Brand guidelines
Definition
Brand guidelines (also called a brand guide or brand book) are a set of rules that define how a brand's visual identity and voice should be applied across every context, specifying how the logo is used, what colors and typefaces are official, and how the brand sounds when it speaks.
Brand guidelines translate a brand identity into a replicable system. The logo, the colors, the typeface, these are decisions. The guidelines are the documentation that ensures those decisions are applied consistently by everyone who works with the brand: designers, marketers, agencies, partners.
A complete set of brand guidelines covers:
Logo, the primary lockup, alternate versions (horizontal, stacked, icon-only), minimum sizes, clear space requirements, and prohibited uses (no stretching, no unapproved colors, no busy backgrounds).
Color palette, primary and secondary colors with hex, RGB, CMYK, and Pantone values. Semantic guidance: which color is dominant, which is accent, which is for text.
Typography, the brand typefaces (primary and secondary), the web/system fallbacks, and usage rules for headlines, body, and captions.
Imagery, photography style (lighting, subject matter, mood), illustration style if applicable, rules about stock photography (yes or no, filtered by what).
Voice and tone, how the brand sounds in writing: the adjectives that describe it, examples of on-brand vs. off-brand copy, vocabulary it uses and avoids.
Usage examples, the guidelines are most useful when they show the system in action: a business card, a social post, a slide deck, an email header, all done correctly.
Brand guidelines are often the output of a branding project or rebrand. The process that produces them involves whiteboard workshops, values exercises, identity exploration, positioning mapping. BoardSnap captures those foundational sessions as structured summaries that inform the final guidelines document.
Examples
- A brand guidelines PDF showing the logo in three lockups, the color palette with hex values, and three prohibited logo uses
- A voice and tone section with five on-brand copy examples and five off-brand examples with explanations
- A photography style guide with six approved reference images and three that illustrate what to avoid
Related terms
Snap a brand guidelines. Ship its actions.
BoardSnap turns any whiteboard, including this one, into a summary and action plan.