Brand guidelines
Definition
Brand guidelines (also called a brand guide or brand book) are a set of rules that define how a brand's visual identity and voice should be applied across every context — specifying how the logo is used, what colors and typefaces are official, and how the brand sounds when it speaks.
Brand guidelines translate a brand identity into a replicable system. The logo, the colors, the typeface — these are decisions. The guidelines are the documentation that ensures those decisions are applied consistently by everyone who works with the brand: designers, marketers, agencies, partners.
A complete set of brand guidelines covers:
Logo — the primary lockup, alternate versions (horizontal, stacked, icon-only), minimum sizes, clear space requirements, and prohibited uses (no stretching, no unapproved colors, no busy backgrounds).
Color palette — primary and secondary colors with hex, RGB, CMYK, and Pantone values. Semantic guidance: which color is dominant, which is accent, which is for text.
Typography — the brand typefaces (primary and secondary), the web/system fallbacks, and usage rules for headlines, body, and captions.
Imagery — photography style (lighting, subject matter, mood), illustration style if applicable, rules about stock photography (yes or no, filtered by what).
Voice and tone — how the brand sounds in writing: the adjectives that describe it, examples of on-brand vs. off-brand copy, vocabulary it uses and avoids.
Usage examples — the guidelines are most useful when they show the system in action: a business card, a social post, a slide deck, an email header, all done correctly.
Brand guidelines are often the output of a branding project or rebrand. The process that produces them involves whiteboard workshops — values exercises, identity exploration, positioning mapping. BoardSnap captures those foundational sessions as structured summaries that inform the final guidelines document.
Examples
- A brand guidelines PDF showing the logo in three lockups, the color palette with hex values, and three prohibited logo uses
- A voice and tone section with five on-brand copy examples and five off-brand examples with explanations
- A photography style guide with six approved reference images and three that illustrate what to avoid
Related terms
Snap a brand guidelines. Ship its actions.
BoardSnap turns any whiteboard — including this one — into a summary and action plan.