What are brand guidelines?
Brand guidelines are designed to help you get the most value out of your new brand. They are the go-to manual when you have any questions about how your business should be perceived by your clients and customers.
This is achieved by breaking down the visual and language elements of your brand, and explaining their functions and how they should be used in the future. This is especially useful when working with anyone needing to understand each branding element, such as employees, copywriters, marketing agencies, and more.
What's included in brand guidelines?
Brand guidelines will vary from business to business. Also, the design team that create the brand guidelines will also affect the content. There are standard elements that you should be able to find across any form of these guidelines:
- Colours: explaining what colours to be used across your brand and collateral
- Typefaces: the typefaces that should be used in different circumstances
- Logo usage: how and when your logo should effectively be utilised
At Bearfaced Studio, we make sure to include additional material that will get you the most value out of your brand guidelines. These include:
- Brand statement: the tagline for your business, a recognisable expression that people will instantly connect with
- Mission, Vision and Values: a solid foundation that aligns yourself and your employees
- Secondary logo usage: additional logos and where they should be used
Why do I need brand guidelines?
To showcase your brand's value
Your brand is one of your most important assets — it is the first things a person thinks of when they think of your company. And the good thing is, you have control over it! A study by consultants Booz Allen Hamilton and Wolff Olins found that brand-guided companies outperform their competitors, with results that improve profitability.
To understand your brand
Everyone within your company should be able to effectively reflect your brand and what it stands for. Having a core understanding of your brand's messages and how people should interact with it will guide yourself and your employees in the same direction, with everyone being able to explain what the brand means.
To build brand consistency
One of the most effective ways of building trust with your customers and clients is through consistency. If your business can be consistent with it's communications, it projects a professional impression for anyone interacting with your brand, something someone is much more likely to trust.
To avoid confusion
As your company grows, more and more people will be in control of your how your brand is communication. To ensure that there is no mis-use of the logo, or wrong colour schemes, brand guidelines offer a comprehensive guide for your brand and provide clear instructions on the correct way to use it's collateral.
What do brand guidelines actually look like?
It's great talking about brand guidelines, but we're visual people here. You can download our in-house brand guidelines by clicking the image below. It shows an example of what's included and the bases of how your companies would be structured.
Take a look at our Grizzly Package that includes a full set of brand guidelines by clicking here.
If your business is looking to build some professional brand guidelines, then get in touch.
