Brand Guidelines: What are they and do you need them?
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again - people fall in love with brands. From their values and everything they stand for, to the way they position themselves and talk to their customers. If the messaging is strong, relatable and more to the point, consistent, your customers will always remember you.
“Your brand guidelines are essentially a tool set for ensuring that consistency that we’re talking about.”
You’ve invested so much time, effort and money up to this point in getting your brand visually perfect, that now you need a resource that outlines the correct uses for every aspect of your branding, from your logo variations, to your colour palette and your tone of voice. This is something you, and the rest of your team will be able to use as a reference point, for almost any brand activity.
It’s all about maintaining that quality and integrity that helps people form an opinion of your brand.
So, if you don’t already own a set of brand guidelines, here’s a few things you’ll want to include:
1. Your brand’s vision statement: This will tell your employees what you’re all striving towards, what’s unique about your brand and how you’re achieving that vision.
2. Your brand’s values: What’s important to your brand? What does it stand for? Let your team know what your core values are so that they can understand your brand better.
3. Logo Variations: Your business will need various forms of your logo. A primary form, a secondary form and a watermark. Your guidelines should outline how to use these, and how NOT to use them.
4. Typography and colour palette: Identify your brand’s fonts to maintain that consistency, and your colour palette too! It’s also handy to form a hierarchy of these so that it’s clear when they’re to be used and when they’re not.
5. Imagery: Are your images to be stylised a certain way so that they instantly capture the essence of your brand? You’ll want to include that in your set of brand guidelines because we all know, imagery is super important.