The importance of style guides in branding
Style guides are a great tool for any business looking to establish a consistent and professional brand identity. A style guide outlines the guidelines and standards for the visual and written elements that make up a company’s branding. It ensures that all communications, from emails to websites to social media posts adhere to the same guidelines. This can be beneficial in helping to build trust, brand recognition and professionalism.
Here are a few reasons why style guides are important for business.
Consistency
A style guide establishes a set of rules for everything, from fonts and colour schemes to grammar and punctuation, or at least tone of voice. Perhaps you are only interested in setting up colours, fonts and logos. Consistency across all marketing materials, from social media posts to printed brochures, creates a cohesive and professional look that reinforces the company’s brand identity. This consistency also builds trust with customers and clients, who will come to recognize and trust the company’s brand based on its consistent appearance. It’s possible to set up style guides as templates in various programs to help maintain your guide’s cohesion. Animoto and Canva are two such programs.
Brand Identity
A style guide helps to create and maintain a company’s brand identity. A brand identity encompasses everything from the logo and colour scheme to the tone and style of the writing. A well-designed style guide ensures that all elements of the brand are working together to create a unified message that resonates with customers. It’s worth doing a little research on colour theory and deciding on WHAT your brand identity will be. Trust? Strength? Or Nurturing? Is it cool, fun or serious? Down to earth, or total ritz and glam? Masculine, feminine or completely neutral? Different colours elicit different responses from different people, so keep that in mind.
Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash
Time-Saving
With a style guide in place, you can easily create new marketing materials without having to start from scratch each time. By following your own established guidelines, you can create new materials quickly and efficiently, saving time and reducing stress on coming up with something new every time. Using preset templates can also save time. It might take a bit of time to set one up, but once you do it’s a game changer. But don’t spend months agonizing over it. Start simple and you can always add to it over time.
Clarity
A style guide provides clarity for anyone who may be responsible for creating marketing materials. By providing clear guidelines for everything from font size to tone of voice, the style guide ensures that everyone is on the same page when it comes to creating materials that accurately reflect the company’s brand. Even if it’s just you. Make your style guide and stick to it.
Professionalism
A well-designed style guide can help to elevate a company’s brand image and make it appear more professional. Even if you are just a small one-man band, a well-designed style guide can give you a more professional look and feel. By adhering to the guidelines in the style guide, a company can create marketing materials that are polished, consistent, and engaging.
Creating a style-guide
A quick and easy way to create a style guide is in Canva. I put together this little tutorial to get you started. But it really is super easy. Once done, save it on your Desktop for quick reference for all your marketing.
In conclusion, a style guide is an essential tool for any business that wants to establish a consistent and professional brand identity. By providing clear guidelines for everything, from colour schemes to tone, it ensures that all communications are consistent, on-brand and professional. It will also reinforce your brand identity and help build trust with customers and clients.
LEAD PHOTO Photo by Ella Jardim on Unsplash
