Brand guidelines, why are they so important?

This is a guest blog by Andy Fuller, graphic designer and owner of Designbull Ltd. Clear Thought asked Andy, what is the importance of brand guidelines to small businesses?

Have you ever received a business card from someone at a networking event and then viewed their website afterwards only to find it looks different to their card? Not a great first impression for a business and would you be confident referring them on to someone?

Having a strong, consistent visual identity for any small business is essential in today’s marketplace. It reinforces the trust you have with your customers and makes you stand out from your competitors.

Your logo, business cards and stationery, to your website, emails and advertising should all follow a similar style which amplifies your organisations aims. So how do you make sure your brand keeps consistent as your business grows? Well, this is where brand guidelines work. They are essentially a useful set of rules and guides that explain how your brand work. They can include examples and template designs which can be given to web designers, printers, or press publications to help, for example, layout an advertisement, and apply your logo, or colour values for accurate duplication of your brand.

Using the example of a recent project undertaken jointly by Clear Thought and Designbull for a company named Relevant Risk, typical brand guidelines for a small business can include information such as:

Brand message or mission statement. This can also include examples of the ‘tone of voice’ or style of writing.

Logo usage. How and where to use the logo, and what not to do. Minimum sizes and also spacing.

Colours. Showing primary colours (usually two) and secondary colour palettes, with their colour breakdowns; CMYK for print, RGB for screen or TV and HEX (short for Hexadecimal; the six character code for the colour on the web).

Fonts used. If a font has been designed specifically for the company logo, then this follows through to it being used on their company literature. Can include variations of the font family and default fonts for web-use.

Photography/image style. If commissioning a photographer or illustrator, their style will be designed uniquely to fit a companies brand style. More commonly, royalty-free imagery can be purchased for small companies on a budget, which, if chosen correctly, can include a good selection from one source.

Additional information can be included, such as website icons and site accessibility, signage to vehicle livery.

For an idea of what a standard set of brand guidelines can look like for a small business, please download the document produced in the joint project we worked on for Relevant Risk. Download PDF 1MB »

Andy Fuller runs Designbull Ltd, specialising in branding and design for small organisations. For the past ten years he has been passionate about helping small businesses develop their brand through print and the internet. He believes that excellent customer service paves the way to quality customer experience.