What to Include in Brand Guidelines

Updated 3 November 2026

Brand guidelines turn a logo into a system other people can use correctly. Whether the document is three pages or sixty, the same core sections come up again and again. This guide walks through them and finishes with an outline you can adapt.

Why brand guidelines matter

Once a business has a logo, colours and a website, other people start making things with them: a printer making signage, a staff member creating a social post, a sponsor adding your logo to an event poster. Without a reference, each of them guesses. Over time the logo gets stretched, the colours drift and the brand starts to look like several different companies.

Brand guidelines, sometimes called a brand book or style guide, are simply the rules and the files that stop that from happening. They are usually produced at the end of a brand strategy and design project or a logo design project, but they can be written for an existing brand too.

1. Brand foundations

Open with a page or two that explains what the brand stands for. This is not for decoration: it helps anyone making creative decisions to make the right call when the rules do not cover a situation.

• A short description of what the organisation does and for whom
• Purpose or mission, in one or two sentences
• Three to five brand values or personality traits, each with a line on what it means in practice

2. Logo usage

The logo section is usually the most-used part of any guidelines document. It should cover:

• Versions: primary logo, secondary or stacked version, icon or monogram, and single-colour versions for dark and light backgrounds.
• Clear space: the minimum space around the logo, often defined using a part of the logo itself, such as the height of a letter.
• Minimum size: the smallest size for print (in millimetres) and screen (in pixels) at which the logo still reads.
• Misuse examples: stretched, recoloured, rotated, with added effects or placed on busy photos. Showing what not to do is often clearer than describing it.
• File formats: which file to use where. Vector files (SVG, EPS or PDF) for print and signage, PNG for documents and presentations, SVG or PNG for websites.

3. Colour palette

List every brand colour with its values in each system people will need:

• HEX and RGB for screens
• CMYK for standard print
• A Pantone reference if spot colour printing is used, for example for signage or merchandise

Show the proportions too. Most brands have one or two main colours, a few secondary colours and neutrals for backgrounds and text. Indicating roughly how much of each to use stops secondary colours from taking over.

Include accessible text and background pairings. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published by the W3C set a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal body text at level AA (3:1 for large text). Checking brand colour combinations against that standard at the guidelines stage saves redesigning web pages later. The W3C's guidance is available at w3.org.

4. Typography

• Primary and secondary typefaces, with where each is used (headings, body text, captions)
• Weights and sizes for a simple hierarchy: heading 1, heading 2, body, small print
• Fallback fonts for situations where the brand fonts are not available, such as email or Microsoft Office documents
• Licensing notes, so nobody installs a font the business has not licensed

5. Photography and imagery

This section is often missing from small-business guidelines, yet photography shapes how a brand feels more than almost anything else. Describe the style in plain language and back it up with examples:

• Light and colour: bright and airy, warm and moody, natural daylight or studio
• Subjects: real staff and customers, products in use, places, details
• Composition: close-ups or wide shots, space left for text overlays
• What to avoid: generic stock images, heavy filters, cluttered backgrounds

If you are planning a shoot, our brand photography tips explain how to brief a photographer using these rules. Examples of food, promotional and travel photography can be seen on the photography page.

6. Video and motion

If video is part of the marketing mix, add a short section on intro and outro cards, lower thirds (name captions), subtitle style, music mood and logo animation. A consistent end card on every video makes a YouTube channel or LinkedIn page look far more professional. For formats, see our guide to social media video sizes.

7. Tone of voice

Tone of voice describes how the brand sounds in writing. Keep it practical: a few adjectives, followed by "we say this, not that" examples. Cover spelling conventions too. Irish businesses usually use Irish and British spelling (colour, organise, centre) and should say so explicitly, because many tools default to American English.

If the business communicates in Irish as well as English, note how bilingual material is laid out and who checks the Irish text.

8. Applications and templates

Finish with real examples of the brand in use: business cards, email signatures, social media templates, presentation slides, signage and vehicle graphics. Ready-to-use templates do more to keep a brand consistent than any rule, because people reach for the template rather than starting from a blank page.

A simple brand guidelines outline

1. Introduction: what the guidelines are for and who to contact with questions
2. Brand foundations: purpose, values, personality
3. Logo: versions, clear space, minimum size, misuse, file formats
4. Colour: palette with HEX, RGB, CMYK, Pantone; proportions; accessible pairings
5. Typography: typefaces, hierarchy, fallbacks, licensing
6. Photography and imagery: style, subjects, do's and don'ts
7. Video and motion: titles, captions, end cards
8. Tone of voice: traits, examples, spelling
9. Applications: templates and examples
10. Downloads: where the logo and template files live

How long should brand guidelines be?

As long as they need to be and no longer. A sole trader may only need a two-page sheet covering logo, colours and fonts. A larger organisation with many suppliers will need the full set. A short document that people actually use is better than a long one that sits unopened in a shared drive.