Brand GuidelinesSophie Boston G324

What are Brand Guidelines?

Brand Guidelines (also commonly referred to as “brand standards”, “style guide” or “brand book”) are essentially a set of rules that explain how your brand works. These guidelines typically include basic information such as:

• An overview of your brand’s history, vision, personality and key values.

• Brand message or mission statement – including examples of ‘tone of voice’.

• Logo usage – where and how to use your logo including minimum sizes, spacing and what not to do with it.

• Colour palette – showing your primary and secondary colour palettes with colour breakdowns for print, screen and web.

• Type style – showing the specific font that you use and details of the font family and default fonts for web use.

• Image style/photography – examples of image style and photographs that work with the brand.

• Business card and letterhead design – examples of how the logo and font are used for standard company literature.

The brand guidelines should be developed to complement the company’s house style which sets out the language to describe the company and what it does. Some elements of a company’s communication (such as standard letter templates and email footers) involve both graphic design and wording (see the article on writing technique for more information on house style and agreed wording).

Who are they for?

• Most brand guidelines are produced for the company’s employees and representatives to ensure the company is presented in a coherent and

professional way.

• Additionally, some events, shows and projects produce guidelines for contractors and their designers to ensure there is consistency in the

application of a project-specific brand. For example, at a rock show the brand guidelines would ensure the lighting designer on a stage set would

specify the correct pantone for a colour wash.

Examples of Brand Guidelines

Logo• Probably the most crucial part of the brand guideline, the logo will ensure it encapsulates all the values of the

company, the colour scheme will also be included within in, and the logo will stand as a recognizable feature.

Things to think about with the logo:

• The main logo and where it is used, its size(s) and alignments.

• Secondary logos and how they are used

• specific aspects of the logo, how to talk about the logo to clients.

Typeface• i.e. the continuous font that will be used throughout the media products in

order to keep up the professionalism of the work and to make it recognizable to audiences.

Things to think about with the typeface:

• Details of the company’s typeface, its use and size.

• The reasons for its selection, what it is felt to convey.

Primary Typeface:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ– FELIX TITLING

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ- Adobe Song Std

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ- Batang

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-Narkism

Secondary Typeface:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-Minion Pro

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

-Myriad Pro Cond

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-Bodoni Mt

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-High Tower Text

Colour Scheme• Aim is to make this as simple yet intriguing as possible, needs to reflect the genre and

characteristics of the artist involved as well considering ‘stereotypical colours’ e.g. most male artists wouldn’t use pink for their colour scheme whereas a common colour scheme for rock artists

is black, white and red.

Things to consider when drawing up a colour scheme:

• The company’s colours (with CMYK and Pantone references).

• Where the colours are used.

C= 0 M=0Y=0K= 100

C= 1 M= 6Y= 54K= 2

C= 13M= 62Y= 100K= 2

C= 0 M= 0Y= 0K= 100 Opacity = 44%

C= 0 M= 0 Y= 0 K= 0

C= 77M= 60 Y= 52 K= 38