Stop 11 · Branding & Public RelationsTopics · 2/7

Brand Guidelines

In short

The moment a second person makes a poster for your brand, things start to drift. Brand guidelines are the rulebook that keeps the tenth designer as on-brand as the first.

A documented reference (logo usage, color codes, tone of voice rules) that keeps a brand consistent across every team and channel, especially as more people touch the brand over time.

The blob reads an old recipe notebook while stirring a pot of biryani.

Think of it like this

Nani's biryani notebook

Nani writes her biryani recipe in a notebook: exact spices, rice to water ratio, how long to cook on dum. Now every cousin can make it at their own home and it still tastes like hers. Brand guidelines are that notebook for your brand.

Watch it happen

How a new intern makes an on-brand post

Brief

Draft

Check guide

Review

Publish

1/5The intern gets a brief: a Diwali sale post for Instagram.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Logo rules

Show the approved versions, minimum size, clear space and a few 'never do this' examples.

Exact colour codes

Give HEX for screens and CMYK for print. 'Our purple' is not a colour code.

Voice with examples

Show a sentence that sounds like you and one that doesn't. Examples teach faster than adjectives.

Ready templates

Share editable templates for posts, stories and slides. People follow rules they don't have to rebuild.

See it in code

Walk through the code

json

1{2  "colors": {3    "primary": "#6D28D9",4    "accent": "#F59E0B",5    "text": "#1F2937"6  },7  "fonts": { "heading": "Poppins", "body": "Inter" },8  "logo": { "minWidthPx": 80, "clearSpace": "height of the logo icon" },9  "voice": {10    "we_are": ["friendly", "clear", "a little cheeky"],11    "we_never": ["use ALL CAPS", "promise what we can't deliver"]12  }13}

1/3Exact colour codes so nobody guesses.

A one-page 'brand tokens' summary. Real guidelines are a PDF or Figma file, but keeping the core values in one structured place helps designers and developers alike.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Writing a 60-page guide nobody opens.

Do this instead

Start with one or two pages of essentials. Add detail only when people keep getting something wrong.

Oops

Describing the tone as 'premium yet approachable' and stopping there.

Do this instead

Add real example sentences of what to write and what not to write.

Your mission

Write a one-page brand guide

~40 min

Quick check

Two freelancers keep using slightly different purples for the same brand. What should the guidelines add?

Go deeper

1Look at a public brand guideline document (many companies publish these) and note its structure.
2Draft a mini brand guideline (1 page) for a hypothetical brand: colors, tone, do's/don'ts.
3Learn why brand guidelines matter more, not less, as a marketing team grows.