How do you use this brand guidelines template?
Copy the seven sections below into a document, keep the headings, and replace each list with your own decisions. A brand guidelines document records decisions, not options: one primary color, not five candidates. Where you haven't decided yet, write TBD and leave it. The gaps are useful, because they show where you need design work.
For an early-stage startup, aim for a short version first: ten pages that people will actually read. Our guide to brand guidelines for startups explains what to cut. If you're still defining the brand itself, start with our brand questionnaire template and come back here once the answers are settled.
Section | Answers the question | Who uses it most |
|---|---|---|
1. Brand foundation | Who are we and why do we matter? | Founders, marketing, sales |
2. Logo | How do we show our name? | Designers, partners, press |
3. Color | Which colors, where and how much? | Designers, developers |
4. Typography | Which fonts, at which sizes? | Designers, developers |
5. Voice and messaging | How do we sound and what do we say? | Anyone who writes |
6. Imagery and iconography | What do our visuals look like? | Designers, marketing |
7. Applications | How does it all come together? | Everyone |
Section 1: Brand foundation
The foundation is the one page everyone should read. It explains the thinking that every visual and verbal choice comes from, so people can make good calls in situations the guidelines don't cover.
- Purpose: one sentence on why the company exists, beyond making money.
- Positioning statement: for [audience] who [need], [brand] is the [category] that [key benefit], unlike [alternative]. See our positioning statement template.
- Audience: the two or three buyer types you design for, with the problem each one has.
- Values: three to five, each with one line on what it looks like in practice.
- Personality: three to five traits, each paired with what it is not (confident, not arrogant).
- Brand story: a short paragraph on where you came from and what you're changing.
Section 2: Logo
The logo section stops people from stretching, recoloring or crowding your mark. Show every rule visually, with a correct and an incorrect example side by side.
- Logo variations: primary lockup, secondary or stacked lockup, symbol only and wordmark only, with when to use each. See logo variations explained.
- Clear space: the minimum empty space around the logo, defined by a part of the logo itself (for example, the height of a letter).
- Minimum size: the smallest size for print and for screen, and when to switch to the symbol.
- Color versions: full color, one color, reversed on dark, and which backgrounds each works on.
- Misuse: six to eight examples of what not to do: stretching, rotating, adding effects, placing on busy images, changing colors.
- Files: where the master files live and which formats exist (SVG, PNG, PDF). Our logo files checklist lists what a designer should hand over.
Section 3: Color
Color guidelines define roles, not just swatches. A palette with no rules for proportion ends up used evenly, and the brand loses its primary color.
- Primary colors: one or two, with HEX, RGB and CMYK values (and Pantone if you print).
- Secondary and accent colors: what each is for, such as highlights, charts or status.
- Neutrals: the grays, off-whites and near-blacks that carry most of the layout.
- Proportions: a rough ratio of how much of each color appears on a typical page.
- Accessible pairs: which text and background combinations meet WCAG AA contrast, and which don't.
- Dark mode: how the palette maps onto dark backgrounds, if your product or site has one.
Read brand color palette structure for how to assign primary, secondary, accent and neutral roles.
Section 4: Typography
- Typefaces: the display face and the text face, with where to get them and the license that covers web, app and print.
- Fallbacks: the system fonts to use in email, slides and documents where the brand fonts aren't available.
- Type scale: sizes and line heights for headings, body, captions and labels on web and in slides.
- Weights and styles: which weights are allowed, and when to use each.
- Rules: line length, alignment, capitalization of headings and how to set numbers and pricing.
Section 5: Voice and messaging
Most startup brand books skip this section, and it's the one used most often, because far more people write for the brand than design for it. See our brand voice guide for how to define it.
- Voice traits: three or four, each with a do and a don't written as real sentences.
- Tone by situation: how the voice shifts for a homepage, an error message, a sales email and a support reply.
- Messaging: the tagline, a one-line description, a 50-word description and the three key messages with proof for each.
- Word list: terms you always use, terms you never use, and how to write your product and company name.
- Style rules: spelling (American or British), numbers, dates, capitalization and punctuation.
Section 6: Imagery and iconography
- Photography: subjects, lighting, framing and what to avoid, with five to ten reference images.
- Illustration: style, line weight, color use and when illustration is used instead of photography.
- Icons: the icon set, grid, stroke weight and sizes.
- Product screenshots: how to crop, frame and annotate them in marketing.
- Data and charts: chart colors, label style and the order colors are used in.
Section 7: Applications
Applications show the system working together, which teaches faster than rules. Include the formats your team makes most often.
- Website: a homepage hero, a content page and a pricing section.
- Product UI: how brand colors and type map to UI tokens, and where the product departs from marketing.
- Social: post templates, profile images and cover images for each platform you use.
- Slides: title, section, content and chart slides.
- Email and documents: signature, newsletter header, proposal and invoice layouts.
Hypothetical example: a filled-in foundation and color section
For example, suppose a seed-stage fintech called Acme Payouts fills in the template.
Purpose: make cross-border payouts as easy as paying a local invoice. Positioning: for finance teams at remote-first companies who pay contractors abroad, Acme Payouts is the payouts platform that shows the full cost before you send, unlike banks that reveal fees after. Personality: precise, not cold; calm, not slow; direct, not blunt.
Color: primary deep navy and one signal green, used only for actions and positive states. Neutrals carry most of each page, navy follows, and green appears sparingly. Accessible pairs: navy on white and white on navy for text; green never used for body text on white.
How do you roll out brand guidelines so people use them?
Name one owner, publish the guidelines where people already work, and update them on a schedule. Branding cost guides suggest budgeting an extra 20–40% on top of an identity project for rolling it out across the site, decks and product, so plan that work rather than expecting the PDF to do it. Our guide to rolling out brand guidelines covers the steps.
If sections 2–6 are mostly TBD, that's design work, and it's what our brand & design sprint covers: a brand refresh or redesign plus 10 website and product explorations in Figma, for $3,000 fixed. It's design only, and the build comes after. See our startup brand identity service, or book a free 30-minute call to talk through your gaps.
