Branding Guide: What a Brand Style Guide Includes, With Examples and a Template
A branding guide (also called brand guidelines or a brand style guide) is a short document that tells anyone making something for your business how to use your logo, colours, fonts, images and words so everything looks and sounds like one company. A good one for a small business covers six things: the brand core (who you serve and how you want to be described), the logo and its rules, colours with exact codes, typography, imagery and voice. Most small businesses need 10 to 20 pages; length matters less than whether a new designer, printer or employee can follow it without calling you.
What a branding guide includes
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Brand core | A one-paragraph description of the business, who you serve, your positioning line and three to five personality words |
| Logo | Primary logo, alternate versions (stacked, horizontal, icon only), clear space, minimum size and examples of misuse |
| Colour | Primary and secondary colours with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values, plus which colour combinations pass contrast for text |
| Typography | Heading and body fonts, weights, sizes for web and print, and a fallback font for email and documents |
| Imagery | Photo style, what to show and avoid, icon style, illustration rules and how people appear in photos |
| Voice and tone | How the business sounds, words you use and avoid, spelling conventions (for example Canadian English) and sample lines |
| Applications | Examples on real items: website header, social posts, business card, email signature, signage, vehicle or uniform |
| Files and contacts | Where the master files live, which format to use where, and who approves new uses |
Our designers build brand guidelines for businesses in Toronto and across Canada, scoped in writing after a free review.
Brand guidelines examples worth studying
Large organizations publish their guides openly, and they are useful models even for a five-person business. Look at how they organize rules, not at their length.
- The Government of Canada’s Federal Identity Program. The Design Standard for the Federal Identity Program shows how strict logo rules are written: the Canada wordmark is the word “Canada” with the flag over the final “a”, it may only be reproduced from the digital master file, and separate pages cover size and position, websites, ads and promotional items. It is a clear model for clear space, placement and misuse rules.
- The Canada.ca Content Style Guide. The Canada.ca Content Style Guide covers voice and writing. It shows how to turn “write clearly” into specific rules about words, sentence length and formatting.
- The Ontario.ca style guide. The Ontario.ca style guide is another public writing guide, useful for seeing how spelling, numbers, dates and capitalization decisions are recorded so every writer makes the same choice.
Between them, these cover the two halves of a brand guide: how things look and how things are written. A small business can borrow the structure and keep each section to a page or two.
A branding guide template outline
Copy this outline into a document and fill it in. Each section is one page or less for most small businesses.
Brand core
- What the business does, in one sentence a customer would understand
- Who you serve and where (for example, homeowners in Halton and Peel)
- Positioning line: why customers choose you over the alternatives
- Three to five personality words, each with a one-line “this, not that” (for example: “direct, not blunt”)
Logo
- Primary logo on light and dark backgrounds
- Alternate versions and when to use each one
- Clear space (often the height of a letter in the logo) and minimum size for print and screens
- Do not: stretch, recolour, add effects, place on busy photos, rebuild with a different font
Colour
- Primary colour and one or two secondary colours, with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values
- Neutral colours for text and backgrounds
- Approved text and background pairs that meet the WCAG contrast minimum of 4.5 to 1 for normal text
Typography
- Heading font and body font, with the weights you use
- Type sizes for the website, presentations and print
- A system fallback for email, Word and Google Docs
Imagery and icons
- Photo style: real team and work photos, lighting, colour treatment
- What to avoid: generic stock poses, competitor products, images you do not have rights to
- Icon style: line or solid, stroke width, corner style
Voice and tone
- How you sound on the website, in emails, on social media and in a complaint reply
- Words and phrases you use, and ones you avoid
- Spelling and formatting rules: Canadian spelling, how you write dates, phone numbers and prices
- Two or three before and after examples
Applications
- Website header and footer, social profile and post templates, email signature, business card, invoice, signage
Files and approvals
- A shared folder with logo files in SVG, PNG and PDF, colour swatches and font licences
- Who approves new materials and how to ask
How long should brand guidelines be?
As long as the rules your business needs, and no longer. A sole proprietor can fit a usable guide on two pages: logo, colours, fonts and five voice rules. A small company with staff, a website and printed materials usually lands at 10 to 20 pages. Multi-location businesses, franchises and companies that hand work to several agencies need more detail on applications and approvals. If people skip the guide because it is too long, cut it.
Brand guidelines vs brand book
People use the terms loosely, but there is a useful difference:
- Brand guidelines or style guide: the working rules for logo, colour, type, imagery and voice. This is the document designers and staff use day to day.
- Brand book: often a more narrative document about the brand’s story, mission and values, used to brief new staff and partners. Some businesses combine the two.
- Brand identity kit: the files themselves (logos, colour swatches, fonts, templates) that go with the guide.
For most small businesses, one guide with a short brand core section at the front does the job of both.
How to make a branding guide for a small business
- Collect what you already use. Gather every logo file, colour, font and template in use today, including the ones staff made themselves.
- Decide, then remove the rest. Pick one version of each element and retire the others. Inconsistency usually comes from old files still in circulation.
- Write rules as instructions. “Use the white logo on navy or photos darker than 50 per cent” is a rule. “Our logo represents growth” is not.
- Show examples. One correct and one incorrect example per rule teaches faster than a paragraph.
- Check accessibility. Test your colour pairs for contrast and keep body text large enough to read on a phone. Ontario businesses should also keep the website accessibility rules in mind.
- Publish it where people work. A shared folder link in your email signature for vendors, and a pinned link for staff.
- Review once a year. Update it when you add a service, open a location or redesign the website.
Common branding guide mistakes
- Only a logo sheet. Without colours, type and voice rules, every new piece drifts.
- No digital values. CMYK and Pantone alone leave web designers guessing; include HEX and RGB.
- Fonts without licences. Make sure the fonts in your guide are licensed for web, print and app use.
- No voice section. The words on your website, emails and review replies shape the brand as much as the logo.
- Locked files. If staff cannot find the master files, they will screenshot the logo from your website.
For the bigger picture of what a brand is beyond its guide, see our explainer on what branding is and why it matters. When you want the guide designed and written for you, with master files and templates, that is the work of our brand guidelines team, and it often follows a brand identity project.
Frequently asked questions
What goes in a brand style guide?
A brand style guide covers the brand core (what you do, who you serve, personality words), logo versions and rules, colours with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values, fonts, imagery and icon style, voice and tone, examples on real items, and where the master files live.
How long should brand guidelines be?
Long enough to cover the rules your business uses. A sole proprietor can manage with two pages, a small company with staff and printed materials usually needs 10 to 20 pages, and franchises or multi-location businesses need more on applications and approvals.
What is the difference between brand guidelines and a brand book?
Brand guidelines are the working rules for logo, colour, type, imagery and voice. A brand book is often a more narrative document about the brand's story, mission and values. Many small businesses combine them into one guide with a short brand core section at the front.
What are examples of good brand guidelines?
Public guides worth studying include the Government of Canada's Design Standard for the Federal Identity Program, which shows strict logo and placement rules, and the Canada.ca Content Style Guide and Ontario.ca style guide, which show how to write voice and style rules. Borrow their structure, not their length.
What is a brand guidelines template?
It is an outline with a section for each part of the guide: brand core, logo, colour, typography, imagery and icons, voice and tone, applications, and files and approvals. You fill each section with your own decisions and examples.
Do small businesses need brand guidelines?
Yes, as soon as more than one person makes things for the business: staff, a web designer, a printer or a social media helper. Even a two-page guide stops logos being stretched, colours drifting and the voice changing from one channel to the next.
What should be in a logo usage section?
The primary logo on light and dark backgrounds, alternate versions and when to use them, clear space around the logo, minimum sizes for print and screens, and examples of misuse such as stretching, recolouring, adding effects or placing the logo on busy photos.
What file formats should a brand kit include?
SVG for websites and scalable use, PNG with a transparent background for documents and social media, and PDF or EPS for print, plus colour swatches and licensed font files or links to them.
How often should brand guidelines be updated?
Review them once a year and whenever something changes: a new service, a new location, a website redesign or a new logo version. Retire old files at the same time so they stop circulating.