Here’s the problem with most brand guidelines. They’re made, saved, and… promptly ignored.
Then what happens?
Your logo gets stretched. Your tone gets mangled. Your carefully chosen colors end up looking like someone picked them blindfolded.
The result? A brand that feels inconsistent, and customer trust starts to crack.
But when done right, brand guidelines don’t sit in a folder gathering digital cobwebs. They work. They help your creative teams and external partners maintain a consistent, clear, and instantly recognizable brand. No matter what they post, pitch, or produce.
Let’s take a closer look at how to build brand guidelines that actually get used, not just downloaded once and forgotten forever.
What Are Brand Guidelines and Why Do They Matter?
Brand guidelines are the instruction manual for your brand’s identity. They outline your visual elements, tone of voice, and key rules that shape how your brand shows up in the world — online, offline, and everywhere in between.
When you get this right, you create a recognizable brand signature. A consistent brand voice. A sense of reliability. All these elements are crucial for creating a solid brand identity and customer trust.
And in a world where 50% of consumers believe companies make false claims, that consistency becomes a powerful driver of trust. And trust is the key to conversions.
In fact, 80% of people from Germany say it’s crucial they trust the brand they buy from. And 62% say they’ll pay more for products from brands that earn that trust.
And here’s the thing: guidelines aren’t just for designers. They’re for your marketing team, product team, and creative partners, too.
Used well, they support everything from product packaging to social media posts, business cards to video content.
What Should You Include in Brand Guidelines?
And don’t simply write about your tone of voice. Exemplify it in your guide. Include blog posts, social captions, and sample replies to show what it looks and feels like in action.
Logo Usage and Design Elements
This section covers logo variations, usage guidelines, design hierarchy, and any visual treatments, such as borders or patterns.
Your logo is often the first visual cue for your brand. Inconsistent usage (wrong sizing, distorted proportions, low-resolution exports) erodes trust and looks unprofessional.
Make sure your guide includes:
- Examples of how logos interact with other elements (negative space, color overlays, etc)
- Placement dos and don’ts
- “Don’t-use” examples
- Clear space rules
- Pixel minimums
Signature Colors and Color Codes
Consistent visuals are a core part of brand memory.
Think of it this way.
You’d only need to see the signature red and yellow McDonald’s hues, and you’d immediately think of the fast-food restaurant. You wouldn’t even need the famous “M”.
This is why it’s essential to define your exact brand colors and how you utilize them. When your colors are consistent across marketing materials, product packaging, and social media posts, they become one of the most memorable elements of your brand identity.
Include your primary and secondary colors, HEX codes, suggested color combinations, and examples of where and how to apply them.
Include bold colors you’ll use for accents, and define color combinations that are on-brand or strictly off-limits.
Typography
Your brand guidelines should include your official font stack — everything from headers to captions. Provide guidance on line height, kerning, and space between letters.
Why?
Because fonts set the tone, whether you’re going for modern, elegant, or friendly, fonts tell your story before anyone reads a word.
Take this example of Disney versus Zara.
Disney has a playful font that aligns with its child-focused brand. Zara has a classier font that gives the air of high quality and sophistication.
Make sure to include:
- Fallback web fonts (Backup fonts without glyphs for when the primary font fails)
- Size ranges for mobile vs. desktop
- Usage scenarios
Take a look at how Coca-Cola does this.
Notice the level of detail. The drinks brand specifies how fonts should be used for headlines, body copy, pricing, and call-to-action (CTA) elements.
Imagery and Visual Identity
Imagery builds an emotional connection and conveys your story more effectively than text. But using random stock images can quickly dilute your identity.
Consider the tone of imagery that complements your values and offerings. Use this section of your guide to define your approach to using images, illustrations, iconography, and graphic design trends.
Start by curating a gallery of on-brand visuals. Then define dos and don’ts for color grading, angles, subjects, and filters. Ensure you include real-world examples across channels so everyone can visualize your images in action.
Nestle exemplifies this well in the visual section of its brand guidelines.
The guide walks through each image type individually. It explains the emotional impact images should create and the key elements every image should include.
Asset Library
Make your assets easy to find — or people will improvise. And no one wants a pixelated logo floating around because your designer had to screenshot it off the homepage.
Create a central hub where people can access every version of your digital brand book, assets, and branding software.
That way, everyone knows where to find the brand guidelines as well as any images or fonts they’ll need.
Use tools like Frontify, Figma, or Google Drive to host everything from logo files to templates. Create a document with a table of contents that links to each asset for easy navigation.
Best Practices for Putting Brand Guidelines into Action
It’s not enough to write the rules. You’ve got to help people live them.
Here’s how to activate your guidelines so they don’t collect digital dust.
1. Make It Accessible and Shareable
Teams can’t follow what they can’t find.
Your guidelines need to be one click away for everyone.
Create a shared workspace, pin it in Slack, and link it in every project brief. Use tools like Notion, Canva for Teams, or branding software with custom URLs to make this easy.
2. Integrate Into Onboarding
New hires should meet your brand guidelines as of day one. Early exposure means fewer mistakes later. Plus, it helps new team members understand what your strong brand identity looks and sounds like.
Add a brand overview session to every onboarding plan.
Keep it interactive by quizzing them on everything from primary colors to specific in-house lingo.
3. Train Internal and External Teams
Provide ongoing education about how to apply your guidelines to all your teams and stakeholders.
Host quarterly workshops. Make recordings for asynchronous learning. Cover different use cases as your client base expands..
Why such regularly?
Because teams evolve, platforms change, and expectations shift. Regular training keeps everyone aligned and updated with any new branding rules.
4. Use Real-World Examples in Your Guide
Don’t waste time trying to explain everything in thousands of words.
Give clear, practical samples of both good and bad usage. This is especially helpful for visual learners.
Include a section of “brand in the wild” images and create mock-ups to exemplify usage. Don’t forget to give examples of what not to do as well, so people are clear about boundaries.
5. Keep It Up to Date
Your brand guidelines should reflect your current brand, not last year’s. As your brand evolves, your guide should too. Otherwise, your branding efforts will lag behind your business’s vision.
Schedule annual reviews and refreshes to update the style and visual identity elements. This is a great opportunity to retire old assets that no longer resonate with your customers.
Wrap Up
Brand guidelines create clarity, unity, and trust across every touchpoint by defining exactly how your brand should look and feel.
With clear instructions, your teams feel more confident in how to apply your style guide — and so they’re more likely to use it.
And remember, branding starts at home. Before you step on to social platforms or start slapping up billboards, make sure your website fits with your overall image.
Use ThemeRex to find a WordPress theme that reflects your brand values and shows your customers exactly what you’re about.
