Build your brand guidelines
Brand guidelines are the rulebook for how your brand looks, sounds and behaves, so that anyone can use it right without asking you first. Here is what to put in yours, how to build it as living articles in the Manual, and how to keep it current.
What to include
Most guidelines cover the same nine areas. Start with the first five; they answer the questions people ask most often, and every question your guidelines answer is one that never lands in your inbox.
| Area | What it covers | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Who we are | Mission, values, positioning, audience | What do we stand for? |
| Logo | Versions, clear space, minimum size, placement, misuse | Which logo goes here? |
| Color | Primary and secondary palettes with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values; usage ratios | What is the exact brand blue? |
| Typography | Typefaces, weights, hierarchy, the fallbacks for web and Office | Which font for headlines? |
| Voice and tone | Personality, writing principles, do and don't phrases, a word list | How do we sound? |
| Imagery | Photo style, illustration, icons, approved and banned examples | Can I use this photo? |
| Templates | Grids, spacing, social, presentation and document templates | Is there a template for this? |
| In use | Real examples: ads, packaging, signage, email, website | What does good look like? |
| Help and approvals | Who owns the brand, how to ask for files, how sign-off works | Who do I ask? |
If your brand runs in several markets, write each article in every content language your brand has. The Manual keeps one version per language and shows you what is still missing, so a gap is never a silent one.
Build it in seven steps
- Gather what you already have. Collect every logo file, color reference, font, template and old guideline you can find, and note which versions are current. Bring whole folders over from OneDrive or Dropbox (in Drive or Media, choose Upload, then Import from cloud storage), or upload them from your computer; every file keeps its history from the moment it lands. Add your first assets walks through both.
- Write the foundation first. In the Manual, choose New article and write your mission, values and positioning in plain language, one short paragraph each. Save creates the article. Select some text and the formatting bar offers bold, italic, two heading levels and lists. Get sign-off from leadership before you design anything around these words.
- Lock the visual basics. Create an article for each visual area (Logo, Color, Typography) and give each its files. Articles open as a reading page; open Organize, next to Manual at the top of the article list, and on the article's Downloads tab choose Upload files or Add from Drive. The Manual remembers the view you chose last, and Back to page takes you back to reading. Export every logo in the formats people need, SVG, PNG with transparency, and a print-ready PDF or EPS. For colors, use the Colors tab: Add color with the HEX value, then Add value for RGB, CMYK, Pantone, RAL, HSB, Lab or tints, or bring a whole palette in with Import ACO or Import ASE. Readers copy any value with one click.
- Define voice and imagery. Write three to five voice principles, each with a do and a don't example. Pick ten to twenty photos that show your style, and a few that don't, and add them to the Imagery article's Media tab (Upload files or Add from Drive) with a caption that says why. Keep the full photo library in a Media gallery.
- Show real applications. Add examples of the brand in use as media: a social post, an email header, a slide, a business card. People copy examples far more than they read rules.
- Name the owners and how to ask. Write a short article that says who approves brand use, how to ask for files, and how fast you'll answer. Give those people the roles that match (Admin, then Members), and send files that need a formal sign-off through Reviews. Invite your team and Your first workflow cover both.
- Put it where people will find it. Articles are visible to your team as soon as they're saved. When an article isn't visible yet in the language you're reading, a banner under its title offers Publish in that language — to publish another language from the page, switch the language at the top and its banner offers it; to take a language out of view while you work on it, open Organize and use its publish menu, or the article's row menu in the list. For agencies and partners, share the article with the Share button in its title row, add it to a collection with a public link, feature that collection on your brand portal, or make the page itself public (in Organize, choose Access, then Anyone on the internet, once Public access is on in Settings). One link beats a file attachment. Share your brand has the details.
A template you can type from
Nine articles, one per area. Type the headings as articles, or paste from a document: headings, bold, italic and lists survive the paste, links and images do not, so add files as Downloads and Media instead. Delete any article you don't need yet; a short, current guideline beats a long, outdated one.
| Article | What to write |
|---|---|
| 1. Who we are | Mission in one sentence. Three to five values, one line each on what they mean in practice. The audience, in a paragraph. |
| 2. Logo | The primary, secondary and icon versions as Downloads (SVG, PNG, PDF). Clear space (the height of the X, say), the minimum size for screen and for print, and what never to do: stretch, recolor, add effects, place on busy photos. |
| 3. Color | Each color as a swatch with its name, HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values, and the usage ratio (60 % primary, 30 % neutral, 10 % accent, for example). |
| 4. Typography | The headline and body typefaces with their weights and sizes, and the fallback for email and Office. |
| 5. Voice and tone | Three adjectives you are, three you are not, one sentence that does it right and one that doesn't. |
| 6. Imagery | The style (lighting, subjects, mood), approved examples in the article's Media, and what to avoid (staged stock, heavy filters). |
| 7. Templates | Slide, social, email and document templates as Downloads. |
| 8. In use | Three to five real examples as media, with a line on why each works. |
| 9. Help and approvals | Where to ask for files, who approves what, and how fast you answer. |
Keep it current
A PDF is fine for version one. It starts to fail the moment something changes, because every copy already sent stays wrong.
| A PDF | Articles in the Manual | |
|---|---|---|
| Updating | Export again and send again; the old copies keep circulating. | Edit once; everyone opens the same page. |
| Finding the files | A separate folder or a link, often outdated. | The files sit on the article that uses them, and replacing a file once updates every article that shows it. |
| Sharing with agencies | An email attachment. | One link, with access you control. |
| History | Lost, unless someone archives every version. | Every past state stays. Step back into any day of it with Time travel: the clock in the top bar, Pick a day, View this day. |
| Languages | One PDF per language. | One article, a version per language, and a clear mark on what is not written yet. |
To write in more languages, an admin adds them in Settings, under Languages, with Add content language; a new language starts hidden until you make it visible to everyone. In the editor, switch the language at the top. If that language is still empty, Translate from fills a first draft from one you've already written, and you edit from there. For many articles at once, Organize's Translate fills every missing translation and never touches text you've already written.
Whichever way you keep them, set a rhythm: read through the guidelines every quarter, and update them the same week anything in the brand changes.
Tip: if you'd like to see a finished set before you start, Mailchimp publishes its content style guide as a searchable site, under a Creative Commons license that lets others adapt it.