Style Guides can sound confusing and intimidating if you don’t know exactly what they are or don’t understand the purpose that they serve. If you just paid for a design service, whether it was a logo, motion design, web design, or architecture, Style Guides are instrumental in making sure that you get the most out of what you just paid for.

So, what exactly are Style Guides?

A Style Guide is a set of standards and guidelines that defines the way “something” looks, sounds and feels.

I say “something” because you can insert any number of different things a Style Guide is for:

“…a brand”

“…a campaign”

“…a video production”

And the list goes on. For this post, I am going to focus on the Brand Style Guide.

When working with different agencies, companies, or freelancers the term “Style Guide” may change depending mostly on personal preference. You may hear terms like Brand Book, Brand Guidelines, Graphics Standards, Design System, etc. The point of the matter is that they are all basically serving the same function. So, if it sounds good to you use it, just remember that the value of a Style Guide is determined by what’s inside.

A mentor once described to me that building a great brand is like building a three-legged stool. If you can imagine the top of the stool as the brand’s visual identity, each leg that supports the stool would be strategy, execution, and consistency. If just one of those legs is removed the entire stool will come crashing down. Lack of a clear strategy and your brand may end up completely missing the mark. Execute poorly and your brand can’t live up to the vision you had for it. Present your brand inconsistently and it will quickly, and most often, be forgotten.

How does this all relate to a Style Guide? Well, because Style Guides are designed to support the consistency of a brand. They lay out the rules, guidelines, and standards that are required to keep your brand looking, sounding, and feeling the way it was designed.

This is most important for organizations that do not have designers on staff. If you are the CEO of a small startup and need to generate marketing materials, pitch decks, social media posts, etc. you need to have a fundamental understanding of how to keep your branded content consistent. Your brand is how customers and people will recognize you; if your brand is consistently misrepresented it will not have a chance to stay in people’s minds.

What should I expect in my Style Guide?

I like to tell clients that a Style Guide is essentially a cookbook. It’s filled with different recipes and the step-by-step process of how to achieve the desired result. You can visualize this by relating some branded content to a specific dish in the cookbook. If you wanted to recreate that dish, how would you do it? You would go about following the steps exactly as they are written. It is no different for recreating branded content. The Style Guide is your step-by-step process to creating the finished product. It ensures that as long as you follow the recipe, you will consistently deliver accurate results.

How should I keep and maintain my Style Guide?

Style Guides should be maintained as living documents. Your company isn’t going to stay the same size forever, is it? You’re going to grow and evolve, and new directions are going to rise. This is an essential feature of the Style Guide. Not only should your Style Guide “guide” these new directions but it should also have the ability to adapt to change and growth. This basically means that you should control the versions of your Style Guide and update them whenever you recognize a new pattern or direction within the brand. If your team is large and distributed, they will always need access to the most updated Style Guide.

Unfortunately, this is a process that is often overlooked. If you are trying to build a brand, you need someone to manage it. That doesn’t mean that Brand Manager has to become a full-time role, but it does mean that it has to become part of the process and cannot be left out.

Is a Style Guide necessary for me, though?

There are a lot of you out there with smaller budgets and new ideas. Maybe you bought a logo for your own personal brand or you’re still in the developmental stages of your business. If that’s the case, maybe all you need is just a logo. However, it’s important to understand that once the creation process leaves your hands it’s impossible to control without constraints. As soon as “you” becomes “team” and other people are involved, Style Guides become absolutely necessary.

Remember, Style Guides are the recipe. They are the tool that gives you the power to create with intention.