Creating a Brand Style Guide

Do you feel like there is no consistency in your visuals? Instagram has one vibe, your website another, and your newsletter…well, it turned out to be whatever you felt like looked good that day. This is why a brand style guide is an essential tool for your business.

Think of it as the visual and tone of your business in one simple document. It will be your cheat sheet that keeps your brand looking and sounding like you, whenever you show up online.

Whether you are building your own website or preparing to hire a professional, these steps will walk you through the essential elements of a brand style guide, tools to help you create one, and how to apply it to your website.

Before you begin you need to define the why behind your brand.

Include these in your style guide:

• Mission or Purpose: What do you do and why?
• Vision: Where are you going? What is the bigger picture?
• Core Values: What do you stand for?
• Brand Personality: Are you warm and nurturing? Bold and adventurous? Calm and minimalist?

Your color palette sets the tone and emotional feel of your brand. You should have three to five colors:

• 1 – 2 Primary colors
• 1-2 Secondary colors
• 1 Neutral (for background and text)

In your brand guide, include:

• Color name (if you have given the color a name)
• Hex code (it is “#” followed by a combination of six letters and numbers, e.g., #00000 or #ffffff)
• RGB (e.g., 10, 75, 113)
• CMYK (used for printing)

Example: Ocean Blue / #0A4B71 / rgb(10, 75, 113) / cmyk(91.15%, 33.63%, 0%, 55.69%)

You will need two to three fonts, but you could have up to five depending on what are using:

• Heading Font: Titles and headlines
• Sub-Heading Font: Sub-titles and sub-headings
• Body Font: Paragraphs and text blocks
• Navigation Font: Menus and lists
• Accent Font: For special use like buttons, quotes, testimonials and form labels

In your brand guide, include:

• Font Name
• Where it is to be used (headings, body, etc.)
• Font-weight (e.g., bold, light, italic, underline, uppercase, etc.)
• CMYK (used for printing)

Tip: Make sure your fonts are easy to read on mobile and desktop

Even if you are starting with just a simple wordmark for your logo, include:

• Primary Logo
• Secondary/Stacked Logo (is applicable)
• Favicon (the tiny browser tab icon)
• Black, white and full color version of the primary and secondary logos

Save each version of your logo as:

• PNG – with transparent background
• SVG – for crisp scaling
• JPG – for email and print use

Include rules and a few examples:

• Photography Style – e.g., light, airy, bold, colorful)
• Textures or backgrounds
• Graphic elements – icons or illustrations

Include sample images or screenshots in your guide.

Tip: Add the branding images to your Google Drive in a folder labeled “Branding”. This will make them easy to find when designing.

Your tone is as important as the visuals.

Describe your brand voice in 3 to 5 words. (e.g., friendly, wise, creative, calm)

Then provide examples of how that voice shows up in practice.

Use this to guide your website copy, social captions, emails, newsletter and more.

Use Canva, Google Docs, Adobe Express to build a document that includes:

• Logo and variations
• Color codes
• Font styles and usage
• Imagery examples
• Brand voice notes
• Purpose, Vision, and Values

Bonus: Create a downloadable PDF version to have the ability to share your branding guidelines with others.

• Set your brand fonts and colors in your WordPress customizer or theme settings
• Upload your logo and favicon
• Use brand photography on the pages of your website
• Check buttons, headings and text for consistency