STYLE GUIDES
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Your brand style guide is a roadmap for anyone looking to use your logo or represent your company . Your style guide should provide detailed instructions for how you want your company to look and feel to users interacting with a piece of branded marketing material .
UTILIZING A STYLE GUIDE CREATES CONTINUITY AND CONSISTENCY IN YOUR BRAND , WHICH BUILDS CREDIBILITY AND CONTRIBUTES TO A STRONG REPUTATION .
Brand style guides incorporate all of the important elements of your brand identity , which we ’ ll explore in detail here . These include your company ’ s mission statement , select fonts , heading sizes , approved logos , color palettes , and tone .
1 . MISSION STATEMENT
Your mission statement should clearly communicate your brand ’ s purpose , objectives , and how you plan to serve your customers . It outlines your values and what you aim to achieve , whether that is to be the best in customer service or to provide the lowest prices in your industry . It should focus on the actions you take and give readers a clear idea of the impact your business is designed to make .
2 . FONTS
Your brand style guide should include the fonts that your company regularly uses to represent itself . The perfect brand fonts should be unique to your company and memorable for your audience . They should clearly communicate the personality of your organization while remaining easy for users to read . Be careful to choose fonts that work on every platform . A common mistake businesses make is to select beautiful fonts that are not compatible across interfaces .
3 . HEADING SIZES
The size of headings and body text is something many businesses forget to consider when composing their brand style guide . This section of the style guide lays out how the pieces of your marketing material fit together proportionately to one another . Completing a detailed section on heading sizes will ensure that the proportion of your logos and text are consistent throughout marketing channels .
4 . LOGOS
In this section , include all variations of your logo that are deemed acceptable to include in marketing material . Make note of which designs are intended for specific purposes . For instance , you may use a specific symbol for letterhead and another full logo for web pages only . If you have used logos in the past that are no longer acceptable , list these separately as not approved for publication .
5 . COLOR PALETTES
You will have several color palettes detailed in your brand style guide . Some will be specific to your logo , others will be for your website , and others will be colors that could be displayed alongside your logo or used for text . Also included in this section are colors that should under no circumstances be included in your marketing materials . Often these don ’ t marry well with your chosen palettes or perhaps too closely mimic the look and feel of a competing brand .
6 . TONE
The tone of your brand describes how you want to communicate with your audience and / or how you want your message to be perceived . It can include simple components such as how you sign off your emails . It will also include larger components like what kind of language you use when describing your products to a customer . Some brands go for a more fresh and fun tone while others are strictly professional . This is where you establish which one works best for you .
PULL IT ALL TOGETHER !
Are you ready to pull it all together ? One of our creative directors would be happy to work with you to produce a brand style guide that speaks volumes for your company . Book an appointment with us at TulipMediaGroup . com today and let ’ s talk .
Heather Crossman is the Lead Designer at Tulip Media Group . She has over two decades of graphic design experience and got her start at a local print shop learning all the ins and outs of the print world . She is focusing all of her experience and design talents to creating high end visuals for our Client-Partners and is a firm believer that their success is our success .
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