A brand guidelines document is the perfect opportunity to bring your brand to life. It helps your team and collaborators represent your business consistently, whether they’re creating social media graphics, writing website copy, or designing marketing materials.
If you’re putting together your first ever brand guidelines, going through a rebrand, or simply refreshing content, it’s a process you want to make sure you get right. After all, if it’s too clunky, complex, or incomplete, it will likely end up gathering figurative dust in a folder somewhere.
At Unicorn Marketing, our own branding has recently had an exciting glow-up, complete with a fresh new set of brand guidelines. The process took us slightly longer than expected and we’ve definitely learnt a few valuable lessons along the way, so here are our top tips for creating brand guidelines your team will actually use.
1. make your guidelines the perfect example of your brand.
Your brand guidelines should practise exactly what they preach. From your fonts and colour palette, to your tone of voice, imagery and grammar, the document itself should showcase your brand at its best. It should serve as a working demonstration rather than just a list of rules!
2. keep your copy concise, but meaningful.
The written content in your guidelines requires just as much attention as the visuals. Work with your team to find the right words, whilst staying concise and on brand.
Sections covering your brand story, mission and values shouldn’t be too long, and should quickly give the readers a feel for your brand without overwhelming them with walls of text.
3. design with readers in mind.
A beautiful document is great, but what matters most is that people can find the information they need easily. Think about how your team will navigate the guidelines. Use clear headings, logical sections, and plenty of space so people can quickly find what they’re looking for.
A few visual examples of things to do (and things to avoid) can also help make your guidelines much easier to understand. The easier it is to flick through, the more likely people will be to come back to it.
4. don’t feel tied to the ‘standard’ format.
There are plenty of excellent templates and tools available to help you build your brand guidelines, and they’re a brilliant place to start! But don’t feel you have to follow them to the tee.
Every business is different, so your guidelines should reflect what makes yours unique. Include the sections your team will genuinely find useful, even if they’re not traditionally found in every set of brand guidelines. Whether that’s guidance on photography style, emoji usage, social media tone, or accessibility, if it helps your team to represent your brand accurately, it’s worth including.
5. have fun with it!
Brand guidelines are often seen as a box-ticking exercise, but they really don’t have to be. This is a document that represents your business, so don’t be afraid to show your personality and make design choices that feel right for you. At Unicorn, we’re big believers that brands should embrace what makes them different, and your guidelines should reflect that.
If your business is currently trying to pin down branding, or gearing up for an exciting rebrand, we’re here to help. Fill in the form below for a free consultation, and we’ll take it from there.
By Jennifer
By Ari