How to build a Brand Style Guide for consistent visual communication
A digital brand style guide is a document that contains guidance on how your company must be represented across digital and print media. Without this, there's always a risk of your team unintentionally modifying brand assets, such as colours or logos.
The result is campaigns and presentations that no longer match your website. Your brand consistency suffers, directly impacting visual communication. And clients are no longer able to recognise your brand.
If you already have a style guide, this article will help you refine it. And if you're building one, we'll learn everything about consistent visual communication and how to build a branding book the right way.
The Importance of Visual Branding
Visual communication is the practice of using certain colours, logos, and typefaces to distinguish your brand. When a prospect sees your website or social media, they must be able to relate to your brand. A study supports this statement, as 55% of brand first impressions are visual.
Smart design choices help your prospects build brand recognition and retain memory. In a survey of 2,500 participants, 91% of them guessed "Google" just by its colour palette.
If Google used logo variations across platforms, it would become harder to identify the brand. This is what inconsistent visuals do; they weaken your brand presence and credibility. And as more and more companies create brand assets, not having a strong brand guide could confuse your audience.
Visual consistency requires attention to detail, and that comes from having a common style guideline for teams to use.
What is a Brand Style Guide?
A brand style guide is a document that instructs your teams and collaborators on how to use your brand assets.
A branding guide usually starts with a mission statement and includes:
- Logo usage rules: Full-resolution logo along with directions to use it.
- Colour palette: Primary and secondary colours with the Pantone codes.
- Typography: Font styles, sizing, and spacing.
- Image and illustration: Photos, artworks, and calligraphy.
- Layout: Spacing, orientation, and grid system.
- Usage examples: Illustrations of what is acceptable and what is not.
An example of a sophisticated style guide is Apple. The document clearly mentions how to use Apple channel signatures, configuration, and colours. This way, internal and external stakeholders do not have to wait for constant approvals for using your brand assets.
Many companies, such as Apple, use the standard PDF format to create their style guides. PDFs prevent accidental edits, keep the layout intact, and ensure everyone works with the same version.
Most importantly, it's easier to share digitally and falls within the 25MB email attachment limit. That said, simply having a brand guide PDF does not help with consistency. It must be structured well, so users know where to find information.
How to Build a Digital Brand Style Guide
The best brand guides are short and readily accessible on the company's website. Here are 4 simple steps to help you prepare a memorable style guide.
1. Define Your Brand Elements
Your brand elements help differentiate your company from your competitors. Making these elements stand out is vital to getting remembered long-term. Your brand name, the tone, and every other element influence how customers feel about your brand.
Here's what goes into your brand book:
- Final logo versions: The primary logo, icon mark, or background versions.
- Approved colours: Highlight the primary and secondary colours with their HEX and RGB values.
- Fonts: Mention the primary font used for logo and headlines, and the secondary font for body and UI text. Also include web-safe fallback fonts if applicable.
- Layout rules: Image style direction, spacing rules, CTA styling, and margin consistency.
You can be as creative with these elements, but ensure the rules are clear for the readers.
2. Document Usage Rules
While you've set standards with your brand elements, you also need to provide directions to use them. If you don't mention the appropriate logo size, teams might alter it as per their convenience. Show readers how to use brand elements in real-life situations.
Include the following so teams know the exact requirements:
- Logo size: Show the right dimensions across digital and print mediums.
- Spacing rules: What's the appropriate space between the visuals and text?
- Incorrect usage examples: Incorrect backgrounds, stretching the logo, or using different colours.
- Typography hierarchy: Define heading and font styles, line height, and font pairing.
- Colour application: Acceptable background colour combinations, contrast expectations, and which colours for CTAs.
3. Organise Your Document
There are usually multiple people working on a brand guide, which means your brand assets live on different platforms. For instance, your design cover could be on Canva, colour codes in Photoshop, and typography in InDesign.
Bringing everything into a single file is crucial to building a unique brand document. An online PDF editor, such as PDFAid, helps you combine individual exports into a single document. You can also merge PDFs or convert files into different formats.
4. Prepare the Document for Sharing
Style guides are usually reviewed by the leadership teams and go through many rounds of edits. If you're sharing the document internally, make sure to compress the PDF for easier viewing.
Once the version is finalised, you can use the protect PDF option in the tool to safeguard sensitive brand information while sharing with third parties.
A practical guide is structured in a way that is:
- Easy to access: Upload the document to a central location where any team member can access it.
- Non-editable: Re-check privacy settings and set the document to "View only" by default.
- Optimised: Follows a mobile-friendly layout and size limitations of email and brand portals.
- Named and version-controlled: Use a standard file name and the last date of update.
Although the style guide is the single most customer-centric tool, most teams create one and never update it. Such mistakes can tarnish years of brand reputation and credibility.
Review the next section carefully to avoid making costly mistakes with your branding documents.
Mistakes that Hurt Your Brand Visual Communication
Common mistakes creatives make:
- Not updating the style guide,
- Having many versions for internal communication,
- Sharing editable PDF files,
- Creating a complex and cluttered document,
- Working with different brand assets than the official ones,
- Failing to consolidate everything into a single document.
Keep Your Visual Brand Guide Consistent
Like any other marketing strategy, your brand guide should look and feel consistent. You likely would not run four different campaigns for the same target audience. Similarly, your brand guide should not look like it belongs to different companies.
When you group assets in a single place, you know what works, which helps you maintain visual consistency. And when everything looks linear, your audience starts to appreciate and trust your brand more.
Is your brand style guide well-structured and easy to access? We encourage you to review and update if necessary.
FAQ:
Who should use a digital brand style guide?
A brand guide is essential for anyone working with content: marketing teams, designers, sales staff, etc.
How long should a brand style guide be?
Some brand guides can be up to 50 pages. However, the length depends on your brand complexity and goals.
Is it better to share a brand style guide as a PDF or online?
Both are useful options, with PDFs giving you more control over formatting and external sharing.
How often should a brand style guide be updated?
Update the guide when branding elements change or new applications are launched.
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