What guidelines are for
Brand guidelines exist for one reason: to keep a brand consistent when people other than its designers apply it. Staff write proposals and post on social media. Printers produce signage. Web developers build pages. Each makes small decisions about logos, colours, words and images, and without guidance those decisions drift over time.
Consistency matters because recognition depends on it. The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute’s research on distinctive brand assets shows the value of elements that are both well known and unique to a brand. Assets only become well known when they are used the same way, over and over.
The sections that matter
The diagram on this page shows the sections most useful to an established business. Start with the position and voice: a short statement of what the business stands for and how it sounds, with examples of phrases to use and avoid. Then the visual rules for the logo, colour, typography and imagery. Finish with templates and examples, which show the brand applied correctly in the documents the team uses most.
It is common for guidelines to be strong on the logo and weak on everything else. In practice, the logo is rarely where a brand drifts. It drifts in the proposals, quotes, social posts and photos made every week by different people.
| Question | Most used by | Why it matters to them |
|---|---|---|
| Position and voice | Owners, staff and writers | Keeps messages and tone consistent |
| Logo, colour and type | Designers, printers and sign makers | Prevents the identity drifting |
| Imagery | Photographers and social media managers | Keeps photos and posts recognisable |
| Templates | Everyone who writes a proposal or quote | Makes consistency the easy option |
Write for the people who use them
Guidelines work best when they are written for their users. A printer needs colour values. A staff member writing a proposal needs a template and a few examples of the right tone. A social media manager needs to know what kind of photos to use. The Australian Government’s own Style Manual, which the Digital Transformation Agency describes as the government’s authoritative guidance for writing and editing, is a good model of guidance designed around how people actually look things up.
Keep them short and usable
Long guidelines go unread. A concise document with clear examples, and editable templates for proposals, quotes, presentations and social posts, does more than a long manual. Templates make consistency the easy option, which is the only reliable way to achieve it.
Keep them current
Guidelines should change when the business changes. Review them once a year, add templates as new needs arise and remove rules nobody follows. Zelexis provides guidelines and templates as part of every brand project, written for the people who will use them.
A useful next step
Something to try this week.
Gather the last ten documents your business produced, such as quotes, proposals, social posts and email signatures, and lay them side by side. Note every difference in logo, colour, type and tone. That list shows which sections your guidelines most need, and which templates would save the most time.