: The overview of the brand’s history and values is the first section in HERE’s brand guide. With the motto, “Together, we move the world forward,” it describes itself as an “adaptive brand within a stable framework.” The visual and verbal identities are guided by core ideals such as progressive, humble, dynamic, and inclusive.
Conclusion
One of the most important steps in turning your company’s vision into a recognizable and consistent reality is selecting the appropriate brand guide styles. The final objective is the same whether you choose a dynamic digital style sheet, a thorough brand manual, or a succinct visual guide: to give each team member and partner a clear, actionable blueprint.
In the end, a clear brand guide guarantees that all of your business’s interactions, from social media posts to customer support emails, are consistent and seamless. A strong visual and verbal identity is not only about appearances; it’s also about laying the groundwork for long-term economic success. This consistency creates trust, encourages loyalty, and transforms consumers into brand evangelists.
FAQ
What are the 4 V’s of branding?
The 4Vs of branding vision, value, voice, and visual are the fundamental pillars that define a brand’s identity!
What is the 3 7 27 rule of branding?
The 3 7 27 law of branding suggests that people need to see your brand three times before they recognize it, seven times before they remember it, and twenty-seven times before they truly engage with it.
What is the brand style guide?
A brand style guide is the rulebook for everything you create, from what fonts to use to how logo treatments work with different color schemes.
What are the 7 P’s of branding?
The 7Ps comprise Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical evidence.
How many types of style guides are there?
Tons of style guides exist across industries and genres, and new ones pop up frequently. Most writers will encounter four commonly used guides: AP style for journalism, Chicago style for publishing, APA style for scholarly writing and MLA style for scholarly citation.
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