How to write brand guidelines (with a free structure) and turn them into assets

Most brand guidelines fail in one of two ways. Either they are a beautiful 80-page PDF that nobody opens, or they do not exist and the brand lives in one designer's head. The fix is the same for both: a short document of specific rules, and a brand kit that stores the assets those rules describe.

This guide gives you a structure you can copy, explains what to write in each section, and shows how to turn the finished guidelines into assets.

What brand guidelines are for

Brand guidelines exist so that someone who has never met you can make something that looks and sounds like you. That someone might be a freelance designer, a new marketing hire, a printer, an agency, or, increasingly, a piece of software.

That last reader changes how you should write them. A person can interpret "use our colours generously". Software cannot. Rules that are specific enough for a tool to follow are also clearer for people, so write for the stricter reader.

A useful test: for every rule, ask "could someone check a finished asset against this and say yes or no?" If not, rewrite it.

A free brand guidelines structure

Copy these sections in order. Skip any that do not apply to what you make.

1. Brand basics

Write the brand name exactly as it should appear, including capitals and spacing. Add a one-sentence description of what you do and who it is for. This sentence is useful far beyond the guidelines: it is the seed for adverts, scripts and product copy.

2. Logo

This section carries most of the weight. Include:

• The primary logo, as a file, with a transparent background.
• Clear space, as a rule someone can measure, for example "the height of the letter R on all sides".
• Minimum size, in pixels for screen and millimetres for print.
• Backgrounds, stating which versions go on light and dark, and that the logo never sits on a busy photo without a panel behind it.
• Placement defaults for video, such as "bottom right, small, from the first frame to the last".

Keep to one primary logo if you possibly can. Every extra variant is another thing to get wrong.

3. Colour

List each colour with its hex value (plus RGB, and CMYK or Pantone if you print). Then say how each one is used:

• Primary: the colour people remember you by.
• Secondary: two to four supporting colours.
• Neutrals: a dark for text and a light for backgrounds.

Add a ratio if it helps, for example "mostly neutral, primary for emphasis, secondary for charts". Vague instructions such as "vibrant" are not rules.

4. Typography

Name the fonts. Give a heading font and a body font at most, the weights you use, and a simple scale (for example, headline, subhead, body, caption). Note the licence, because a font licensed for print is not always licensed for video or advertising.

5. Imagery

Describe the photography or illustration style in concrete terms: lighting, setting, colour grade, how people are shown, and what you never show. Two or three reference images do more than a paragraph.

6. Tone of voice

Three to five adjectives are a start, but examples are what make tone usable. For each trait, write one sentence that is on brand and one that is not. Include words you always use and words you never use.

7. Motion and video

If you make video, add a few rules: how the logo appears, how long an end card holds, how captions look, how fast transitions are. These rules are what make a series of adverts feel like a series.

8. Right and wrong

Show common mistakes: a stretched logo, a colour outside the palette, the wrong font, text on a busy background. People learn faster from a wrong example than from a rule.

How to write rules people and tools can follow

A few habits make the difference between guidelines that work and guidelines that decorate a shared drive.

1. Use numbers. "Clear space of 24px at 1080p" beats "give it room".
2. Prefer one answer. One logo, one primary colour, one heading font.
3. Say where, not just what. "Logo bottom right on every video frame" is a placement rule.
4. Write the exceptions down. If the logo goes top centre on vertical video, say so.
5. Date the document. When the brand changes, people need to know which version is current.

Turn the guidelines into assets

A guidelines document describes the brand. A brand kit stores it. The step most teams miss is connecting the two, so that assets are made from the kit rather than from someone reading the PDF and doing their best.

Here is the order that works:

1. Store the kit. Logo file, brand name, primary colour, palette and fonts, in the tool you make things with. Our explainer on what a brand kit is covers what belongs in it.
2. Make one still. A product shot or a poster. Check it against every rule in sections 2 to 4.
3. Fix the kit, not the asset. If the colour looks wrong, change the kit value, so the fix carries into everything that follows.
4. Then make the bigger things. Video adverts, motion graphics, training modules. Each one reads the same kit.

On Reigniter that loop lives in one place. You can import an existing guidelines PDF to fill the kit, or start from nothing with the Brand Generator, which proposes logo directions, draws the one you pick, writes the kit and opens a guidelines document showing the mark, the palette with its colour values, typography and pattern. That document can be saved as a PDF to hand to a designer or printer. From the same kit you can then make product stills and image ads, video adverts and training.

A quick checklist

Before you call the guidelines finished, check that:

• The logo section has a real file, clear space, a minimum size and background rules.
• Every colour has an exact value and a stated use.
• Fonts are named, with weights and a licence note.
• Tone of voice has examples, not only adjectives.
• There is at least one page of wrong examples.
• The same logo, colours and fonts are saved as a brand kit in the tools you use.

If you only do one thing from this guide, do the last one. Guidelines that live only as a PDF depend on everyone reading them. A kit that every asset is made from does not. When you are ready to put the kit to work, how to make on-brand video ads with AI walks through the next step, and brand kits and guidelines are on Reigniter's free plan (see pricing).