Brand guidelines may seem explanatory, but in our industry they are a must. They can speed up a process hugely when everything we need is all together in a folder. It can also mean that when you come to create a website or want your logo on clothing or even a van, the makers will have access to all options. As expert web designers in Surrey we’ve created these simple steps to producing your first set of brand guidelines.
Logo
A logo is your central hub. It defines everything around it in brand guidelines. From the colours used, to the shape and style, this all affects the other aspects of your guidelines. If the logo has bold text then the font will match in your guidelines, or if the styling of a logo is particularly spiky, this can be reflected in the fonts used for copy.
Colour scheme and font
In brand guidelines, colours are a big part, there are usually at least three colours used. They can either be complimentary, with different shades of the same colour. Or they can be opposites, like having purple and yellow. It all depends on what you put in your logo, and what matches your brand. You can see from logos, that the colour is very influential, anything eco is always in green, anything around water is always blue. Colour can influence what we think of a brand.
Imagery
Any imagery that is directly related to your brand will also be included, for example, someone in uniform, or your shop itself, or even where you got your ideas from. It can include anything that you look at and think, “that’s my brand” or “that’s our beliefs or motivation”; anything that you could include in an advertisement for your company.
Iconography
You may well have looked at this word and gone- “what does that even include?” Well this is anything from GIFs or illustrations that are yours. To give you an idea of what we mean, have a look at our team, these are illustrations that define our brand. You can also have a look at our homepage, you can see spaceships flying and astronauts floating, these are all things that would be part of our guidelines.
Branding examples
The main aim of brand guidelines is to act as a collection for when you want to put your branding onto something new. To make this easier the guidelines often include examples of what your branding looks like on other things than just a website. This could be on a business card, on clothing, on a brochure or pamphlet, even on a car. This gives future designers something to go off when they are styling something new for you.
Contact Us:
Thunderbolt Digital is an award-winning digital marketing agency, with an expert team of web designers in Surrey, and we’re only a phone call away from improving your online marketing campaign or web design! Get in touch today by calling 01252 413757 or email howdy@wearethunderbolt.com – we can’t wait to hear from you.