Your brand is your company’s most important asset. It’s more than just words on a page or images on a screen ⏤ it’s how you communicate with and attract your audience. From your logo to every customer interaction, it’s the identity of your organization.
To stand out in a competitive market, consumers need to easily understand who your company is and what you provide. Brand consistency helps consumers feel confident in their decision to become a customer because they know exactly what to expect from you with every interaction.
So, how do you ensure a consistent experience that builds brand loyalty? Develop strong brand guidelines.
What should be included in brand guidelines?
Brand guidelines standardize color and font usage, logo application, tone and voice, image styles, graphics usage, brand sentiment, and more. While brand guidelines might seem limiting at first, they can actually allow for more creativity in your work. With guidelines that establish what you can and can’t do, teams can create within a framework, instead of starting from scratch each time.
Build one with these 6 simple steps:
- Kick off your brand style guide with a great brand story.
- Logos: full logos, secondary logos, and icons.
- Color palette: primary and secondary colors.
- Typography: font styles, sizes, and spacing.
- Other imagery: photos, icons, illustrations, and artwork.
- Voice and tone: how the brand uses language and emotion.
Develop the rules
Rules guide the use of brand elements and should be established for things such as:
- Logo usage. Which logos are OK to use where? How should it be applied to branded items? Can it be placed on other graphics?
- Typography. What is the brand’s font? Can other fonts be used? Are you able to use bold and italics? Which font sizes should be used?
- Illustrations. When and why do we use illustrations? How should illustrations and photography be used together? How do illustrations and text work together?
- Icons. Which icons are OK to use? Should they be kept at a certain size? Do they need to be a certain color?
- Color. What are your brand colors? What sentiment do your colors convey? When and how should your colors be used?