How to Create Brand Guidelines [Download Free Template]

Crafting style guidelines — your brand’s visual and written identity — is usually a fun and creative challenge. It can also be incredibly intimidating. What to include? How much information is enough? And is there such a thing as being too specific? Don’t panic! We’re here to talk you through how to craft your style guide. Oh, and we happen to have a brand guidelines template you can download for free.

Ready? Let’s do this.

Get in the Proper Mindset

Your brand guidelines are parameters that are meant to empower your team. They’re also meant to present a clear identity to your audience — or anyone interacting with your brand — to make it relevant and memorable. The most successful brand identities are consistent on every platform and are powered by thoughtful style guides.

As you think through yours, consider not only rules on how to implement the branding, but what not to do.

Brand Guidelines: The Basics

What you include or exclude from your brand guidelines is completely up to you and your organization. There are three main categories that we recommend using as a starting point (and remember, you can always expand these later!):

• The boilerplate stuff: This is the north-most of your organization’s North Stars. Think of your mission, your vision, your values. Everything else in your branding should align with these.
• The visual stuff: Logos! Primary brand colors! Secondary brand colors! This info is crucial for designers and anyone who is even thinking of branding something for your organization.
• The written stuff: Okay, this one is a little more subtle, but just as important as the other two. It’s the voice, the tone, the way in which you talk about your organization. How you speak to your audience is deeply impactful.

We simplified the three pillars, but don’t worry — our template gets into the fun, nitty-gritty details. From social media guides to your website to SEO considerations, we break it all down.

Start With Our Free (Yes, Free!) Brand Guidelines Template

We can pretend you came for our brilliant insights on brand style guides 💁🏻‍♀️ But we get it — the free template is what you really want. We’re happy to oblige. You can download it right here ⬇️

Create Comprehensive Company Branding Guidelines With Lytho

This template is only the start. Company branding guidelines are essential for maintaining consistency, building trust, and creating a memorable brand identity. By clearly defining how your brand is represented, every interaction will align with your mission, values, and audience expectations.

Ready to simplify and elevate your brand management process? Explore how Lytho’s solutions can help you create and maintain effective company branding guidelines — schedule a demo today!