Branding and the Need for a Style Guide

 

What Exactly are Brand Guidelines?

Brand guidelines are a set of tools and rules on how to use your branding elements. They are used by designers, writers, and anyone else who touches your brand’s elements like your logo or custom images, etc. Guidelines are usually presented in a book format that covers how your brand works and how the different elements of your brand work together to form your brand identity.

Brand guidelines generally contain sections on:

Your brand’s identity-
• Mission
• Core values
• Personality
• Tone, etc.

Your brand assets and the appropriate usage-
• Logo variations
• Color palette
• Typography
• Spacing
• Backgrounds, etc.

Why are Brand Guidelines So Important?

Consistency The main reason brand standards are so important is consistency. Brands that are not consistent come off as disorganized and untrustworthy. The brand is the mascot of the company and pulls a lot of weight in reassuring customers that they have made the right choice in trusting your company. Consistency means ensuring you have the same colors and fonts reflected in your images, graphics, and videos.

ALSO READ: A Fantastic Brand Story is Like a Great Movie Trailer

Recognizable Keeping your brand consistent immediately allows your target audience to easily recognize your brand. They’ll be able to recognize the brand’s unique approach to visuals. Over time, your customers will see the consistency in your brand and begin to recognize when a social media post is from you without seeing your brand’s logo or social media handle.

ALSO READ: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Standards and Rules It’s hard to not want to throw in your creative touch with everything but it’s very important that all of your content has the same look and feel. You must be enforcing the standards every single day on every single project. It is extremely important that any employees, contractors, or anyone who has access to your brand are closely following the standards in order to create a brand that has a long and successful life.

ALSO READ: The Power of Color in Web Design and Brand Marketing

Contact Brandit today, so that we may develop your brand’s visual elements. We guarantee that it will help you maintain a strong, consistent, and recognizable brand!

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