Design Articles

Brand guidelines, which some call brand bible or brand standards, are the set of guidelines on how the business will present itself to its target market. They establish the main rules about the logo, design, colors, imagery, typography, ethos, stationery, and business principles of the business. Importance of brand guidelines cannot be overstated as they provide the basis of the front face and identity of a business.

When Are Brand Guidelines Important?

Brand guidelines can come in handy in defining your brand’s identity and giving a unique flavor to your business. Following are the ways when having well-defined brand guidelines will prove important for your business:

Building Brand’s Identity

The guidelines in brand standards are, well just that: guidelines. These rules are flexible but if you want to achieve consistency in your branding campaign, sticking to these guidelines is the best way to go about it. When you follow your brand guidelines religiously, or at least frequently, in your work, your company starts developing its own flavor that is unique to them. This can give you edge over your competition as your consumers will already know what sort of work to expect when working with you. It will also help you get more repeat business.

Saving Time

Without any guidelines, the design might go astray or could take up a lot of time due to redundancy. These things have a potential of weakening the brand. On the other hand, having a template where you just have to fill out the details not only saves times, but it also helps maintain consistency and order.

Outsourcing Your Work

Explaining your work to someone from outside of your company can be tricky. Brand guidelines can help you explain your brand to a stranger which helps a lot in outsourcing your work and maintain consistency, while you’re at that.

When Should You Sketch Out Your Brand Guidelines?

It is never too early to set a path for your company and to have well-defined brand values for you to work on. The sooner you do it, the better it will be for your business. That said if you are just a small business with say a few employees, you might not really need brand guidelines. However, as your business grows, you might feel the need to sketch them out to bring everyone on the same page.