Brand guidelines

Brand guidelines are the document that makes sure everyone on your team is on the same page about how the brand looks and feels. As the business grows and more people start speaking on its behalf, they keep the brand's messages from diluting. Small steps in a consistent direction always beat grand gestures without one. That is the role of brand guidelines — to let every next brick of the identity rest on a solid foundation, so the brand stands the test of time.

Good guidelines aren't the thickest. They answer the questions that actually come up, quickly: how much clear space around the mark, which colour on which background, when to use the secondary typeface. The rest is decoration.

And their most useful part is often the list of don'ts. It is easier to show a new person the five things they mustn't do than to describe the endless things they can.

Related terms: Brand design system, Brand identity, Trademark and logotype.