So, you have a new logo and a few brand colors. You’re ready to start implementing your brand’s look and feel across all your platforms, right? Wrong.
These elements are important, but they’re just the beginning to creating cohesive content that communicates exactly what you’re trying to say.
Whether you’re a team of two or 200, people will bring their own habits of writing and styling to a brand. If you want to portray a unified front, it’s important to establish exactly what that looks like.
Each brand will have different things that are necessary to include in their brand guidelines. Here are a few elements you should consider including in your brand guidelines.
What does your company stand for? What is it trying to accomplish? Your mission should be the first thing that is clearly communicated in your brand guidelines.
In this case, what NOT to do is just as important as what you should do! It’s vital for brand consistency that your logo is displayed only in the approved formats. Otherwise, you risk tarnishing your identity and recognizability.
Include Pantone swatches, hex codes, RGB, and CMYK numbers. It’s important that the EXACT shades are here, and that they can be matched perfectly in every situation.
This should include your type combinations, headline typefaces, secondary copy typefaces, body copy typefaces, accent typefaces, web typefaces, and any other typographic elements that are essential to your brand.
When was a time that the brand was represented really well? Whether it’s on the website or a poster, examples are a great way to inspire others to portray the brand well.
Having a consistent social media presence is a key piece of identity. From feeds to stories, you should be able to explain what your brand’s social style looks like.
How do you feel about the Oxford comma? How do you write dates and times? It may seem nit-picky, but when you have people trying to take on one voice, you need to make sure they know how that voice sounds.
Kayla is our resident wordsmith and grammar aficionado. With an editorial background and experience working for a major magazine, she is passionate about creating unity between words and design…
