Brand Guidelines Template: Nine Sections to Fill In

1. Brand story and positioning

Section 1 prompt: what you sell and to whom, and why those buyers would switch to you. Table (Field, Your answer, Evidence): who we serve, the problem we solve, what we sell, price point, main alternatives, how we differ, brand promise, mission (optional). Five ruled lines hold the brand story. Rule: a line with no evidence is marked “assumption.”

2. Logo and clear space

A table gives each version (primary, secondary, icon, one-color) its own row, which records the file name and the use, plus the backgrounds it works on. Clear space is a unit taken from the logo itself, such as the height of one letter². Minimum width goes in pixels for screens and inches for print³. Four ruled lines list what never to do.

3. Colors

Six rows, one per color: name, role, HEX, RGB, CMYK, Pantone, paired text color, contrast ratio. HEX and RGB are for screens, CMYK for four-color process printing, Pantone for spot-color printing⁴; fill both sets. WCAG 2.2 Level AA asks for at least 4.5:1 contrast for normal text and 3:1 for large text⁵.

4. Typography

Two or three typefaces are enough, each with a job⁶. Rows: headline, subhead, body, caption, button. Columns: typeface, weight, size, line spacing, fallback. A second table logs each license. A desktop license does not always cover a website or an app⁷; Google Fonts typefaces allow commercial use⁸.

5. Imagery

Each image type (photos, illustrations, icons) gets a row: “like this,” “not like this,” source and license. Name the light, crop and subject: “daylight, close crop,” not “studio white.”

6. Voice and tone

Three traits, each with what we are, what we are not, a do and a don’t:

• Plain: direct, not corporate. Do: “Your order ships Monday.” Don’t: “Your order has entered our fulfillment pipeline.”
• Warm: friendly, not cute. Do: “Sorry for the wait. Here’s the fix.” Don’t: “Oopsie! We goofed!”
• Confident: sure, not pushy. Do: “Try it on eggs.” Don’t: “Act now before it’s gone!”

A tone table has a row for each place you write: website, social posts, support replies, error messages, packaging. Then name a house style (AP or Chicago¹) and list the words you use and the words you avoid.

7. Applications

One row each for business card, website header, social profile, email signature, packaging, signage and slide deck: logo version, colors, typefaces, file location, owner. Note each export size, checked against the platform’s current specs.

8. Do’s and don’ts

Eight rows: do, don’t, and the section the rule comes from. For example:

• Do keep the logo’s clear space. Don’t stretch or recolor it. (Section 2)
• Do check each text color’s contrast. Don’t use one that fails. (Section 3)

The filled example below adds two rows from section 1.

9. Contacts and files

It names the contact for each area (design, copy, approvals) and where each asset lives, then keeps a change log: version, date, change, approver.