Does Your Brand Need a Style Guide?
Your company’s brand is more than your logo. If you distribute print marketing materials, have a website and ad campaigns, or use social media, your colors, fonts, and images affect your messaging. A style guide can be a great asset to maintain branding consistency.
Plus, if employees have access to your press kit and logo files, they need a guide to using the various branding elements — the right way and the wrong way. The same applies to any outside vendor who will be designing with your brand elements.
What are the main components of a style guide?
- Color palette: primary and secondary colors, plus color formulas for print and web
- Branded typestyles and fonts, with an alphabet sampler and a size and usage guide
- Logo usage guidance, showing the correct surround space, size, proportion and colors
Need more? A style guide can even help steer your messaging:
- Templates to follow for print collateral, web pages, and presentation decks
- The type of imagery that is acceptable, and how to use it for all media: social media, website, ad campaigns, and print materials
- Examples of how to set the tone of written or spoken content
A style guide gives you control over your branding by lessening the risk of someone using your logo incorrectly, or creating a one-off marketing piece that looks nothing like your company. Consistency is key, making your company more credible and trustworthy.
