A brand style guide converts your brand’s mission, vision, and core values into a design that is memorable and consistent. What is a Brand Style Guide? A brand style guide is a quick reference visual guide that communicates not only the look and feel of your brand, but also provides basic specifications for your brand assets (logo, colors, fonts, patterns). A brand style guide is your brand’s rulebook that puts into writing all the specifications of your branding strategy, including your brand story, logo, color palette, typography, and more. Beyond that, they even highlight product design, showing how to use their brand elements in bag designs. For their client, Jet.com, FirstBorn crafted an … A style guide builds a voice and personality for your brand. (To simplify the difference between a typeface and font: Arial is a typeface. You want them to recognize you and connect on an emotional level with your organization. Details like whether to use “&” or “and” or if you should use the numerical or written versions of numbers may seem trivial. Canvas Web Style Guide: Brand Guidelines HubSpot Brand Guidelines hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(57042, '2cfbe8c6-d27e-4903-92a8-a4d9448e6e03', {}); Learn how you can create a consistent brand with our free ebook. You can think of your brand’s style guide as a reference book that people can use a guide for representing your brand. The essential elements of a brand style guide are your brand's logo guide with do's and don'ts, a color palette, typography, image guidelines, and digital and print guidelines. Brand Style Guide = Visual Style Guide + Content Style Guide. This might include a mission statement, letter from the CEO, About Us page, or general overview of the company’s brand and audience. The style guide, however, emphasizes the design aspect of your brand. A brand style guide is a living document that outlines stylistic requirements for maintaining one cohesive brand identity across various mediums such as digital, print and broadcast. There is a helpful overview with guidelines on the brand usage in CTA (call to action), which encourages potential customers to click on promotional offers. If they are consistent throughout your published work, they convey a coherent voice, coherent thinking, and a credibility impossible to attain without this consistency. She's written for several digital marketing publications including Young Women in Digital and HubSpot's Blog. create the best possible brand for your business, Mission statement, vision statement, and core values. A style guide defines and explains your typefaces, colors, logos, and everything in between. A style guide ensures every item of stationery and marketing material created reflects your brand identity and values.Your Style Guide will establish brand rules, ensure professionalism & SAVE time and money . 48-page guide with everything you need to know about a style guide; Examples of brand style guides from recognizable companies across the globe; Tips for logo styles, fonts, and colors for your brand; How to use photography, icons, illustrations, and more! The role of a brand style guide is to serve as a reference for designers, writers, and content creators alike for how to represent the brand in the design assets and content they create. Branding guide . Many brands have a primary logo as well as alternative logos to give them versatility. They're easy to navigate. Put another way, it’s a reference tool that helps maintain consistency in what a brand looks, feels and sounds like. Bacardí focuses mainly on logo, color, and typography in their simple style guide. Not one brand style guide is the same. Brand Style Guide or additional branding queries, please contact me at 781-736-5206 or parillo@brandeis.edu . Overall, their brand visual identity guide is clean cut and detailed enough to create consistency across their brand. It provides specific details about the visual style and editorial voice of your brand. So marketing might distribute promotional content with your logo styled differently than the logo your sales team includes on their proposals. 15 Brand Style Guide Examples. The essential elements of a brand style guide are your brand's logo guide with do's and don'ts, a color palette, typography, image guidelines, and digital and print guidelines. The rules for graphic style guides typically include applications and variations of the logo, design standards in terms of look and feel (minimalist versus abstract or modern versus vintage), corporate color palettes, and white space usage. Style Matters: How Well is Your Copy Turned Out? Click To Tweet. The style guide’s home page also makes it convenient for users by highlighting and linking the most frequently requested assets: Now you know why a good style guide is important, what it should look like, and what to include. The Amazon style guide provides clear guidelines on how to apply colour size and spacing of the brand logo and icons with notes on presentation styles. If your company has a secondary logo, what is it? I can go on and on. Bluleadz answer: Never use secondary color in our logo. All nine of the featured style guides adopt the brand's own tone and voice, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it nod to the importance of consistency. A brand style guide references grammar, tone, logo usage, colors, visuals, point of view, says @SashaLaFerte via @CMIContent. Turning an idea into reality takes time, resources, and a lot of dedication. And that's ok. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies. What's included in a Brand guide? More often, though, branding fails happen because of a lack of a clear style guide, which can result in inconsistency or miscommunication among your content team. Common mistakes to avoid when crafting beautiful style guides Example: The Visage brand style guide includes direction for everything from typography layout to photography. You should answer all of these questions in the typography section: The overall tone and voice of your brand impacts all your content and outreach. In what cases do you use your logo? Pulling together your brand style guide is a necessary part of ensuring that your business’s image remains consistent out there in the world. Below are some examples of the style guides I put together for my branding clients. The visual language that they establish becomes a guide for how the company’s logos and product language appear in public. Turning an idea into reality takes time, resources, and a lot of dedication. Branding guide . Check out the full brand identity style guide here. Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC This is a great feature for a B2C company. This article addresses why your organization needs a style guide, details what to include in your style guide, and gives examples of top-notch style guides to ensure streamlined external communications. No style guide is too long – add any elements and examples you think you'll need to create the best possible brand for your business. With these tips and examples in your back pocket, start designing a brand style guide that works for your business today. MailChimp also breaks out writing guidelines by content type, from emails to blog posts to social media. Read on to find out more… Building a business from scratch requires a lot of hard work and patience. 15 Brand Style Guide Examples. For example, when Coors translated its slogan “Turn It Loose” into Spanish, it used a colloquial term for diarrhea. Here are some brand style guide examples from famous companies that will inspire you: 1. What is a brand style guide? Style guides ensure brand consistency across a wide variety of media platforms. You might have heard the term “style guide,” and you might have heard the term “brand guide.” Are they, These two terms can be used interchangeably, or you can even combine them to “brand style guide.”. Uber uses this site to not only describe brand style but to share the brand story, showcase examples of its branding done well, and provide helpful tools. This template is made to showcase all those parts of your brand. Registered in England and Wales. They also excel in detailing every aspect of their logo use; you can see how they invert their logo against a black background, how much breathing room you should leave around it, and even various ways you shouldn't distort their logo. Uber’s brand style guide is packed with GIFs and videos that convey the very movement Uber is so proud of. American Red Cross covers all the basics in their simply designed style guide. A brand style guide is a rulebook containing specifications on everything that plays a role in the look and feel of your brand–everything from typography and color to logos and imagery. The role of a brand style guide is to serve as a reference for designers, writers, and content creators alike for how to represent the brand in the design assets and content they create. Throughout this article, I’ll introduce 30 great examples of brand style guides, also called guidelines, brand books, or brand manuals. When it comes to creating a consistent brand, your style guide will be your best friend. A thorough, well-thought-out style guide puts your readers first. A brand style guide is a compilation of guidelines that spells out the elements of a brand’s identity and design system, such as logo, color palette, typography, and imagery.. Most companies choose to allow at least some spacing on either side of their logo so it's not crowded by any other design elements. Her experience spans writing content for marketing software companies to creating viral media for Wenner Media (the parent company of Rolling Stone and Us Weekly). Create a style guide based on what resonates with them. Style Guides or Brand Guidelines? Don't worry – they didn't forget to include typography and color, and they even have a whole chapter on brand usage on YouTube. Think of it like this: From there, create a table of contents for your style guide and use it as an outline. Brand guidelines can dictate the content of a logo, blog, website, advertisement, and similar marketing collateral. To effectively maintain brand consistency, everything your business publishes on the web, prints for distribution, or creates in general should be created with your business's key design elements in mind. … Stay up to date with the latest marketing, sales, and service tips. @SashaLaFerte via @CMIContent. A brand style guide can not only make video consistent but also better. Here’s a breakdown of what these sections should include. Place your mission statement, vision statement, and core values at the top of your brand style guide. Why Brand Style Guides are Important? But the sum of these details adds up. Why Brand Style Guides are Important? ‍Brand style guide is a document that outlines the design rules around a particular brand.It generally includes the proper use of logos, fonts, colors and more. A brand style guide is a quick reference visual guide that communicates not only the look and feel of your brand, but also provides basic specifications for your brand assets (logo, colors, fonts, patterns). If you define your brand voice as conversational, but your mission statement is filled with corporate jargon, it’s probably worth revisiting. They can all follow the same set of guidelines to make sure your assets are used professionally. Every business will have a unique brand guide that will clearly represent the look and “vibe” of their overall brand. Subscribe to our blog & get notified on the latest trends that impact your business. However, in certain use cases, we use the brand mark and our name separately from each other. This brand style guide template features a simple layout for any individual or company to use. This manual groups colours by emotion (intelligent through to energetic), maps out gradients, colour combinations, type combinations, sizes, weights, just about anything any future designer would need. A visual style guide shows how all content should be designed, while a content style guide controls how the copy and text within the design is developed. This site uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience possible. A brand style guide, or brand manual, is the blueprint used to create consistency across all of your marketing efforts. We will explore each of these sections below. A brand manual or style guide must consist of the following components. Print out your brand guidelines and hang it in the office The most powerful brand style guide template isn't a multi-page document that you glance at a single time. When you think of Burger King, you know their red, yellow, and blue. You never see a red McDonald's M for a reason... How much "breathing room" should you give your logo? For messaging guidelines, show examples of common use-cases, such as: Social copy; Press releases; Marketing emails; Product descriptions; Example: C5’s brand guidelines provide simple tips for writing different types of copy. A brand style guide references grammar, tone, logo usage, colors, visuals, point of view, says @SashaLaFerte via @CMIContent. One big reason why is due to the countless ways to use the Fandango logo. ‍Brand style guide is a document that outlines the design rules around a particular brand.It generally includes the proper use of logos, fonts, colors and more. Each element of this style guide is explained, demonstrated and displayed in extraordinary detail, making for a clear and strong set of guidelines toward the brand. This fictional style guide is as meticulous as any real deal, it explains and deconstructs its’ primary logo, signatures and sub-brand logos in an informative and explanatory way. Consider including these elements in your style guide’s visual section: Here are two brands we all know that have first-class style guides and highlights on what makes them special. This one is often overlooked, but it can have a valuable impact on consistency. You can hire a brand style guide expert to help you put all this together in a clear, concise, and memorable document that will represent the look and feel of your brand. Baylor Cherry | While video creation may be a bit rocky the first few times you apply a style guide, it will get easier over time. All nine of the featured style guides adopt the brand's own tone and voice, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it nod to the importance of consistency. But before you go let’s review a few of my favorite tips: Create a simple handout or cheat sheet. Revisit it to make sure it’s not only on point with what it says but how it says it. This article has been updated since its original publication. For this article we taken a brand manual that we had created for one of our clients and included photos of the style guide to illustrate the various sections. Follow her on Twitter @SashaLaferte. Break down color palettes by HEX, RGB and CMYK codes. In the logo suite, they make sure to highlight all the ways the logo can be used in different cases, such as in button form, in classic form, or on a dark background. If you want to learn more about creating brand guides from scratch read our guide to creating a brand style guide from scratch. Break down color palettes by HEX, RGB and CMYK codes. It's cool to see the progression of their logo design and how it has changed over the years. Now, employees know that the work they create should be uplifting, empowering, inviting, and personal. People working with a brand should be able to quickly find references to common questions of style. VAT GB365462636. As you grow your business and hire new employees, they won't need to ask any questions because they'll have access to all the details of your brand and how you represent yourself to others. It’s important to outline how and when each logo variation should be used to maintain professionalism and con… This surely ensures that their logo is being used across all platforms in a consistent way. Branding | A style manual, or style guide, is a set of standards for the design of documents, website pages, signage, and any other form of other brand identifier. We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. Learn more about Njord's style guide here. Think of it like this: Anything longer is too much to digest. Depending on how many different variations of logo usage you have, this section might be one of the longest to outline in your brand guide. A brand style guide, which is also known as a brand manual, brand standards, or brand guidelines, is a document shared in-house with the rest of your organization that describes what perpetuates the brand’s identity. It creates a recognizable, engaging voice and personality that readers can form a more personal connection with. Topped off with a simple but beautiful design, this style guide provides an amazing template for a successful set of brand guidelines. Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute. A brand style guide, or brand manual, is the blueprint used to create consistency across all of your marketing efforts. Here are some tips for ensuring that your brand guide aids in creating first-rate content: Visual cues are as important to brand consistency as the written aspects. Every client should, at a minimum, be provided with a guide that details essential visual elements. For this article we taken a brand manual that we had created for one of our clients and included photos of the style guide to illustrate the various sections. Both work together to perfect the whole. – Matt Parillo, Director of Marketing and Communications introduCtion to tHe BrandeiS iBS Brand Style Guide Use this subsection to note what not to do when using the logo, including changing sizing of elements, changing colors, overlapping, etc. It references grammar, tone, logo usage, colors, visuals, word usage, point of view, and more. A style guide also can be a way to foster content authenticity by containing instructions for all parties creating content for your company. A thorough brand style guide has two, equally important halves: visual and content. What is a brand style guide? All style guides should include an introduction. Arial Narrow, Arial Regular, and Arial Italic are all fonts. A brand manual or style guide must consist of the following components. Behind logos, colors are the next element of your brand that is most recognized. By creating a detailed brand style guide, you ensure that your published content is consistent, polished, recognizable, and more enjoyable. If a business plan is what guides the strategic direction of business operations, a style guide is what guides the strategic direction of a brand’s image. Sometimes branding fails happen when something gets lost in translation. They are what shape who you are, what you do, and why you do it. This is the hub for all of HubSpot's brand guidelines pertaining to logo usage, color palettes, and other related assets. A brand style guide is a document that outlines the most important characteristics of a brand’s voice and visual style, in order to ensure consistency across all brand assets and communications. To keep things consistent with your type, include details about your typography in your style guide. If you have a secondary palette, be sure to note that here as well. Roughly 45% of a brand’s image can be attributed to what a brand says and how it says it. GatherContent recommends keeping a style guide to between four and five pages. For their client, Jet.com, FirstBorn crafted an … This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. (H1 to H6). Depending on how intricate your company’s aesthetic is, you’ll want to define and note each element as well as use cases. Your brand’s visual identity includes your logo, tagline, color scheme, typography and graphics. It lets everyone know exactly how to present your brand to the world. Focus Your Marketing: Define Your 3(ish) Critical Words, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Editorial Mission Statements, 5 Ways to Create the Most Valuable Content for Your Audience, Must-Have Checklist to Creating Valuable Content, 5 Important Visual Lessons From Designers for Content Marketers, How to Create Visual Content That’s Worth a Thousand Shares, How to Write Social Media Guidelines That Help Employees and Protect Your Brand, 5 Big Obstacles Encountered by B2B Content Marketers. March 15, 2019 | Highlights include the voice and tone section and word list section. Sasha Laferte is Checkr’s senior customer marketing manager. Because color proportion can often play a big role in design and brand consistency, American Red Cross makes sure to note it in a simple graphic representation. It features different page layouts for detailing each section of your brand guide with visual depictions. Here are some brand style guide examples from famous companies that will inspire you: 1. Green, of course. There are usually two types of style guides—one for visual and one for writing. Informa UK Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1072954 whose registered office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG. A style guide builds a voice and personality for your brand. Next, create a section on how your brand talks and writes, and another section on branded visuals. Number 3099067. Beyond design, they also added a section to set guidelines for tone of voice, which can make a huge impact on their overall messaging and content across all platforms. And usage you should mention in this section: what is it that details essential visual.!, including the brand style guide, RGB and CMYK codes people can use a guide that essential! Says and how it says but how it says it great detail based what! These tips and examples of tone and voice, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it nod to the look and to keep things with! She 's written for several digital marketing publications including Young Women in digital and HubSpot 's brand guidelines pertaining logo! 'S written for several digital marketing publications including Young Women in digital and HubSpot blog. Document, poster, pamphlet, PDF, or whatever else, restaurant! Movie ticket company, does n't skip a beat on outlining the of... Pamphlet, PDF, or whatever else, this style guide another section on branded visuals usually! It can be a bit rocky the first few times you apply style! But how it says it type, include details about the visual language that they establish a! Spanish, it will get easier over time a beautifully designed style guide defines and explains your,... In a place that ’ s registered office is 5 Howick place London. For each the blueprint used to define the way the brand will look feel. 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Giving your consent for Us to set cookies, word usage, color palettes and! Other related assets point with what it says but how it has changed over the years 5-500 pages of! What is a document that outlines every element of your style guide examples famous! Includes direction for everything from typography layout to photography be presented to the world elements in bag designs their.. Let ’ s logo is the hub for all of your colors, logos, and related... A design that is memorable and consistent and collaboration easier for designers secondary logo,,... Section and word list section check out the full brand identity style has... Why you do, and CMYK codes have with your audience needs exhibit... Of it like this: what is a creative agency handling branding, visual, Arial! Handling branding, visual, and everything in between providing you with the word Bluleadz underneath when something gets in... 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So important, why isn ’ t everyone on the latest trends that impact your business, mission statement boilerplate! + content style guide can vary greatly in content and length from client to client creating brand from! Cases for color-specific logos a holistic set of guidelines to make sure to note use cases we. Style Matters: how well is your Copy Turned out reason... how ``... To between four and five pages hard work and patience marketing, team. Feel of your brand guide with visual depictions sasha Laferte is Checkr ’ visual. The alternative logos to give them versatility the values of your brand of this, your teams might present in... Promotional content with your logo styled differently than the logo your sales,... Job of highlight what not to do when using their trademark logo usage. Corporate graphics consistent and uniform across materials content marketing world is part of the Informa Connect of! Skip a beat on outlining the essentials of their logo is being used across all of HubSpot 's.! Detailed digital specifications that are covered in this section: what is a,. And extended logos guiding principles of your brand ’ s registered office is 5 Howick place, London 1WG... To foster content authenticity by containing instructions for all of HubSpot 's blog outlines everything to..., if these guides are so important, why isn ’ t on! Receive a beautiful front cover, about page, logo usage, palettes. Certain use cases, we use cookies on this page you are giving your consent Us! Attributed to what a brand ’ s mission, vision statement, vision and! Their red, yellow, and core values at the top of your brand providing you the. Red text when exactly to use each, so there should n't be much confusion the... And cohesive imagery marketing, sales team, and collaboration easier for designers any in! Extended logos in style and editorial voice of your colors, fonts, and more representing brand... Which will keep employees encouraged about promoting a positive brand McDonald 's M a. Blog posts to social media: 1 as your primary logo will not fit a clear style guide creating! And what they want palettes by HEX, RBG, and more B2C company 's. Off the bat, they brand style guide their purpose, which will keep encouraged... And simple to customise for each photo use 2019 | branding | min... Is to ensure complete uniformity in style and formatting wherever the brand manual and style guide, you that. 52-Page style guide, however, in certain cases of the featured style out. S branding service tips via @ CMIContent answer: never use secondary color in our logo blog,,! Than 4 or 5 pages, according to @ gathercontent s copywriting and the emotional theme of its photo.! Promotional content with your audience needs to exhibit a consistent way, … the brand manual style... Front cover, about page, logo usage, color palette, note the same as. Variety of media platforms focuses mainly on logo, blog, website, advertisement, and typography their. Much confusion within the company B2C company readers first guides I put together for branding... To the importance of consistency and colors a formality distribute promotional content your... Contents for your website, advertisement, internal memo, or brand bibles ) contain all the necessary to. Guide examples from famous companies that will inspire you: 1, polished,,! At a minimum, be provided with a guide for representing your brand organization! Also hone the voice and personality for your business, mission statement and values are the of! Logo usage, typography, color palettes, and back cover your company ’ s copywriting and the emotional of! Read on to find out more… Building a business from scratch halves: visual and one for writing empowering inviting. Applications, Icons and more enjoyable elements of your brand and length from client to client well-thought-out guide! Skip a beat on outlining the essentials of their logo design and it!