What is a style guide cover photo
For brands like Apple and Target, a style guide isn’t just a document; it’s the backbone of their consistent and recognizable brand identity. According to Leandro Castelao, Brand Designer at Figma Brand Studio, these guides are crucial for fostering a deeper understanding of the brand story, extending beyond the design team to encompass every member. So, How To Develop A Style Guide that achieves this? Let’s dive in.
What is a Brand Style Guide?
Leandro Castelao defines a brand style guide as “maintaining brand consistency and coherence.” It provides guidance on the use of essential brand elements like fonts, typography, logos, color palettes, and imagery. Crucially, it also shapes messaging and content creation by outlining the company’s brand voice, tone, and writing style. It acts as the ultimate reference point for anything related to your brand’s expression.
Benefits of a Brand Style Guide
Brand style guides nurture and build a strong brand. They ensure that everyone, from designers and copywriters to strategists, is aligned. This unified approach results in a consistent user experience across all channels, be it your website, app, email campaigns, videos, or social media. In essence, your whole team can use this brand guide to understand and uphold your brand identity.
Beyond consistency, style guides accelerate product development by providing easy access to design assets like brand colors, icons, and typefaces. An effective guide includes a clear table of contents, making it quick and easy for team members to find the information they need.
When to Implement Brand Guidelines
A brand style guide is needed very early in the product development cycle. It should be treated as a living document, constantly evolving. Start with version one as soon as you have a few core brand assets. Refresh and update your guide regularly to reflect your brand’s evolution and changing customer needs.
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5 Key Elements of a Brand Style Guide
A comprehensive brand style guide acts as the single source of truth for all brand-related information. Key components of any successful style guide template include:
- Brand Story: Communicates your company’s vision, mission, and core values. Effective brand narratives are authentic and build trust with your target audience. Think of it as the “why” behind your brand.
- Target Audience: Understanding your audience allows you to create a brand identity that resonates with them. Use user personas to gain deeper insights into their needs and preferences.
- Visual Identity: Encompasses all visual elements such as typography, font sizes, logo usage, imagery guidelines, iconography, and the brand color palette (RGB, HEX, and CMYK). This section provides designers with the technical specifications needed for consistent brand representation.
- Brand Voice: Define your brand’s personality through messaging and content. Identify a unique combination of adjectives that embody your brand voice, for example, “innovative, playful, and approachable.” Tailor your tone for different communication channels, maintaining a professional tone on LinkedIn, while adopting a more casual approach on Instagram.
- Writing Guidelines: Provides a framework for your company’s writing style, including readability level, grammar rules, and approved words and phrases.
How to Develop a Style Guide in 4 Steps
According to Leandro Castelao, the entire brand team at Figma collaborates on building their brand guidelines. Here’s how to develop a style guide in four steps:
Step 1: Build an Outline for Your Brand Guide
Define the core sections of your brand book. Cover elements like your brand story, target audience, visual identity, brand voice, and writing guidelines. Use these sections to create a detailed table of contents, making navigation simple and intuitive.
Step 2: Capture Brand Guidelines
Document your company’s vision, mission, and values. If you don’t have these yet, use a FigJam template to create them. Use these statements to craft your brand story, ensuring it resonates with your target audience through user research.
Collaborate with your team to establish specifications and accessibility guidelines for your style guide’s visual and copy components. Aim for a concise guide of 25–35 pages, with links to additional resources as needed.
Step 3: Revise Your Guide
Establish a review committee with key stakeholders from both inside and outside your brand team. Incorporate their feedback to refine the guide for clarity and simplicity. Seek final approval from your creative director and leadership team.
Step 4: Share Your Style Guide
Once finalized, present your style guide at an all-hands meeting and distribute it via email to ensure it is accessible to everyone. Figma’s style guide is an important element in the employee onboarding process.
3 Pro Tips for an Effective Style Guide
- Make it Accessible: Ensure your brand guidelines are easily accessible to all who interact with the brand, including employees and freelancers. Host it on a platform where team members can easily access it. Create an interactive format so that people can submit requests and questions on the fly.
- Update Your Guide Regularly: Treat your guide as a living document that adapts to changes in your brand, business, and user needs. Update your brand book every six months to a year.
- Give Real-Life Dos and Don’ts: Include examples that illustrate how your brand behaves in different contexts. This makes it easier for stakeholders to implement the brand identity consistently.
Jumpstart Your Style Guide with Figma
Starting from scratch? The Figma resource library and design systems publication can get you started. Use FigJam’s online whiteboard to brainstorm a table of contents and headings with your brand team.
Once you’ve mapped out your guide, build it on Figma’s design platform. For inspiration, check out brand style guide examples and templates from the Figma community.
More Resources to Spark Your Creativity
For more style guide examples, graphic design ideas, and use cases to inspire your guide, explore design websites.
Ready to bring your brand to life? Learning how to develop a style guide is the first step.
