Building Brand Guidelines - The Basics

Brand guidelines are an important tool in any brand's arsenal and should be one of the very first things you think about when setting up a brand. They ensure every member of your company has an easy-to-follow cheat sheet that allows you to ensure consistency across mediums. Consistency is the keyword here, making your brand recognisable and memorable across every tough point.

Before you start to build out your Brand guidelines there are a few things you will need to consider. Firstly, who is your company, what market do they sit in, and what is your value proposition? These points will have a huge impact on what you want your brand to be perceived as. Next would be who your target audiences are and how you want to communicate with them. It would also be valuable to research competitors and decide if you want to mimic them or stand out with a unique approach. Once you have made these decisions you can begin building out the basics of brand guidelines, below are 5 basic points you would want to include:

Logos

Think about the different variations of your logos. You will need ones to fit different formats, stand out against different backgrounds and suit different departments. You also have to think about how you don’t want your logo to be used and if there are any limits on who can use it and where it can be used.

Fonts

Brands usually have a selection of font types that can be used for different roles like headlines, body text, captions etc. You may want to adapt font types based on what mediums they are being used on.

Colours

Choose your primary colour and a few secondary options that complement and contrast your dominant colour. Some brands are instantly recognisable by just the colours they use most, so keeping consistency is very important.

Tone of Voice

This is your brand's 'personality' and should reflect how you want to converse with your target audience. Whether it is formal or informal, informative or persuasive, chatty or concise; you should choose a TOV that fits your buyer personas.

Copy

Decide if your brand uses jargon, contractions, or punctuation. Some words may have connotations you want to avoid using and you want to specify better-suited alternatives.

With these key components of building a brand nailed down, you can expand to the more detailed aspects. The brand guideline can be used within your company or sent out to any partners to ensure that branding remains consistent across each touchpoint, creating a more recognisable and memorable brand.

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