Open a company’s shared drive and you may find several logo versions, old presentation templates, conflicting color values, and folders with names such as “Final,” “Final 2,” and “Latest.”
A salesperson preparing a deck cannot tell which template is current. A designer has to ask which logo belongs on a dark background. A video editor chooses a caption style based on the previous video. These small decisions gradually change how the company appears across its marketing.
Clear documentation prevents that drift. Understanding what to include in brand guidelines begins with the material your team produces: presentations, proposals, reports, social posts, emails, videos, and website content.
What are brand guidelines?
Brand guidelines explain how a company should look, sound, and present itself across different channels. They give employees, freelancers, agencies, and partners a shared reference for producing branded material.
The American Marketing Association describes a brand as a distinctive feature, such as a name, symbol, term, or design, that identifies goods or services. A brand style guide records how those distinctive features should be used.
The guide should also link directly to the approved files. A brand kit supplies the logos, fonts, templates, icons, and images. The guidelines explain when and how to use them.
Begin with the company’s position and audience
A designer needs some context before choosing a photograph, writing a headline, or laying out a page. Start the guide with a short summary of the company.
Include:
- Who the company serves
- What it sells
- The customer problem it addresses
- How it wants to be known
- Its main promise
- Three or four defining characteristics
- Approved company description
Avoid broad terms without explanation. Words such as “innovative,” “trusted,” and “customer-focused” offer little direction on their own.
Connect each characteristic to a visible behavior.
For example:
Precise: Use accurate terminology, clear diagrams, and evidence-based claims.
Approachable: Use familiar language, readable layouts, and believable photography.
Experienced: Explain recommendations clearly and support them with relevant examples.
Extended Frames covers the earlier identity decisions in Branding Your New Business: Complete Starter Guide for Founders. Once approved, those decisions should become part of the company’s working documentation.
Document names and brand language
Record the correct spelling and treatment of:
- Company name
- Legal name
- Product and service names
- Tagline
- Abbreviations
- Website address
- Social media handles
- Trademark symbols
Provide approved company descriptions in several lengths. A short version can be used for social profiles and event listings. Longer versions can support proposals, company profiles, and partner pages.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office explains that words, phrases, symbols, and designs can identify the source of goods or services. The guide should state how registered company marks are displayed and name the person responsible for legal questions.
Define the logo
A logo page should explain more than which mark is preferred. Show every approved version:
- Primary logo
- Horizontal and stacked versions
- Wordmark and symbol
- Full-color version
- Black and white versions
- Reversed version
- Social avatar
- Favicon
- Video watermark
Specify the purpose of each version, its minimum size, clear space, and approved backgrounds.
Google’s brand guidance uses the height of the “G” to define the minimum clear space around its logo. The measurement is visible and scales with the mark.
Slack’s published brand guidelines give separate minimum widths for horizontal and stacked logo versions because they have different legibility limits.
Include examples of errors your team could make, such as stretching the logo, changing its colors, adding effects, placing it over a busy image, or using an outdated file.
Assign roles to brand colors
Color swatches need instructions. State where each color belongs and how it should be combined with the rest of the palette.
| Color group | Primary use |
|---|---|
| Primary colors | Main brand recognition |
| Secondary colors | Supporting graphics and sections |
| Accent colors | Calls to action and highlights |
| Neutral colors | Text, backgrounds, and dividers |
| Functional colors | Success, warning, and error states |
| Data colors | Charts, diagrams, and comparisons |
Provide HEX and RGB values for digital work. Add CMYK values for print and Pantone references when required.
Show approved combinations for body text, headings, buttons, charts, dark backgrounds, and image overlays.
WCAG 2.2 sets a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text at Level AA. Meaningful graphics and interface elements generally require 3:1 contrast. The requirements are documented in the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Extended Frames explains how to assign color roles and test combinations in Accessible Color Palettes for Slides
Set typography rules
Record the primary and secondary typefaces, approved weights, heading hierarchy, body text, captions, line spacing, and capitalization.
Include approved fallback fonts for PowerPoint, Word, email, and other working environments. A presentation can break when the intended font is unavailable on another computer. Text reflows, line breaks change, and layouts shift.
Show the full hierarchy on one page:
- Main title
- Section heading
- Subheading
- Body copy
- Caption
- Large number
- Button or call-to-action label
The U.S. Web Design System places readable headings, paragraphs, and labels at the center of its typography guidance. These principles also apply to presentations, reports, and sales material.
Explain layout and imagery
Document the visual habits that should remain recognizable across different formats:
- Margins and grids
- Standard spacing
- Alignment
- Image proportions
- Text width
- Borders and corner treatment
- Heading placement
- Use of white space
The Extended Frames article on visual hierarchy in design and presentation explains how size, color, spacing, and position control the order in which information is seen.
Photography guidance should describe the preferred subject, environment, composition, lighting, cropping, and image treatment.
“Use authentic photography” leaves too much room for interpretation. A clearer direction could read:
Use natural working environments, soft daylight, clear expressions, and enough open space for copy. Avoid staged handshakes, heavy overlays, and people pointing at blank screens.
Add rules for generated imagery, including approved tools, restricted subjects, product accuracy, human review, likeness checks, and confidential information.
Standardize graphics and charts
Set rules for icons, illustrations, charts, diagrams, and recurring graphic elements.
For icons, either solid fill or line icons; specify the stroke, fill, corner style, size, and approved library. For charts, define the color order, labels, gridlines, legends, sources, and highlighting method.
For example, a sales chart may use the main accent color for the company’s result and gray for comparison data. Red should remain reserved for a genuine risk or warning.
Provide editable examples. A chart template or icon library gives the team a usable starting point.
Define brand voice
Choose three or four voice characteristics and explain the writing behavior behind each one.
| Voice characteristic | Writing behavior |
|---|---|
| Direct | State useful information early |
| Experienced | Use accurate terms, evidence, and examples |
| Warm | Address the reader naturally |
| Clear | Use familiar words and manageable sentences |
Tone changes with the situation. A product launch can sound energetic. A security notice needs calm, exact language. A payment reminder should remain courteous while giving a clear next step.
The Mailchimp Content Style Guide separates a company’s consistent voice from the tone used in a particular situation.
Record preferred spelling, capitalization, punctuation, terminology, date formats, acronym use, and calls to action. Include edited examples from company content so writers can see the intended result.
Include channel guidance and templates
Cover the formats your company produces regularly.
For presentations, include title slides, content layouts, charts, image slides, section dividers, and closing slides. Supply a PowerPoint template with theme colors, fonts, and Slide Master layouts.
For documents, show covers, headings, tables, callouts, contact details, and page numbering.
For social content, define image crops, safe areas, type sizes, carousel covers, and recurring layouts.
For video, include title cards, captions, lower thirds, transitions, logo animation, thumbnails, and export ratios.
Extended Frames offers creative design services for brand identities, reports, sales collateral, social assets, and reusable templates. Its presentation design services include editable PowerPoint systems, master layouts, and chart styling.
Supply completed examples beside each template. A finished example shows how much copy fits, how an image should be cropped, and how the hierarchy works.
Assign ownership
Close the guide with the information required to keep it current:
- Brand owner and contact details
- Work that requires approval
- Process for requesting new templates
- Process for requesting an exception
- Asset-library location
- Version number
- Last update
- Next review date
Brand guidelines should answer recurring production questions before they delay a project. Review the material your team creates each month, identify the decisions that keep returning, and document them with clear measurements, examples, files, and named owners.
Extended Frames can help develop a new brand guide or turn existing identity files into a system your team can use across presentations, documents, social content, and video. Contact Extended Frames to discuss the requirements.