What belongs in brand guidelines (and what does not)

Brand guidelines exist for one reason: so someone who is not you can make something on-brand without asking. Judged against that purpose, most guideline documents fail, because they are written as a showcase of the design work rather than as a reference.

The essential sections

• Logo files: which variant to use in which situation, with the actual files linked or attached.
• Clear space: the minimum margin around the mark, expressed in a unit derived from the logo itself so it scales.
• Minimum size: separate figures for print and screen. This is the rule most often broken.
• What not to do: stretching, recolouring, adding effects, placing on busy photographs, rebuilding the lockup. Show them as visual examples, because prose descriptions do not stop it happening.
• Colour: HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone for every colour, plus which colours may sit on which.
• Typography: the typefaces, the weights in use, the size hierarchy, and — critically — the licensed fallback for people who do not have the fonts.
• Imagery: what photographs should look like, with real examples of both acceptable and unacceptable.
• Applications: the mark shown on the six or eight things it will actually appear on.

Sections most documents can skip

• The brand story and values essay. It belongs in an internal document, not in the reference a printer opens.
• The mood board that informed the design. It was a process artefact.
• Extensive rationale for each design decision. Interesting once, never consulted again.
• Grid systems for layouts nobody will ever build by hand.

Add these if they apply to you

• Digital and UI: colour roles, button states, form styling, and the tokens developers should use.
• Social media: profile and cover crops per platform, and the safe areas each enforces.
• Co-branding: how your mark sits beside a partner or sponsor logo, including relative sizing.
• Sub-brands: when a division gets its own lockup and when it does not.
• Merchandise and embroidery: the simplified variant and the minimum stitch size.
• Accessibility: which text and background combinations are permitted, with the contrast ratios stated.

Make it usable

A PDF nobody can find is not a governance system. Host the document somewhere permanent, put the logo files next to it, and give the link to every supplier at the start of a job rather than after they get it wrong. Where budget allows, a simple web page beats a PDF, because you can update it without reissuing anything.

And supply templates. People go off-brand mostly because the on-brand option is harder to use, not out of defiance. A locked template for the documents each team actually makes prevents more inconsistency than any rulebook.