Brand guidelines

Brand guidelines, also called a brand style guide or a brand manual, turn your identity into instructions. They answer the questions your printer, your web developer or a new employee will ask.

• Logo use: each version of your logo, when to use it, the space it needs around it and what not to do, like stretching it or changing its colors.
• Colors: every brand color with its HEX, RGB, CMYK and PMS values.
• Typography: the fonts for headlines and text, with sizes and examples.
• Imagery: the style of photos, icons and backgrounds that fits your brand.
• Voice: how your brand talks, with words to use and words to avoid, in each language you use.
• Examples: your brand applied to real pieces, such as a business card, a shirt, a sign and a social media post.

Large companies publish guidelines with dozens of pages. Most small organizations don't need that. They need one clear reference that answers the common questions and goes with every order.

A one-page identity sheet is often enough to start: your logos, your color codes, your fonts and your main message on a single page you can send to any vendor. As your organization grows, add pages: how the logo goes on uniforms and vehicles, templates for flyers and social media, and rules for your English and Spanish materials. If you're a licensed contractor in California, show where your license number goes: the state requires it in all forms of advertising, and the Contractors State License Board says it should be clearly visible on commercially registered vehicles.

1. 01Send them with every order. Give your guidelines and your logo files to every printer, embroiderer, sign maker and web developer before any work starts.
2. 02Check every proof against them. Compare the colors, the logo version and the placement with what your guidelines say.
3. 03Share them inside your organization. Staff and volunteers who post on social media or make flyers should know where the guidelines are.
4. 04Cover both languages. If you communicate in English and in Spanish, say how your brand sounds in each one, for example whether your Spanish uses “tú” or “usted.”
5. 05Update them when something changes. A new logo version, a new color or a new service should reach your guidelines first, then everything else.

Our Essential Corporate Identity package includes a one-page Essential Corporate Identity sheet: your name check, logos, colors, fonts, slogan, values and background, ready to hand to any vendor. On branded merchandise and signage orders, we check every proof against your brand before production.