Think of your brand as your company’s personality. It encompasses everything from your core values and messaging to your visual elements like your logo and color palette. A strong brand identity fosters instant recognition, builds trust, and sets you apart from competitors.
But how do you ensure your brand message remains consistent across different platforms and mediums? That’s where brand identity guidelines come in. These guidelines serve as a rulebook, detailing exactly how your brand should be represented in all communications, both internally within your company and externally to the world. Let’s dive into the key components of how to make brand identity guidelines.
Understanding Brand Identity Guidelines
Brand identity guidelines, often referred to as a brand style guide or brand book, are a comprehensive set of instructions and rules for how your brand should be visually represented and communicated to the world. Think of them as the blueprint that ensures your brand’s personality shines through consistently in every customer interaction.
Why are brand identity guidelines so important?
- Consistency is Key: Brand recognition is built on repetition. Guidelines ensure your logo, colors, fonts, and messaging are used correctly, regardless of who’s creating your marketing materials.
- Protection from Dilution: Guidelines prevent well-meaning employees or external partners from inadvertently altering your brand, protecting the integrity and value you’ve worked hard to establish.
- Efficiency: Having clear usage rules eliminates guesswork, streamlines content creation, and saves valuable time and resources.
- Alignment: Guidelines reinforce your brand’s core values and mission, ensuring everyone from your marketing team to new hires is using messaging that accurately represents those foundational elements of your company.
How to Make Brand Identity Guidelines
Crafting a comprehensive set of brand identity guidelines might seem like a daunting task, but by breaking it down into simple steps, it becomes a manageable and highly rewarding project. Let’s start by laying a strong foundation with the very heart of your brand identity.
Step 1: Define Your Brand’s Core Elements
Think of this step as the introspective phase. If you haven’t already done so, invest the time to clearly articulate the following:
- Mission Statement: A concise, powerful statement that embodies your company’s purpose. This isn’t about what you sell, but about the fundamental impact you strive to create.
- Vision Statement: Describes your desired long-term future state, painting a picture of where you see your company heading. It provides direction and motivates your team.
- Brand Values: The guiding principles that shape how you operate both internally and externally. Think about what you’ll never compromise on – maybe it’s a commitment to environmental responsibility, providing unparalleled customer support, or constant innovation.
- Brand Personality: Imagine your brand as a person. What adjectives best describe their personality? Sophisticated? Playful? Authoritative? Bold? Defining your personality keeps your messaging consistent and helps you create a human connection with your audience.
These decisions shouldn’t be rushed. Take the time to ensure these statements are an authentic and accurate reflection of your company. They’ll be referenced again and again as you build out the details of your brand identity guidelines.
Step 2: Establish Visual Identity Guidelines
Your visual identity is how people instantly recognize your brand, even without accompanying text. Develop clear guidelines to safeguard against inconsistent usage that could undermine brand recognition. Start with the obvious:
- Logo Usage: Provide approved logo variations in different file formats, along with precise instructions on proper sizing, placement, allowable color variations, and examples of what NOT to do with your logo.
- Color Palette: Select your primary and secondary colors. Provide color codes (HEX, RGB, CMYK) to ensure consistent reproduction for different mediums. If you have specific colors associated with different product lines or sub-brands, clearly outline these distinctions.
- Typography: Choose primary and secondary fonts that align with your brand personality. Include rules of usage for headings, subheadings, and body text. Determine which fonts should always be paired together to create a signature, on-brand look.
- Imagery: Describe the overall photographic style you prefer – warm and inviting vs. clean and minimalist, etc. Clarify whether illustrations will be used, and if so, provide examples of preferred styles.
Step 3: Determine Tone and Voice Guidelines
How you communicate is as important as what you say. Your brand voice and tone should reflect your established brand personality. Are you an approachable expert? A witty trendsetter? Document these defining characteristics in your guidelines. Consider including a list of descriptive adjectives that embody your brand’s voice, alongside a list of words to avoid as they clash with your desired tone.
Your tone may shift slightly depending on the platform. A social media post may utilize more playful language than a press release. However, your core values and messaging should always shine through. Provide clear examples within your brand guidelines that illustrate how to apply these principles across different scenarios. This empowers others within your company, from writers to your customer service team, to communicate in a way that aligns with your overall brand identity.
Step 4: Specify Usage and Application Guidelines
Creating a strong set of guidelines goes beyond simply defining your logo and color palette. Think of this step as providing context for real-world scenarios. Consider tailoring specific guidance for the following channels and mediums:
- Website: Define design elements like button styles, layouts, navigation structure, and best practices for image usage. This ensures your website and landing pages remain consistent with your overall brand identity.
- Social Media: Specify profile image requirements and cover photo specifications for each major social network. Consider creating templates for social posts to streamline the content creation process.
- Print Materials: Outline correct logo usage for business cards, letterhead, and any other marketing collateral. Include specifics about paper stock, finishing considerations, and bleed requirements to ensure accurate printing.
- Presentations: For internal and external use, create presentation slide templates with designated font sizes, layouts, and approved usage of graphic elements.
This section of the guideline might be the most dynamic. Regularly update it as you expand your presence across new platforms or introduce additional brand elements.
Step 5: Document and Distribute Your Guidelines
Think about how your brand guidelines will be accessed and used by your team and partners. A well-formatted, visually appealing PDF is a classic and widely accessible format. Consider creating a dedicated, password-protected area within your company’s intranet or a shared cloud storage service for easy reference and updates.
Don’t release your guidelines with no fanfare! Clearly share the why behind having a detailed brand guide, emphasizing how it benefits your team and ultimately strengthens your brand reputation. Ensure relevant stakeholders have immediate access, including your marketing and sales teams, web developers, designers, customer service representatives, and any external partners, like agencies or vendors.
Brand guidelines shouldn’t be rigid or cumbersome to follow. If your team finds them overly restrictive or difficult to find, they’ll be ignored. Design your document with clarity and usability in mind, empowering others to easily uphold your brand standards.
Start Crafting Your Brand Identity Guidelines
A strong brand doesn’t happen by accident. It’s crafted with intentionality. Creating comprehensive brand identity guidelines is an investment that will pay dividends for years. Whether you’re a new business or looking to solidify your existing brand, set aside time to work through the foundational elements and steps outlined in this article.
Remember, brand guidelines are a living, breathing document, so revisit and revise them as your business evolves. This proactive approach to defining and maintaining your brand identity will ensure your business always puts its best foot forward – communicating a clear, consistent, professional image that builds trust, attracts loyal customers, and propels your success.
