Hey there, designers and business owners! Have you ever found yourself hanging in confusion between Brand Books and Brand Guidelines? Don’t worry you’re not alone! It’s a common puzzle that many peoples are trying to solve so I’ve decided to shed some light on Brand Book vs Brand Guidelines.

Brand Book Design

Brand Story

It can include the brand’s history, origins, and evolution. It may detail how the brand was founded, how they grow, the challenges they faced, and milestones they achieved.

Mission & Values

Describe the purpose and solution that your brand is offering to audience for make life easier. It will make positive impact that your brand is beyond just making profits.

Brand Personality

Think of a brand like a person. What kind of personality does it have? Is it fun and playful, serious and professional, innovative and cutting-edge, or maybe traditional and reliable?

Brand personality will also help in shaping how the brand communicates and interacts with its audience.

Visual Elements

Visual Elements cover the visual aspects of the brand. This includes the logo (a symbol that represents the brand), color palette (specific colors that evoke the brand’s emotions), fonts or typography styles (evoke the brand’s personality) , and graphic elements.

Communication Style

Defines the tone of voice and language the brand uses to communicate with its audience. For instance, is the brand’s communication casual, formal, friendly, or professional?

Examples

Provide real-life examples, case studies, or mock-ups demonstrating how all the elements discussed above come together in actual brand materials, such as advertisements, social media posts, packaging, or websites.

These examples serve as a reference to ensure consistency and alignment with the brand’s essence. If you are willing to run your brand for long time or life time you won’t stick with only 1 person or agency for all of your visual elements. Every visual designers has their own style. That’s why this rules and examples are super important to give a proper overview of your brand to designer.

Brand Guidelines Design

Logo Usage

Specifies rules on how to use the logo in different contexts, such as its size, placement, clear space around it, color variations, and what not to do with the logo.

I have wrote an article previously on responsive logo. It’s falling under this usage guidelines you can read full blog to know in detail about responsive logo. Why it’s important and benefits of creating a responsive Logo?

Color Palette

Details of the primary and secondary colors of the brand, including their specific color codes (hex codes, RGB & CMYK values). It explains where and how these colors should be used together and in what proportions.

Typography

Provide guidelines on fonts to use for different purposes — headings, body text, captions, etc. It includes font styles, sizes, and any specific guidelines on formatting text.

Imagery Style

Describe the visual style or types of images that should be used in alignment with the brand. This could involve specific photography styles, illustration preferences, or image treatments (such as filters, effects or presets).

Application

Demonstrate how to apply the brand’s visual elements across various materials. It shows examples of how the logo, colors, fonts, and imagery should be used in contexts like digital platforms, print materials, merchandise, etc. Show some mockups to present how your original branding and marketing materials will look when it’ll be ready after printing or how it’ll look on different digital platforms.

Why brand book or guidelines is super important for your brand?

Understanding the importance of a Brand Book and Brand Guidelines is like creating the rulebook of your brand’s identity.

Both the Brand Book and Guidelines are useful tools in crafting a brand’s persona, building trust, recognition, and resonance with its audience. It’s totally depend on the brand’s size or their works but ignoring both can make bad impact on your brand.

How much can you spend for it?

The cost for creating a Brand Book and Brand Guidelines can vary dependent based on several factors. The complexity of the brand, the scope of work, the agency or designer hired, and the depth of detail required. Generally, the pricing can range from a few dollars to several hundred dollars or more.

Here are the glimpse of the difference between brand book and brand guidelines. Read our full blog post for more insights.