Brand guidelines are the rulebook for your brand: how to use the logo, which colors and fonts to use, what your images and voice should feel like, and what to avoid. A good brand guidelines template covers logo usage, color values, typography, imagery, graphic elements, voice, real applications, do's and don'ts, and where to find the files.
The checklist below is the one I use. Copy it, work through it, and you'll end up with a brand style guide people actually follow.
Why brand guidelines matter
Your brand looks consistent as long as one person makes everything. The minute a new hire posts on Instagram, a print shop sets up your banner, or a freelancer builds your landing page, things start to drift. A stretched logo here, a slightly wrong red there, a random font on a flyer.
Guidelines stop the drift. They also save time, because nobody has to guess or wait for approval on every small decision.
When I was art director at Kicks USA, a 200+ store urban footwear retailer that's now Snipes USA, I rewrote the company's social and brand guidelines. With that many stores and that many people making content, that's exactly the situation guidelines exist for.
Guidelines vs. style guide vs. brand book
You'll hear these used interchangeably. In practice:
Brand guidelines cover the full visual identity and how to use it.
A brand style guide often means the same thing, sometimes with extra focus on writing style.
A brand book sometimes adds the story, mission and values up front.
The name matters less than the contents. What matters is that it answers the questions people will actually have.
How to make guidelines people use
Show, don't just tell. Every rule should have a visual example.
Keep it short. A focused guide gets opened. A 90-page manual gets ignored.
Lead with the most common tasks. Social posts and flyers get made far more often than billboards.
Make the files easy to find. Rules without a file library just produce screenshots of your logo.
Update it. Add new applications as the brand grows and date each version.
Free download: get this checklist as a fillable PDF in my Brand Starter Kit, along with a 14-question design brief template. Get the free kit
The brand guidelines checklist
Work through each section. If you can't check an item off, that's a gap someone will eventually fill with a guess.
1. Logo usage
Primary logo, with a note on when to use it
Secondary or alternate layouts (stacked, horizontal)
Icon, monogram or submark
Full-color, one-color black and one-color white (reversed) versions
Which version to use on light, dark and photo backgrounds
Approved logo colors
2. Clear space
Minimum empty space around the logo on all sides
A simple way to measure it, like the height of a letter in the logo
Visual example showing the clear space zone
3. Minimum sizes
Smallest size for print (in inches or millimeters)
Smallest size for screens (in pixels)
When to switch to the icon or simplified version
Special notes for embroidery, engraving or tiny printed items
4. Color
Primary colors and secondary or accent colors
HEX codes for web and digital
RGB values for screens and video
CMYK values for standard print
Pantone (PMS) references for merch, packaging and spot-color printing
Color proportions, so people know which color leads and which ones support
Approved color pairings, including text-on-background combinations that are easy to read
For text pairings, the web accessibility standard WCAG sets a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. Listing a few tested pairings saves everyone the guesswork.
5. Typography
Headline typeface and body typeface
Weights and styles in use
Type hierarchy: headline, subhead, body, caption, with example sizes
Line spacing and letter spacing basics
Fallback fonts for email, slides and software that can't load your fonts
Where to get the font files and license details
Rules for any custom lettering
6. Imagery
Photo style: lighting, color grade, composition, subjects
Example images that are on-brand and off-brand
Illustration, 3D or icon style if you use them
Rules for text over images
Image sources and usage rights notes
7. Graphic elements
Patterns, textures and backgrounds
Shapes, frames, badges and stickers
Icon set
How and how often to use each element
8. Voice and tone
A few words that describe how the brand sounds
What the brand is and isn't (for example, "confident, not cocky")
Example headlines and captions
Words and phrases you use, and ones you avoid
How tone shifts by channel: social, email, customer service, packaging
9. Applications
Social post and story templates
Business cards and stationery
Email signature
Slide or pitch deck template
Signage and storefront
Packaging, labels and merch
Website and digital ads
10. Do's and don'ts
Don't stretch, squash or rotate the logo
Don't recolor the logo outside approved colors
Don't add drop shadows, outlines or effects unless specified
Don't place the logo on busy backgrounds without a solid area
Don't rebuild the logo or retype the wordmark
Do show each mistake visually next to the correct version
11. File library
Logos in AI, EPS, SVG and PDF (vector) and PNG and JPG (raster)
Separate folders for RGB and CMYK versions
Font files or download links
Color swatch files
Templates in the formats your team uses
Clear file names and a single shared location
A contact for questions and approvals
Social media guidelines are their own thing
If social is a big channel for you, give it its own section or a separate document. At Kicks USA, the social guidelines and the brand guidelines were two separate rewrites. Social has questions your print guide never covers: feed planning, story and video formats, caption tone, how creator and influencer content should look, and how to use your handle and hashtags. I go deeper into building a repeatable process in my post on a social media content system.
Common mistakes
Only covering the logo. That's a logo sheet, not guidelines.
Missing color values. "Our blue" means nothing to a printer.
No examples. Rules without visuals get misread.
Locking it in a PDF nobody can find. Put it where your team works.
Never updating it. Your guide should grow as your brand does.
FAQ
What should be included in brand guidelines?
At minimum: logo usage, clear space, minimum sizes, color values (HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone), typography, imagery, graphic elements, voice and tone, applications, do's and don'ts, and a file library.
How long should brand guidelines be?
Long enough to answer real questions and short enough that people open it. For most small and mid-size businesses, a focused guide beats a giant manual every time.
Can I use a brand guidelines template?
Yes, a template or checklist like this one is a great starting point. The value comes from filling it with your real logo versions, color values and examples, not from the layout.
Who should have access to brand guidelines?
Anyone who makes anything for your brand: your team, freelancers, agencies, print shops and partners. The more people who have it, the more consistent your brand stays.
Do I need brand guidelines if I'm a small business?
If more than one person makes your graphics or you work with outside vendors, yes. Even a few pages on logo, color and fonts will prevent most of the inconsistency.
Get guidelines built with your identity
I design brand identities and the guidelines that keep them consistent, for businesses, artists and cultural brands, from my studio in Philadelphia. If you've got a logo but no system, or a system nobody follows, let's fix that. You can see more of that work on my brand identity page.