What is a branding style guide?
When it comes to your marketing consider your branding style guide to be your playbook. This guide gives everyone doing creative work for you the rules to follow to stay true to your brand.
There're six main elements a branding style guide covers.
They're your story, your voice, the logo, color palette, imagery and typography you use in your branding.
Let’s take a look at the importance of each one as they all play a different role.
Your style guide helps with designing the look of your brand
Starting with your logo seems like the logical place as it is the first thing most people think of when you talk about branding. While it’s not the first, it is important.
You want your logo to reflect the colors of your business. You also want your logo to maintain the same look across all media. The style guide should have this all laid out for anyone using your logo. There should be rules for white space, which background to use for which occasion, and more.
Defining how the logo should look and how and when to use it, will eliminate questions.
👩🎨Your color palette is as important as your logo.
Working through brand creation, with the archetype approach used at Studio North, colors seem to reveal themselves. Certain color schemes and palettes appeal to different people. You'll want to use these colors throughout brand communication as it will also reflect the owner's personality. As people start to recognize your brand logo and color, it will build familiarity with the company.
⌨️Typography is a little more unknown variable to most business owners.
Does the font matter on your logo, website, when you blog or on social media channels or in print?
Let me ask you……does it matter? How about now?
I’m sure you’re starting to get the point.
It’s not only the logo and colors that tell your story it’s also the font used. Fonts themselves can provoke feelings of credibility, trust, whimsy, innovation along with anger and confusion. You want to choose one that works across all media and communicates your message the right way.
The last design element we’ll discuss here is images. Again, you’ll want to focus on images that represent your brand’s story. Are you an active, outdoorsy company? Your images should reflect that, not business people sitting in a boardroom looking at a chart.
While that may happen if it’s not what your brand stands for you want to look for more appropriate images. Better yet, bring in a photographer to take the pictures you want to use to explain your brand.
Your style guide helps in marketing your business.
Your story is about how to develop your brand personality. You’ve heard me say this before when you work with Studio North, I use an innovative archetype approach to finding your brand personality.
This personality lets us dig deeper into the company and really communicate your hopes, dreams, and benefits of working with your company. Use this story across all marketing channels. It gives your clients a solid picture of who you are and how you do business.
Your voice is the way we tell your story. Your brand personality also gives us words and ideas to use when expressing your brand.
If your brand leans toward being innovative, everything you create in print and online should impart the feeling of innovation. If your brand leans toward the romantic, you’d want your writing and imagery to share the same message. This is your voice.
Putting together a branding style guide can be very exciting and often you’ll learn more about your own company than you knew before.
To learn more about the style guide process fill out our contact form or call 701-595-7300.
