For a brand to establish a clear identity, it must be consistent in the way it represents itself across all channels. A style guide is a document that identifies the various elements of what you need to keep your brand consistent. This includes your tone, grammar, word usage and point of view. It also includes elements of design like your logo and brand design, color palette, typography, layout, imagery and more.

Many businesses do not take the time to create a style guide. But you’ll find some of the best custom logo design companies in California find it imperative to create this very useful brand tool. This can result in inconsistent content and branding that may cause confusion among consumers. And once confusing messages are sent, they can be difficult to retract over time.

Style guides can be updated as trends come and go. However, it is important that any updates are made known to all departments, especially those involved in your marketing and design work.

If you are working on creating a style guide for your brand, here are some things you will want to include:

Logo:

Your company style guide should give examples of your logo showing how it should be used in various formats including full color, black and white, transparent and against different backgrounds. It should also provide files for users in several formats like .png, .jpg, etc. If you have a tagline, be sure to include rules for placement in relation to the logo.

Color Palette:

Many brands have certain colors that make their company recognizable. Provide HEX and RBG color values for each color in your palette and include recommended color combinations.

Typography:

Typography is another element you will want to keep consistent in your design. Be sure to define recommended fonts to be used in headings, sub-headings, paragraphs and so on.

Layout:

The layouts your company uses may vary according to what you are creating the layout for. Be sure to include templates for emails, product pages, landing pages and more. Define where and how HTML and other elements are positioned on the page and how they relate to each other.

Links and Buttons:

Every website design for business has links and buttons that will be used to help browsers navigate to other pages. Provide styles and colors your company will want to use for these buttons as well as hex values for content links, sidebar links, form buttons and more.

Your style guide is something that should be developed early on in your company, so you are sure to set a consistent image from the very beginning. You should also plan carefully so that the styles you use will be effective in drawing in a consumer’s attention and relating to your target audience.

It may not be a bad idea to consult a professional brand designing agency for their input. If this is something you feel would be worthwhile, Lien Design is highly recommended. With years of experience, their advice could set your company in the right direction helping you to build brand awareness and increase conversions. Contact them to find out how they can help your company to grow.

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