Brand guidelines exist for a single reason: to ensure that the identity built with a significant investment does not degrade the moment it passes through the hands of an external agency, a new employee, or a supplier who does not know the brand.
Without guidelines, every use of the brand becomes an improvisation. With weak guidelines, inconsistencies accumulate until the brand no longer communicates anything coherent.
This guide covers what guidelines must contain to actually work — and why most of the documents handed over after branding projects are insufficient.
1. Brand Overview
Before any visual specification, the guidelines must convey the strategic context:
- Brand essence: what the brand fundamentally stands for, in one or two sentences
- Mission and values: not generic, but specific to how they manifest visually and verbally
- Target audience: who the brand communicates to and what their expectations are
- Personality and tone of voice: how the brand speaks (formal/informal, technical/accessible, authoritative/empathetic)
- Competitive positioning: how we differentiate from the main competitors
This section is often missing from purely visual guidelines. Its absence means that the people who will apply the guidelines do not understand the “why” behind the visual choices.
2. Logo System
The logo section must cover much more than “here is the logo”:
Versions
- Primary version: the main logo, colour, on light background
- Inverted version: for dark backgrounds
- Monochrome version: black and white for limited-colour contexts
- Compact version or mark: an abbreviated version (symbol only, or monogram) for small contexts (favicon, app icon, profile photo)
Clear Space
The minimum area around the logo that must remain free from any other visual element. Typically defined as a multiple of an internal element (e.g., “minimum X equal to the height of the first letter”).
Minimum Sizes
The minimum size below which the logo is not legible. Specified separately for print (in mm) and digital (in px).
Incorrect Usage
Explicit examples of what NOT to do: stretching, rotating, changing colours, adding shadows, applying transparency, placing on incompatible backgrounds. This section prevents the most common mistakes.
File Formats
Availability of files: SVG (scalable vector, for digital use), EPS/AI (for print), PNG with transparent background (for compositions), PDF.
3. Colour Palette
The colour section must go beyond aesthetic choice to technical specification:
Palette Structure
- Primary colour: the dominant identifying colour
- Secondary colours: complementary colours for variation and hierarchy
- Neutral colours: greys, whites, blacks for backgrounds and body text
- Functional colours: for digital interfaces — success (green), error (red), warning (yellow), informational (blue)
Technical Specifications for Each Colour
- HEX: for digital web use
- RGB: for digital screens
- HSL: for CSS/Tailwind
- CMYK: for offset print
- Pantone (PMS): for precision printing where colour consistency is critical
Permitted Combinations
Explicit specification of which colour combinations are allowed for text on backgrounds, with contrast ratio (minimum WCAG AA: 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text).
4. Typographic System
Typography occupies approximately 80% of visual communication. An inadequate typographic system makes all other design choices inconsistent.
Type Scale
- Display: for very large headings, highest visual impact
- H1: primary page heading
- H2, H3: section hierarchy
- Body: default reading text
- Caption: notes, labels, metadata
Specifications
- Font names and weights used (e.g., Inter 400, Inter 700)
- Font size for each level (in rem for digital, pt/mm for print)
- Line height (leading)
- Letter spacing (tracking)
- Vertical margin between elements
Licenses
Are the fonts used free (Google Fonts, open source) or commercial (licensed)? Who owns the licence? This is often overlooked and causes problems.
Digital Fallback
Web fonts may fail to load. Define the CSS fallback stack (e.g., font-family: 'Inter', system-ui, -apple-system, sans-serif).
5. Iconography
If icons are part of the visual system:
- Style: outline vs filled, line weight, corner radius
- Grid and dimensions: the grid on which icons are designed (e.g., 24×24px) and recommended display sizes
- Colours: which icon colours are allowed, how they interact with the palette
- Sources: icon library used (Lucide, Heroicons, custom) with version pinned
6. Photography and Imagery
For brands that use photography consistently:
- Visual tone: light and airy, dark and dramatic, naturalistic, studio, documentary
- Subjects: people (authentic vs staged), environments, products, lifestyle
- Composition: framing, use of white space, perspective
- Processing: colour treatment, contrast, acceptable filters
- Forbidden images: subjects, styles or compositions to avoid
Including examples (do/don’t) in this section is much more effective than textual descriptions.
What Makes Guidelines Actually Work
The difference between guidelines that are used and those that collect dust:
Accessibility: in a shared cloud folder, not in a printed binder. A link shared at every briefing.
Practical examples: for each rule, a concrete application example. Abstract specifications are interpreted in contradictory ways.
Template files: ready-to-use templates for the most common applications (presentations, social posts, email signatures) that automatically apply the guidelines.
Maintenance process: who owns the guidelines, how they are updated, what is the review cycle.
→ Find out what a brand identity project with MarfCode includes
Related: Design systems: what they are and why SMEs need them too | Rebranding: when it makes sense and how to do it
