A well-developed brand/style guide is essential for establishing your brand identity. A style guide acts as the key document that helps you convey a consistent message to your audience across your digital and print media.
So, what can a style guide do for your brand?
Your style guide communicates your company’s design standards. Having this document to reference gives a strong framework to use as a starting point.
Style guides can also support your marketing by ensuring that all messages portrayed stays relevant and related to your brand goals. Referencing a style guide ensures that content distinguishes a brand from its competitors. This is important because it helps establish a strong brand voice that resonates with the audience thus building brand awareness. Over time, that awareness and consistency builds trust.
When your company goes through a brand redesign, you should always have a new style guide to along with it as a company’s goals might change.
What’s in a Style Guide?
A style guide should include all the important guidelines for your brand’s identity and voice, especially the elements listed below.
1. The logo and derivatives
Include the primary and secondary logos, along with their corresponding colour formats for web and print. Instructions about the logo such as minimum sizes, and size in relation with other elements on the design.
It’s also useful to include logo treatments that designers should avoid. Ensuring the logo(s) are always applied consistently and protects your brand equity.
2. Typefaces
Any typefaces used within the brand for marketing should be a part of the style guide, along with their weights (if any are suggested by the designer) and also any web-friendly alternatives.
3. Colour Palette
The colour palette plays a big part in having a consistent brand and a more importantly a consistent voice as different colours portray a different psychological meaning.
Conclusion
Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. I cannot emphasise this point any more. No matter who the designer is, if you give them your brands’ style guide, you can rest easy knowing that your message will stay the same.
Since a style guide defines the guidelines for maintaining a brand’s identity, it’s important to spend the time and resources to getting a guide that outlines all your messages in the proper format.
If you feel your brand isn’t performing the way you’d like it to, it’s probably because you don’t have a guideline to follow.
If that’s the case, get in touch so we can put together a new identity that conveys the right message across effectively.
