21 Brand Style Guide Examples for Visual Inspiration

Growing a constant model begins with making a model fashion information. These branding rule books assist graphic designers, entrepreneurs, net builders, group managers, and even product packaging departments all keep on the identical web page, and current a unified imaginative and prescient of the model to the general public.

One of the best manufacturers stick in our brains as a result of their presence is outlined by the repetition of the identical emblem, fonts, colours, and pictures. As soon as we see them sufficient, they develop into immediately recognizable, bringing us a transparent sense of reliability and safety. All of that is attainable when every member of your workforce adheres to a cohesive model fashion information.

On this article, we’ll go over what model tips are, the weather of a method information, and a few wonderful examples of them in motion to make use of as inspiration in your subsequent branding mission or web site redesign.

Image essentially the most recognizable manufacturers you may consider. Chances are high, you’ve got discovered to acknowledge them due to the consistency throughout the messaging — written or visible — these manufacturers broadcast. The identical model colours are mirrored throughout them. The language sounds acquainted. It is all very organized and, whereas not inflexible, it is cohesive.

Even in case you work at a small firm, you may also create a model fashion information that takes your organization’s visible id to the following stage. However earlier than you sit all the way down to create your branding tips, it’s important to take a step again and outline your model’s mission assertion and purchaser personas.

These strategic parts will assist you to dive into the tactical elements of your model fashion information later.

Model Pointers Mission Assertion

Your mission assertion is an action-oriented assertion declaring your group’s goal, making it the compass of your model fashion information. It ensures that each one your content material is working towards the identical objective and connecting together with your viewers. This assertion can information your weblog and paid content material, advert copy, visible media, and slogan.

You possibly can both embrace your mission assertion inside your fashion information, create a separate doc which you can reference throughout the creation course of, or distill your mission assertion right into a slogan which you can place on the head of your doc.

Model Pointers Purchaser Persona

A purchaser persona is a fictional illustration of your excellent buyer. It contains particulars in your buyer’s job title, age, gender, {and professional} challenges — due to this fact stipulating for whom your model publishes content material.

Your purchaser persona guides your weblog content material, advert copy, and visible media, which might appeal to helpful leads and prospects to what you are promoting.

Obtain our free useful resource on the right way to create your personal fashion information with model tips templates to comply with. Making a constant fashion information is not simple, however with these instruments you may construct an unforgettable one with ease.

Subsequent, we’ll go over a number of parts you’d discover in a model fashion information and which elements of a model they’ll affect.

Obtain our free useful resource on the right way to create your personal fashion information with model tips templates to comply with. Making a constant fashion information is not simple, however with these instruments you may construct an unforgettable one with ease.

The Components of a Model Model Information

A model fashion information encompasses rather more than only a emblem (though that’s essential, too). It visually encompasses the whole lot your model is about — all the way down to what you are promoting’ goal. Listed below are some key parts that make or break a model fashion information.

Emblem

Your emblem may look like the best side of your branding tips, however in actuality, it’s one of the advanced and most essential elements.

In your information, it is best to embrace a visible of your emblem, clarify its design particulars, and describe how it may be utilized by exterior and inside publishers (with or with out your model image, as an illustration, or with sure spacing necessities).

You must also embrace improper usages — i.e, you may advise in opposition to rotating the design or curving the font. That means, whether or not you or another person is publishing details about your organization, your emblem appears constant in all places.

In case your model is well-known and many shops publish details about you, you may need to present a complete doc outlining acceptable use insurance policies in your emblem.

Shade Palette

The colour palette might be one of the distinctive and recognizable elements of an organization’s branding tips. It’s the group of colours your organization makes use of to design its model property, guiding every bit of visible content material created. These shade mixtures typically comply with HEX or RGB shade codes, and govern your emblem, net design, printed adverts, and occasion collateral.

A model shade palette shouldn’t solely embrace your main shade, but in addition all kinds of secondary, tertiary, and impartial colours. It will mean you can provide you with extra dynamic and assorted designs within the content material creation stage. If you happen to don’t outline an array of choices, you may run the chance of getting your workforce create content material with random secondary colours, which might look inconsistent.

Typography

Typography is a visible factor of your model fashion information that goes past the font you utilize in your organization emblem. It helps your model’s design all the way down to the hyperlinks and replica in your web site — even your tagline. We advocate specifying a main and secondary font, with a mix of serifs and font weights for various use instances.

Bear in mind, the objective of your branding tips is to empower your folks and exterior stakeholders to create constant however assorted collateral on behalf of your model. You don’t need to restrict them with a single font choice.

For example, HubSpot’s main font is Lexend Deca (sans-serif), whereas our secondary font is Queens (serif). They’re each built-in in our workforce’s CMS, CMS Hub, and our design instrument, Canva, the place we will use all kinds of font weights to create property.

Don’t neglect: Typography performs a serious position in your web site’s person expertise, so that you need to be sure that it’s visually interesting whereas additionally being accessible and simple to learn.

Imagery and Iconography

You might be able to solely embrace your emblem, colours, and fonts in your tips, however in case you’d wish to create a stronger fashion information, take into account together with accepted imagery, pre-designed icons, and customized symbols in your firm to make use of throughout your web site and print collateral.

In case your finances is smaller, you may advocate photographic kinds (i.e candid versus staged, etcetera), after which direct content material creators to your most well-liked inventory picture supplier (i.e. Shutterstock, Unsplash). Alternatively, you may fee an organization photoshoot at a studio and make the ensuing pictures accessible for inventive use.

Symbols and icons can be an incredible addition to your branding tips. As with pictures, you may at all times discover free icons on-line and advocate what to make use of versus what to not use — as an illustration, you may desire to make use of define icons solely, and never full-color. You can even fee customized icons from a contract graphic designer.

Model Voice

If your organization visuals are the flesh and bones of your fashion information, your model voice is the beating coronary heart.

The significance of your model voice can’t be overstated. Whether or not you need your organization’s persona to be pleasant and informal, or distant and formal, you need to make it simple for entrepreneurs, salespeople, and content material creators in your workforce to know the right way to characterize your model on-line. It will guarantee constant messaging throughout all channels.

You can even embrace a full editorial fashion information. The job of an editorial fashion information is to commit an editorial stylebook on the right way to phrase sure merchandise, checklist subjects the model can and can’t write about, and different firms it may point out. Your editorial fashion information can information your weblog content material, video scripts, web site and touchdown web page copy, PR speaking factors, and data base articles.

As you may see, the aim of the model fashion information is to type and preserve the entire numerous parts of an organization that, when mixed, spell out your complete model because it’s acknowledged.

Intrigued? Try 21 of one of the best ones we may discover.

1. Medium

Medium easy model fashion information emphasizes utilization of its emblem, wordmark, and image. Medium’s emblem is the model’s main graphic factor and was created to really feel “assured, premium, timeless, and trendy.”

See the complete model information right here.

Picture Supply

2. Walmart

Walmart is among the world’s largest and most recognizable manufacturers, so it is no shock that its model information is extraordinarily thorough.

The information contains the model’s emblem, pictures, typography, illustrations, iconography, voice, editorial fashion, and extra. Walmart’s shade palette is so integral to its model id that its main shade known as “Walmart Blue.”

See the complete model information right here.

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3. Asana

Asana’s easy fashion information highlights its emblem and shade palette. It additionally explains the right way to correctly use the model’s property.

See the complete model information right here.

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4. Skype

Everybody’s favourite video chat platform additionally has a squeaky-clean fashion information for its model. Skype, now owned by Microsoft, focuses totally on its product phrasing and emblem placement.

See the complete model information right here.

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5. Barre & Soul

Barre & Soul’s model fashion information contains variations of its emblem, emblem spacing, secondary logos, supporting imagery, and a five-color shade palette.

See the complete model information right here.

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6. Spotify

Spotify’s fashion information may seem easy and inexperienced, however there’s extra to the model than only a lime inexperienced circle. Spotify’s shade palette contains three shade codes, whereas the remainder of the corporate’s branding tips focus closely on emblem variation and album paintings.

The fashion information even lets you obtain an icon model of its emblem, making it simpler to characterize the corporate with out manually recreating it.

See the complete model information right here.

Picture Supply

7. Starbucks

Starbucks’ interactive model fashion information contains particulars about the right way to use its core parts akin to the long-lasting Siren emblem and inexperienced shade palette.

Plus, the information contains a visible spectrum of how their inventive property can be utilized throughout totally different channels in addition to case research of various seasonal campaigns and product launches.

See the complete model information right here.

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8. Paris 2024

Paris 2024’s model id pays homage to the 1924 Olympic Video games by Artwork Deco impressed design. The enduring emblem, shade scheme, typeface, and iconography are all detailed in its model information. Better of all, designers utilized eco-branding strategies to Paris 2024’s model supplies to scale back the quantity of ink and paper wanted for bodily supplies in addition to restrict the facility and knowledge consumption on digital parts.

See the complete model information right here.

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9. City Outfitters

Pictures, shade, and even tone of voice seem in City Outfitters’ California-inspired model tips. Nevertheless, the corporate is not shy to incorporate details about its excellent client and what the model believes in, as nicely.

See the complete model information right here.

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10. Like to Trip

Like to Trip, a biking firm, is all about shade selection in its visually pleasing fashion information. The corporate’s model tips embrace 9 shade codes and tons of element about its secondary logos and imagery.

See the complete model information right here.

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11. Barbican

Barbican, an artwork and studying middle in the UK, sports activities a loud but easy fashion information focusing closely on its emblem and supporting typefaces.

See the complete model information right here.

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12. I Love New York

Regardless of its famously easy t-shirts, I Love New York has a model fashion information. The corporate begins its tips with an intensive clarification of its mission, imaginative and prescient, story, audience, and tone of voice. Solely then does the fashion information delve into its emblem positioning on numerous merchandise.

See the complete model information right here.

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13. TikTok

TikTok’s fashion information is not only a information — it is an interactive model guide. First, it supplies an in-depth look into the way it brings its model to life by design. Then, it provides an summary of its emblem, co-branding, shade, and typography. At its core, TikTok is a model that “celebrates the relentless vitality, creativity, and expression of [its] customers.”

See the complete model information right here.

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14. College of the Arts Helsinki

The fashion information of the College of the Arts Helsinki is extra of a inventive branding album than a conventional advertising and marketing information. It exhibits you dozens of contexts wherein you’d see this faculty’s provocative emblem, together with animations.

See the complete model information right here.

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15. Ivy Lane Occasions

Ivy Lane Occasions’ daring fashion information is reflective of the edgy occasions the corporate produces. In it, you may discover a temper board with darkish, romantic visuals impressed by “victorian gothic fashion and classic guide artwork.” The information additionally particulars the right utilization design parts such because the wordmark, main icon, secondary logos, shade, and typography.

See the complete model information right here.

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16. Western Athletic Convention

The Western Athletic Convention’s model fashion information contains in depth details about its historical past, mission, and imaginative and prescient. It additionally highlights its member universities and athletic championships and awards it’s concerned with. The model parts embrace emblem, colours, slogan, patch, and extra.

See the complete model information right here.

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17. Discord

Discord’s model information is as colourful and playful because the communities it serves. The model’s movement parts are based mostly on the dot, which represents the Discord person interacting with others within the communities it belongs to. The information describes utilization of Discord’s typography, colours, and icon (lovingly named Clyde).

See the complete model information right here.

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18. Netflix

So far as its public model property are involved, Netflix is concentrated totally on the therapy of its emblem. The corporate provides a easy algorithm governing the dimensions, spacing, and placement of its well-known capitalized typeface, in addition to a single shade code for its basic purple emblem.

See the complete model information right here.

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19. Scrimshaw Espresso

That includes a six-code shade palette, this “laid again,” “cool,” and “eclectic” model has a lot of secondary logos it embraces in numerous conditions.

See the complete model information right here.

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20. NASA

NASA’s “Graphics Requirements Handbook” is as official and sophisticated as you assume it’s. At 220 pages, the information describes numerous emblem placements, shade makes use of, and supporting designs. And sure, NASA’s area shuttles have their very own branding guidelines.

See the complete model information right here.

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21. New York Metropolis Transit Authority

Like NASA, the NYCTA has its personal Graphics Requirements Handbook, and it contains some fascinating typography guidelines for the numbers, arrows, and public transit symbols the common commuter takes with no consideration on daily basis.

See the complete model information right here.

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Branding Pointers Ideas

If you wish to take your branding fashion information to the following stage, I like to recommend following these finest practices, which the HubSpot Inventive workforce has used to disseminate branding data to the remainder of the HubSpot Advertising workforce.

This has not solely made my job as a blogger simpler, but in addition makes our branding really feel nicely thought-out and cohesive.

1. Make your tips a branded doc.

Whether or not you’re publishing your branding tips on-line or creating an inside presentation, take into account making the rules themselves a branded doc. Make sure the revealed doc follows your established model voice, makes use of the symbols and imagery you’ve created, and employs the colours and typography that makes your model really feel such as you.

When our Inventive workforce rolled out a visible id refresh for the HubSpot model, all of us obtained entry to a branded playbook that summarized all of the adjustments and described how we must always characterize HubSpot on-line transferring ahead. Not solely was I an enormous fan of the refresh, but in addition of the way in which it was introduced to our workforce in a branded doc.

You are able to do the identical, no matter your finances. Our Inventive workforce truly used a free instrument, Google Slides — so it’s completely doable for a small or freelance model!

2. Title your model’s colours.

You’ve already chosen your shade palette — why go so far as naming the colours? Giving your colours distinctive names (other than “blue” or “orange”) will help you tie the tactical parts of your branding into an general theme or ethos.

To not point out that it’s superior to have the ability to discuss with firm colours by a singular title. Think about if we known as Solaris, HubSpot’s main model shade, “HubSpot Orange” — that merely doesn’t have the identical ring.

In our visible id refresh, our Inventive workforce brightened and intensified our shade palette, then renamed the person hues. They wrote, “Each shade, tint, and shade relies on central themes. […] Whether or not it’s a subway line in Paris, or a flower-lined road in Japan, the secondary shade names are a veritable tour of essential cultural and geographical touchstones from HubSpotters everywhere in the world.”

Take into consideration what makes your model distinctive, and why you selected the colours that you just did. For example, in case you work at a regulation agency that focuses on automotive accident instances, you may select purple as one of many model colours and name it “Cease Gentle.”

3. Create easy-to-use branded templates.

Alongside your branding tips needs to be templates to empower your workforce to simply design branded property, even when they’re not designers. At HubSpot, we hold all of our templates in our workforce’s Canva account. There, anybody (myself included) can edit pre-made designs for any variety of use instances.

As a author on the HubSpot weblog, I’ve to create graphics to complement the knowledge I’m sharing. The branded templates made by our Inventive workforce have made my work an incredible deal simpler — and I can think about that it’s the identical for our Social Media workforce, when they should publish an replace on any certainly one of HubSpot’s social media profiles.

Whether or not you run a small or massive enterprise, you may profit from creating at the very least one template that may very well be adjusted to totally different sizes. Not everyone seems to be a designer, however with templates, you may guarantee your model appears skilled irrespective of who creates an asset.

4. Guarantee your branding is optimized for all channels.

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Your branding tips ought to embrace totally different specs for various channels — or, alternatively, it is best to have property and designs that may be adjusted for numerous channels and mediums. Not just for sizing functions, however for accessibility functions, too.

For example, in case you primarily market your model over Instagram and in your web site, then your branding ought to have net accessible colours, in addition to Instagram-friendly designs and sizes. On Instagram, you may need to keep away from small, gentle typography, and so your font ought to work nicely for that channel, too.

You don’t need to considerably change your branding from channel to channel; it ought to work comparatively nicely irrespective of the place you’re advertising and marketing your model.

Construct a Memorable Model Information of Your Personal

When you construct your distinctive model fashion information, prospects will acknowledge your model and affiliate it with all of the visible cues you need them to. We hope you have been impressed by our checklist of wonderful model fashion guides and want you luck in making a timeless fashion of your personal.

Editor’s word: This put up was initially revealed in January 2017 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.