Brand Guidelines: What to Include, a Template Outline and Mistakes to Avoid

The short answer

Brand guidelines are the rules and assets that let anyone use your brand correctly without asking a designer. They should cover your positioning in brief, logo usage, colour, typography, imagery and graphic elements, motion, tone of voice, real examples and links to the source files. For a startup, a focused 10 to 20 page document or a single shared Figma page is usually enough, as long as it's easy to find and kept up to date.

What brand guidelines are for

Guidelines keep a brand consistent as more people use it: new hires, freelancers, partners and sales teams building their own decks. Good guidelines answer everyday questions fast. Which logo file goes on a dark background? What is our blue in hex? How do we write a headline? If people can't find the answer in under a minute, they guess, and the brand drifts.

What to include in brand guidelines

1. Brand foundations

One page: what the company does, for whom, a short positioning statement, the mission and three to five values or personality traits. Keep it brief. It is context for the rules that follow.

2. Logo

• Primary logo, symbol and any lockups
• Clear space and minimum sizes for screen and print
• Colour versions: full colour, one colour and reversed
• Placement on photos and coloured backgrounds
• Examples of misuse, such as stretching, recolouring or adding effects

3. Colour

• Primary and secondary colours with HEX and RGB values, plus CMYK and Pantone if you print
• Neutrals and rough proportions for how much of each colour to use
• Accessible text and background pairings
• UI and data visualisation colours, if you have a product

4. Typography

• Typefaces, weights and where to get them, with licence notes
• A type scale for headings, body text and captions
• Fallback fonts for Google Docs, PowerPoint and email

5. Imagery and graphic elements

• Photography style, with good and bad examples
• Rules for illustration, iconography, 3D or patterns
• How to present product screenshots and UI

6. Motion

Logo animation, transitions, easing and pacing for video. Even two or three rules keep product videos and social clips feeling like one brand.

7. Tone of voice

• Three or four voice traits, with what each one means and doesn't mean
• Before-and-after examples of real copy
• Words you use and avoid, and how to write your company and product names

8. Applications

Real examples: website, deck, social posts, email signature, event stand and product UI. People copy examples more reliably than they follow rules.

9. Files and contacts

Links to logo files, fonts, templates and the Figma library, plus who to ask when something isn't covered.

A brand guidelines template outline

Copy this structure into a Figma page, a Notion doc or a PDF:

1. Introduction: what this guide is for and how to use it
2. Who we are: positioning, mission and values
3. Logo: versions, clear space, minimum size and misuse
4. Colour: palette, values, proportions and accessible pairs
5. Typography: typefaces, scale and fallbacks
6. Graphic elements: shapes, patterns, icons and illustration
7. Photography and product imagery
8. Motion basics
9. Tone of voice: traits, examples and word list
10. Applications: website, deck, social, product and events
11. Downloads and contacts

Examples of public brand guidelines

• Uber. Uber's brand site describes the brand as "a system, not assets", with sections for logo, colour, composition, iconography, illustration, motion, photography, tone of voice and typography.
• Mailchimp. Its content style guide was written to help employees write clear, consistent content, and is public under a Creative Commons licence.
• Atlassian. Atlassian Design shows how a software company connects brand to product, with foundations for colour, typography, iconography, grid, accessibility and design tokens.

These are large companies with dedicated brand teams. Borrow ideas from them, but don't use them as a target size.

How startups keep brand guidelines light

• Start with what people actually ask for. Logo files, colours, fonts and a deck template cover most requests.
• Put it where the team works. A Figma library and a Notion or Google page beat a PDF lost in someone's downloads.
• Show, don't explain. One good example is worth a paragraph of rules.
• Lean on templates. Deck, social and document templates prevent more mistakes than any rules page.
• Version it. Add a date and a short changelog so people know it's current.
• Name an owner. One person approves changes and answers questions.

Guidelines also need to cover every place the brand appears. For Rippl, a creator commerce app, we designed a brand that had to work across an iOS app, a website and motion from day one, so the rules had to suit all three. If you're hiring a studio, ask for guidelines, source files and templates as named deliverables in the proposal.

Common brand guidelines mistakes

• Too long. A 100-page manual for a 15-person company won't be read.
• Rules without files. Guidelines that describe the logo but don't link to it.
• Ignoring the product. Marketing colours that fail contrast checks in the UI.
• No voice section. Most brand touchpoints are words, not visuals.
• Set and forget. Guidelines that still describe last year's brand.

FAQ

What's the difference between brand guidelines and a style guide?

The terms are often used interchangeably. Some teams use "style guide" for writing rules only, as Mailchimp does with its content style guide, and "brand guidelines" for the full visual and verbal system.

How long should brand guidelines be?

As short as they can be while still answering common questions. For an early-stage startup, 10 to 20 pages usually covers it. Larger companies add sections as more teams use the brand.

What format works best?

A shared online page or Figma file is easiest to keep current. Export a PDF for partners who need a file.

Do we need brand guidelines before Series A?

You need the basics as soon as more than one person makes branded material. A one-page guide with logo, colours, fonts and templates is enough to start. Our guide to choosing a branding agency covers what to ask for if you're bringing in help.

Need a brand, and guidelines your team will actually use? Talk to us about what you're building, or see how we approach Branding & Brand Identity Design.