Brand Style Guide

Brand Style Guide

Document the brand system so other people can use it without ambiguity. This is the artifact that lives longest. Designers, developers, agencies, and vendors will reference it for years. Build it like a reference manual, not a presentation.

This skill assumes the brand identity is designed (run brand-identity first if not). The output of this skill is the canonical reference document.

When to use

• Creating brand guidelines for a finished identity
• Documenting an existing brand that has no formal guide
• Auditing an existing style guide for gaps or inconsistencies
• Building a brand book to hand to vendors, partners, or new team members
• Updating a guide after a major brand evolution

When NOT to use

• The brand identity is not yet designed (use brand-identity)
• Brand voice work specifically (use brand-voice for the voice doc, then integrate)
• Building UI components (use design-standards or design-system)

Required inputs

• Finished brand identity (logo, colors, typography, imagery direction, motion principles)
• Brand voice and tone documentation (or sufficient inputs to write a voice section)
• Application examples that show the brand in real contexts
• Decisions on what is mandatory vs flexible vs forbidden

The framework: 8 sections

A complete style guide has eight sections. Most guides skip 2 or 3 of them and create downstream confusion. Build all 8 from the start.

1. Story

The narrative behind the brand. Why it exists, what it stands for, what it rejects.