Brand guidelines should explain how to use your logo, colors, typography, imagery, and voice, with approved files, practical examples, and a named owner for changes. At #10, we recommend a working reference for the people making your website, emails, sales decks, and print materials, not just a presentation of the identity. It should help them make the next decision without guessing.
For a premium DTC brand, that next decision might be a promotional email. For a B2B team, it might be a product diagram or a distributor’s presentation. The question is the same: can someone who did not design the brand use it correctly?
Our view is that guidelines earn their place through use. A shorter guide with the right files and examples is more useful than an extensive document that leaves everyday choices unresolved. Here is what we would put in it, and how we would make it part of the work.
Start by separating the identity from the instructions
Your brand identity is the system itself: the mark, palette, type, and other recognizable elements. Brand guidelines explain how to apply that system. Templates give people a starting point for a specific task.
You need those pieces to agree. A guide can prescribe a headline font while the sales deck still uses another. A folder can contain an approved logo alongside several older versions with equally plausible filenames. In either case, the person doing the work has to decide which source to trust.
Before writing the guide, gather the materials your team actually produces. Include the storefront or website, emails, presentations, ads, printed pieces, and any partner-created materials. Identify the decisions that recur across them. Those decisions should determine the scope, rather than a generic brand-book table of contents.
What should brand guidelines include?
We recommend covering the following areas. The depth depends on the organization, but each section should connect a rule to an example or a usable asset.
| Section | What to document | What a teammate should be able to do |
|---|---|---|
| Brand context | Audience, positioning, and a concise explanation of the identity | Understand what the work needs to communicate |
| Logo | Approved variations, clear space, minimum sizes, backgrounds, and misuse | Choose and place the correct mark |
| Color | Values for the required media, roles, and approved combinations | Apply color without inventing a new palette |
| Typography | Typefaces, weights, hierarchy, fallbacks, and access requirements | Format a page or deck consistently |
| Imagery and graphics | Photography direction, illustration and icon rules, diagram examples | Select or commission visuals that belong together |
| Voice and messaging | Tone, naming, preferred language, boundaries, and examples | Write in the brand’s voice without making unsupported claims |
| Applications and files | Templates, export formats, and the current asset location | Start from approved materials |
| Ownership | Version, owner, approval route, and exception handling | Resolve an unclear case and keep the guide current |
Logo rules need to answer placement questions
Include the primary logo and the alternatives people are allowed to use: horizontal, stacked, icon-only, or one-color versions where those exist. Do not ask teammates to create missing variations themselves.
Show clear space around the mark and minimum sizes appropriate to its applications. A website header and an embroidered garment present different constraints, so one universal size rule may not be enough. Use examples on light, dark, and photographic backgrounds to make the choice clear.
A misuse panel can cover stretching, recoloring, adding effects, and placing the mark where it becomes hard to read. Pair that panel with a link to the correct files. Telling someone not to use the wrong logo is less helpful if the right one is difficult to find.
Color needs roles, not just swatches
Record the color values needed for screen and print production. Then explain what each color does. Which is the primary brand color? Which are supporting colors? Where can an accent appear, and where should it not?
For websites, document approved text-and-background combinations and have them checked for readability and accessibility in context. A color being in the brand palette does not mean every combination is suitable for body copy, navigation, or buttons.
Distinguish identity colors from functional interface colors. An error message, a selected state, and a promotional badge need clear purposes. We would rather resolve those uses in the guide than leave each developer or email designer to improvise.
Typography should work outside the design file
Specify headline and body typefaces, approved weights, hierarchy, and spacing examples. Explain how a heading differs from a subheading or caption. For digital applications, show how the hierarchy behaves on a small screen as well as a desktop.
Also document access: where the fonts come from, who manages the licenses, and what someone should use if the preferred font is unavailable. Include an approved fallback for applications that need one.
If an existing presentation template intentionally uses a different typeface, settle that exception with the brand owner. Do not leave a contradiction between the guide and the template for every new employee to rediscover.
Imagery, illustrations, and diagrams belong in the system
A logo guide cannot settle how a product photo should be cropped or how a technical diagram should look. Include those rules when they are part of your team’s work.
For photography, describe subject matter, composition, backgrounds, and treatments with selected examples. For illustrations and icons, show the expected line weight, proportions, palette, and level of detail. B2B teams should include diagrams and charts, not only marketing photography.
For DTC teams, a useful test is whether the guidance works across a product page, an email, and a printed insert. Show how a promotional price and call to action fit the email’s hierarchy without displacing the product information. For B2B teams, include an annotated technical diagram: how labels, units, dimensions, and captions should appear, and which graphic conventions must stay consistent. The applications do not need identical layouts, but their relationship should be recognizable.
Voice guidance needs examples and factual boundaries
A list of adjectives such as confident, approachable, and premium leaves too much interpretation. Show a short piece of acceptable copy, a version that misses the mark, and the reason for the difference.
Document how the company and its products are named, preferred terminology, and words or claims that require review. Separate tone from evidence. A more confident voice is not permission to strengthen a product claim beyond what the company can support.
If your team uses AI to help draft copy, include the approved voice reference and require review of facts and claims. The direction still belongs to people. Faster production does not resolve an unclear brief or make an unapproved claim acceptable.
A real example: applying one brand across web, illustration, and print
For a services-marketplace operator, #10 served as an embedded design and creative team over a five-year engagement. The documented work included style guide creation and updates, website and interface design, a custom illustration library, and trade-show and advertising materials.
The illustration work is a useful example of what guidelines need to support. We produced equipment illustrations in Illustrator with reference figures and dimension callouts, organized and maintained the assets, and worked across website pages, flyers, booth backdrops, and banner stands. The record also includes a color-contrast accessibility review.
This was not simply a logo appearing in several places. It was a family of assets with different production requirements, used over time. That is the kind of work a brand guide should help hold together: how a new illustration relates to the existing library, which file belongs in a printed piece, and how the same identity carries into an interface.
Give people templates for the things they make repeatedly
After the core rules, prioritize a small set of editable templates based on actual use. That might mean a presentation, an email layout, a product sheet, and a social graphic. A DTC team may need a promotional email and packaging insert before it needs a corporate stationery set.
Each template should demonstrate the rules rather than introduce exceptions silently. Check its fonts, colors, logo placement, and image treatment against the guide. Where an exception is necessary, label it and explain its scope.
Keep the approved assets in one clearly identified location. Use filenames that distinguish the mark, variation, color treatment, and intended use. Separate editable source files from exports, and archive superseded versions so they cannot be mistaken for current ones.
Our brand identity and logo design service covers the identity, usage rules, and organized final files. If your main problem is translating that identity into a website or other materials, the broader design and branding practice is the relevant starting point. You may need application work rather than a new logo.
Make ownership part of the guide
Put the current version, approval date, owner, and asset location near the beginning. Add a short route for questions and exceptions. People should know who can approve a new treatment and where the decision will be recorded.
We recommend testing the guide with someone who was not involved in making it. Ask them to create a common deliverable using only the document and linked assets. Note where they have to stop and ask a question. Those points tell you what the guide is missing more clearly than another internal design review.
Revisit the guide when the brand changes, a new channel is added, or the same question keeps coming back. Update the affected templates and files at the same time. A new PDF beside an unchanged template library leaves the underlying problem in place.
Before handing the system over, check that a teammate can:
- Find the current guide and approved files without asking the designer.
- Choose the right logo for the background and format.
- Apply the type hierarchy and an approved color combination.
- Start a recurring task from a current template.
- Identify who can resolve an exception.
Brand guidelines FAQs
What are brand guidelines?
Brand guidelines are the shared instructions for applying a brand’s identity and voice. They explain what to use, how to use it, what to avoid, and where to find the approved assets. We recommend organizing them around the decisions your team makes in everyday work.
What should brand guidelines include?
Include logo usage, color, typography, imagery, voice, practical applications, and asset access. Add a named owner and a process for changes. The right level of detail depends on whether your team is producing a few recurring materials or coordinating many channels and external partners.
Do I need a full brand guide?
If more than one person uses the brand, we recommend a shared guide, but it does not need to be extensive. Start with the core identity rules, approved files, and examples for your most common tasks. Expand it where real questions or new applications justify the work.
What is the difference between brand guidelines and a brand book?
The labels vary, so we would look at the contents rather than the name. A brand book may focus on positioning and the story behind an identity. A working guidelines document also needs to explain its application. You can combine them, provided people can find the practical instructions quickly.
Do we need a rebrand before creating guidelines?
Not necessarily. If the identity still fits, the work may be to clean up the file set, resolve inconsistencies, and document how to use what you already have. A rebrand is a separate decision about whether the identity and positioning need to change.
Can you apply the new brand to our website?
Yes. #10 designs and builds websites on Shopify and WordPress. We can carry the approved identity into the site’s layouts and interface, alongside the brand files and usage guidance your team needs after handoff.
Start with the materials your team struggles to keep consistent
If the website, sales deck, and email templates look like separate companies, bring those examples to the conversation. They help establish whether you need a new identity, better guidelines, or a more usable set of templates and assets.
Tell #10 where your brand is breaking down. We can help identify the design work needed to make it easier for your team to use the brand consistently.
