How to Build Your Brand Guidelines
Brand guidelines formalise your visual identity, bringing together specifications and standards that ensure anyone working with your brand can maintain consistency when creating new materials that expand your brand.
By Adam Charlton · Last updated 09/02/2025
Posted in Resources, Deep Dive
This post builds on the previous post about evolving your visual identity system.
Your guidelines should clearly explain the logic behind your visual system. Rather than just presenting rules, guidelines help users understand why certain choices were made and how different elements work together. This understanding helps people make better decisions when applying your brand in new contexts.
Brand guidelines are the foundational document ensuring your visual identity system is implemented consistently across all applications. Let's explore how to create guidelines that are both comprehensive and practical.
Brand guidelines do more than simply list rules - they tell the story of your brand’s visual system and provide practical tools for its implementation. Think of them as both an instruction manual and a design philosophy document. When someone opens your guidelines, they should understand not just what your brand looks like, but why it looks that way and how to maintain its integrity across different applications.
Core components of brand guidelines
Your guidelines begin with an introduction to your brand's visual foundation. This includes explaining your logo's design principles, the thinking behind your color choices, and the rationale for your typography selections. This context helps users understand the strategic thinking behind your visual choices, making them more likely to implement them thoughtfully.
Brand Elements — Include precise specifications about your logo, including spacing, size requirements, and usage restrictions. Show correct and incorrect usage examples, explaining why specific applications don’t work. Include technical specifications for different file formats and when to use each one.
Colour — Colour specifications need to be comprehensive. Document every colour in your system with all relevant colour codes - RGB for digital, CMYK for print, and Pantone colours for speciality applications. Explain your colour hierarchy and show examples of effective colour combinations. Include guidance about background colours and contrast requirements for accessibility.
Typography — Typography guidelines should specify exact fonts, including alternatives for situations where primary fonts aren't available. Include detailed specifications for type sizes, line spacing, and hierarchies. Show examples of type in use across different applications, from headlines to body copy.
Digital applications — Start with website components, showing how your visual system translates to navigation elements, buttons, and content layouts. Include specifications for social media applications, email templates, and digital advertising formats. Address responsive design considerations and how your system adapts across different screen sizes.
Print applications — Demonstrate how your system works across different printed materials. Show business card layouts, letterhead designs, and other stationery items. Include specifications for marketing materials like brochures and posters. Address technical considerations like paper stock selections and printing
Environmental applications — Explain how your brand translates to physical spaces. Include guidance for signage, environmental graphics, and exhibition materials. Address scale considerations and how different elements work together in three-dimensional space.
Asset management — Explain how to access and use brand assets correctly. Include information about file naming conventions, folder structures, and approved file formats. Address version control to ensure outdated assets don't remain in circulation.
Quality control — Establish processes for reviewing new brand applications. Include checklists for standard applications and criteria for evaluating whether new materials meet brand standards. Consider including a method for requesting exceptions or evolving the guidelines as needed.
Future-proofing your guidelines
Brand guidelines need to evolve as your brand grows and communication channels change. Brand guidelines can live digitally, potentially as interactive documents that update automatically when changes are made. This might include digital asset management systems or online brand portals. Large businesses like Uber and OpenAI use web platforms to share their brand guidelines rather than relying on traditional solutions like PDFs.
Conclusion
Whatever the size or stage of your business, brand guidelines are the perfect way of formalising your brand.
Thank you for checking out our Deep Dive brand-building resources. If you have any questions about creating or evolving your brand, we’re always happy to talk about branding and share our experience.
To continue your Deep Dive, the next phase about launching and scaling your brand, starts with The Brand Launch Playbook.
About the author —
Adam is the co-founder of Attend The Way, a Brighton-based branding agency. Adam helps build brands for companies at every growth stage, from startups to industry leaders. Adam has consulted and built brands for some of the world’s most recognised companies.
