Illustration: Aleksandra Niewiadomska-Ptak, BrightBrand Building a brand is more than just coming up with a catchy logo and choosing colors. It’s about creating a cohesive strategy that will set you apart from the competition. To maintain consistency and build recognition for your business, a brand book, or brand guide, becomes an essential tool. It’s a manual that helps a company maintain visual and communicative integrity in every situation.
What is a brandbook?
A brandbook is a document that contains all the guidelines for your company’s visual and communicative identity. In simpler terms, it’s a “user manual” for your brand, ensuring that all marketing materials - from business cards to websites - are consistent and aligned with your vision.
Why is a brandbook so important?
- Consistency: With a brandbook, all visual elements of the brand will represent it in a consistent and professional manner, increasing its recognition in the market.
- Efficiency: A brand book simplifies and speeds up the process of creating marketing materials, as all the necessary information is gathered in one place.
- Brand protection: It prevents unwanted changes in visual identity, protecting the brand from dilution, such as improper use of colors, logos, or fonts.
- Communication: It facilitates cooperation with suppliers, advertising agencies, and designers, ensuring everyone has clear guidelines on how to present the brand.
What should a brandbook contain?
A brand book contains key elements related to the visual and communicative identity of a brand, including:
- Logo: All versions of the logo and guidelines for its use and color variations.
- Color palette: Primary and secondary brand colors, their HEX and CMYK codes.
- Typography: Selected fonts, their usage rules, hierarchy, and sizes.
- Icons: A set of icons characteristic of the brand.
- Illustrations: A collection of illustrations created for the brand.
- Photography: Guidelines for the style of photography that reflects the brand’s character.
- Tone of voice: The way the brand communicates with customers.
How to create a brand book for your brand?
I will present you a few steps that are necessary to build a brand book, which will be a roadmap for your marketing strategy:
- Define your brand: Determine the values, mission, and personality of the brand.
- Consider what visual elements you need: Logo, color palette, fonts, illustrations, etc.
- Consider which communication channel with the customer will be best for your business: Maybe a website will be enough? Or maybe most of your customers are Instagram users and that’s where they make most of their purchasing decisions? Or maybe you want to reach your audience through TikTok?
- Consultations: Find a professional to build a brand according to best practices.
Is a brandbook necessary when building a brand?
Of course not, but why not make things easier from the very start? With a consistent visual identity, gathered and structured in one place, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and stress in the later stages of business development. A good brandbook is an investment in your company’s future. It helps you build a strong, recognizable brand that stands out in the market, saving time and money in the long run.