What Are Brand Guidelines?

Brand guidelines are a document or set of rules (guidelines) that lay out important elements of your brand. These can include colours, fonts, logos and variations for different devices and what your core brand missions are. All of these elements come together so that no matter what channel you are working on, whether it’s email, social media or a new website, your customers can easily recognise you.

Brand Guidelines - Yes or No?

Yes! Establishing brand consistency throughout all applications of your brand is crucial to brand recognition and credibility. Having put time and effort into a brand design that reflects your organisation, you don’t want to confuse the customer with inconsistent branding. As such, a brand guidelines document is an invaluable resource to support consistency across all applications of your brand, whether on the web or in print.

Brand guidelines vary in complexity depending on the organisation but it is essential to include basic elements such as colours and fonts. A large organisation with many people using the brand for different applications will need something more in-depth, covering areas such as mission statement, business principles and ethos, image use, tone of voice, and spacing guides.

Our brand guidelines for Hulley & Kirkwood

Many organisations are concerned that brand guidelines will be too restrictive and stifle creativity. The key to good brand guidelines is to make them flexible enough for designers to be creative, but rigid enough to keep your brand easily recognisable.

What Can Mucky Puddle Do For You?

Every time we do a brand design, we create brand guidelines that will work for the organisation, allowing everyone to engage with the new brand. We offer brand design and graphic design to Glasgow and the west of Scotland, helping new start-ups and established businesses cement their brand identity. Get in touch with us to see how we can work together to propel your brand.