What is a Brand Book?
Also known as style guides, brand books are one of the most essential documents any business can have. It’s a set of rules that outline how your brand works by presenting brand standards and providing an explanation of how your brand works. The goal of any brand book is consistency.
Through the identification of your brand and the specifications laid out in the brand book, any new employee or marketing campaign can instantly embody the visual and spoken message of your company. Although it may seem time consuming to create, having a detailed brand book will save your business time and money in the long run.
Elements of a Brand Book
When designing a brand book for your company, be sure to include the following elements:
Brand Introduction: The story behind your brand. Introduce the inspiration behind and the contributing factors that led to the growth of the brand and be sure to include the overall vision for the company.
Logo Guidelines: Your logo is your brand’s signature, so consistency is key. The guidelines in this section should outline the colors, sizes, formats and examples as necessary. Take the time to include every detail of your logo as this is what marketers will use when creating visual campaigns for your business.
Color Palettes: The colors associated to your brand. This section will include the RGB codes for print, web and the HTML coding number for each color. Also, a distinction of which colors should be used where should be outlined accordingly.
Fonts: Every company has a set of fonts that they use for promotional materials. Your brand book should clearly show examples of the fonts and provide guidelines for how and when they should each be used.
Taglines: Also known as slogans or condensed messages. Brands occasionally create and use additional taglines for specific marketing campaigns. However, this section should outline when a tagline should accompany the logo. In the case that there’s more than one, each situation should specifically state the correct tagline to accompany the logo.
Copywriting: This section outlines the tone, voice and writing style that all material should be written in. It ensures that all wording and sentence structure follows suite with the brand’s overall voice and identity.
Dos and Don’ts: One of the most important sections of a brand book. Usually found near the end, this section provides concrete examples of the correct display of all the aforementioned parts. It’ll show how and where the logo should appear over an image, which colors to use and the sizing and placement specifications for numerous situations. To be even more specific, you could provide more concrete copywriting examples in this section as well.
Brand Book Printing in Palm Desert
Once you have all the parts of the brand book organized and the stylistic elements devised, it’s time to print. Keeping copies of your company’s brand book on hand throughout your office and providing each employee with their own copy also important. Taking the initiative to print your brand book will ensure that everyone has access to the details needed to properly portray your brand’s identity.
