When a company hires a designer, one of the first things it hands over is its brand guidelines, and adverts often say the designer must keep work consistent with them. Learning to write a simple brand guide, and to follow someone else's, shows employers you can work professionally inside a team.
What a brand guide contains
A brand guide, also called brand guidelines, is a short document that explains how to use a brand's visual identity. For a small business, one to four pages is enough.
- Logo versions: the main logo, a one colour version and a white version, and when to use each.
- Logo rules: clear space, which is the empty area around the logo that nothing should enter, and a minimum size below which the logo should not be used.
- Logo don'ts: examples of what not to do, such as stretching it, changing its colours, adding shadows or placing it on a busy photo.
- Colours: each brand colour with its codes. Include a hex code for screens and, if the client prints often, the CMYK values the printer should use.
- Fonts: the heading font and the body font, with where to get them.
- Image style: what photos should feel like, such as bright, natural daylight with real customers.
- Examples: one or two finished designs, such as a social media post and a flyer, showing the rules in use.