Ten Things You Need for a Successful Style Guide

A style guide is a quick reference tool that ensures your brand shines through every time you communicate. It keeps messaging and visuals aligned with your brand so audiences instantly recognize and, hopefully, trust your product or service.

So, when do you need it? Now! Your style guide is essential to your market position and, even if you’re your only staffer, it’ll be the guiding star as you begin to map your communications and marketing strategy.

Creating a brand and sticking to it is an essential part of establishing your value proposition (the specific benefit you’re offering) but it shouldn’t be intimidating.

Use the checklist below to start pulling together the top 10 things you need to establish your branding style guide.

1. Mission

What is it? Your mission is a clear, concise statement explaining why your company or organization exists—it should spark a fire in your heart but be understood by audiences who have no idea who you are.

How do you start? Write about your purpose, who you serve, what you want to accomplish, and how you’ll get it done. Describe what you are offering and connect it to your goals and values.

Expert Tip: Keep it short. If a phrase is less important than the other(s), cut it! Chop-chop.

2. Vision

What is it? Your vision is an aspirational statement that describes your company or organization’s desired impact in the future.

How do you start? Think about what you want to achieve in the long term—even if it’s decades away. What kind of impact are you trying to have on your audience and the world? Why?

Expert Tip: There’s no such thing as being too optimistic. How does your vision help build an ideal world? Embrace your brand’s unconventional side!

3. Values

What are they? Values are the core beliefs that guide your internal culture and influence how your work or your offerings are perceived by audiences.

How do you start? Reflect on what your company or organization stands for and what you want it to stand for. What environment do you want to create? How do these values impact your staff, audience, the community, and the marketplace?

Expert Tip: Personal and audience-driven values can play a big role in determining business or organizational values. Start there!

4. Personality Traits

What are they? Your brand’s “personality traits” are characteristics you want readily attributed to your company and its name.

How do you start? Imagine your company is a person. What’s their vibe and why would your audience be eager to meet them?

Expert Tip: Here’s a good place to check in to make sure you understand your audiences’ traits, as well. They can match, like assuring to assured, or they can fit together like two puzzle pieces, like assuring to distrusting.

5. Voice

What is it? The brand voice is a zoomed-out representation of your perspective and values—and needs to resonate with your target audience(s).

How do you start? Ask yourself how someone with your brand’s personality traits speaks. What words, phrases, and style would they use? How would these shift in different situations?

Expert Tip: To begin, make a short list of adjectives that describe your voice, like confident, dedicated, or playful. Create messaging that exudes these descriptions. We’re confident you can do it!

6. Tone

What is it? Tone drills down on voice, taking into account the specific audience and the platform.

How do you start? Think about how your brand voice would deliver a message to a particular friend. What tone would it strike to convince this friend to act?

Expert Tip: Check out your favorite brands on social media, but no doomscrolling! Pause to note how they stay on brand but alter tone and messaging to fit the platform—and the audience that uses that platform.

7. Logo

What is it? A logo is a symbol that represents your company and serves as the key visual for the entire brand.

How do you start? Logos should be simple and memorable—but can take time to develop. To begin, make a short list of adjectives describing your future logo, like sleek, luxurious, or laid-back. These words should connect to your company or organization’s mission, vision, and values.

Expert Tip: Have your logo options designed in black and white, so your decisions are influenced by shape, style, and font rather than color. Just because purple is your favorite, doesn’t mean it’s a good fit!

8. Color Palette

What is it? A set of colors that should be used on all brand collateral—from your logo to social media, to swag, and anything else visual your company or organization produces. Usually, brands include a main palette with 1–3 colors that are always used and a secondary palette that offers a few more colors for variety and additional visual coding.

How do you start? Much like logo development, a good place to start is with adjectives associated with your company or organization’s mission, vision, and values. Think about what colors represent those adjectives to your target audience.

Expert Tip: To ensure your brand colors are consistent, browse Pantone’s color systems and select Pantone Matching System (PMS) colors. Have your designer break these down into CMYK for print design and RGB and hex code for digital design.

9. Typography

What is it? The way letters are styled and arranged across written and visual materials. To define your brand’s typography set, choose 1–2 fonts and various weights and sizes that create a hierarchy of headings and body text.

How do you start? Like colors, fonts communicate feelings based on style and their cultural history. Explore fonts that build on your brand voice, using the same adjective trick you used for your logo design.

Expert Tip: Some fonts are better than others! Before making a font decision, check to make sure it offers a variety of weights and styles, glyphs, and symbols. It should be accessible—designed for easy reading for people with visual impairments.

10. Imagery/Iconography

What is it? This combination of coordinated photos, illustrations, icons, and other visuals works to express both subject matter and brand.

How do you start? Create a physical or digital mood board that includes your logo, colors, and fonts. Search and pull out images and other visual elements that support your brand voice.

Expert Tip: Generally, aim for a consistent look so that all your visuals appear as if they are coming from one unique voice. Save any unexpected visuals for very special occasions!

Did you write all that down? Great! Now you have your style guide. If you’re stuck or the process seems daunting, remember there’s always room for change. The most important part of your brand is that it resonates with audiences. It may take time, testing, and a few adjustments before you perfect it.

There’s lots of flexibility in this process and sometimes the best results come from instinct, experiments, and accidents. Be open, have fun, and when these 10 elements finally come together, your brand will easily impact the right people and get you results!