Establishing a strong and consistent brand identity is essential for any business looking to build trust and recognition. Brand guidelines creation serves as a blueprint, ensuring every aspect of your branding remains cohesive across all platforms. Whether you’re launching a new business, refining your existing identity, or collaborating with external partners, clear brand guidelines provide the foundation for consistency and professionalism.
In this blog, we’ll explore the key components of effective brand guidelines, their benefits, and how expert support can help you create a seamless and impactful brand presence.
What Are Brand Guidelines?
Brand guidelines are a set of directions regarding the usage and presentation of your brand. They can often be referred to with different terms such as a brand book, brand kit or branding package.
When conducting brand guidelines creation, the identity of your company should be analysed and effectively illustrated. This can be presented in a number of ways depending on the business; however, a popular format is a demonstrative pdf. This will enable your brand to convey the directions with both visual and textual elements for optimal clarity.
What Do They Include?
A brand guide can cover numerous different features that make up your individual branding. The different factors of your branding will be influenced by your tone of voice, target demographic and your industry. Having a thorough understanding of these aspects of your business will strengthen the content within your brand guidelines.
Here are some of the essential sections to cover:
Logos
Your logo is a core representation of your business and may have a number of variations, known as secondary logos. When creating branded content, it’s integral that the correct logo is used. This could relate to the sizing, colour, and spacing of your icon. During partnerships or creative campaigns, these rules can be particularly significant to adequately represent your company.
Typography
The copywriting for your brand is equally as important as your visuals. The connection between your business and its texts is a subconscious but prominent relation. Typography includes fonts, colour, size, and spacing, which work together to distinguish the information being shared. Brand guidelines creation will help to ensure text is created with the best suited typography specifications, aligned with your branding.
Colour Palette
Colour scheme can be an instantly recognisable representation of your company. In fact, research has suggested that the use of a consistent brand colour can increase brand recognition by 80%. There are many brands with colours that are globally associated with their business, for example, Tiffany and Co. and Cadbury. The key to unlocking this strong connection is to create a cohesive palette across all marketing and branded material. It’s crucial that your brand guide explains the specifics of your colour scheme with a hex code. It’s also beneficial to designate a hierarchy of your palette, outlining your primary brand colours. Additionally, it should be indicated when each shade should be used and when they can be combined.
Imagery
All merchandising, marketing, or branded material for your business should all feature an integrated visual format. From photographs to symbols, all imagery should connote the same representation of your brand image. Having distinct examples and descriptions for your visuals will support future creations. Defining a specific brand aesthetic that aligns with your narrative, will assist overall cohesiveness throughout your branding.
When Would I Need Them?
There are numerous scenarios which require brand guidelines creation. This will begin at the very beginning of your business journey and continue as it progresses. When starting a business, a guide ensures that all components being created are following the same structure. When your company grows and recruits new employees, a brand guide will allow them to better understand the brand identity. This can also help when working with agencies or other third parties that may not be accustomed to your branding.
How Will They Be Used?
Overall, your guidelines function as a tool to secure your brand narrative and messages throughout all of your content. Your general image and reputation relies heavily on the ability to convey a combination of elements related to your business. This includes your brand vision, values, mission and story. A strong brand guideline will assist your company in effectively demonstrating these factors of your business to your audience.
What Are The Benefits?
To enjoy the many benefits of strong branding, it can be advantageous to implore the help of a marketing agency for brand guidelines creation. To truly maximise the results, the guide must be thorough, professional, and concise, which may be challenging without experience.
When executed well, brand guidelines creation will unite your teams and support clear messaging. This will distinguish your business from other competitors and portray your unique selling point. In doing this, you will be able to strengthen the awareness of your brand and its ethos. A strong demonstration of ethics can influence the loyalty of customers as they are likely to support businesses that align with their personal values. Ultimately, this can increase your success and assist you in reaching your goals.
How Do I Create Brand Guidelines?
As mentioned, when creating a brand guide, it is worth considering the assistance of an expert agency. With prior knowledge and experience, an agency can analyse your branding and integrate this into a thorough set of instructions.
Working with VerriBerri
At VerriBerri, we have a team of experts with a wealth of experience curating effective brand guidelines for a variety of industries. We are an award-winning team with a deep understanding of branding and the use of guidelines.
To find out how we can provide your business with marketing or design assistance, visit our website or fill out a contact form.