7 Best Examples of Brand Guidelines
You can call it brand guidelines, style guide or brand book but they all basically refer to standards that guide us on how to use the brand elements.
Designing, printing or fabricating elements of a new brand identity system are all dependent on a set of intelligent standards and guidelines.
A good, solid standards will save you time, money, and frustration.
The size and nature of an organization affect the depth and breadth of the content and how marketing materials are conceived and produced in the future.
PS. If you want to learn how to create a style guide — check out my YouTube video.
1. Starbucks
Starbucks, for example, calls this document the “brand expression guide” and explains that this is:
A high-level overview of how the Starbucks brand comes to life.
The standards are available online on a cool microsite.
On the very first pages, you’ll find what that “brand expression” actually is, and see some case studies.
So that you can see examples and understand how different brand elements (or expressions) should be used in real life.
The Starbucks brand guidelines cover 6 elements:
- Logo — How to use the Siren logo and the logotype.
- Color — Primary green and complementary color palette.
- Voice — The use of functional and expressive voice.
- Typography — Fonts for headlines, body text and accents.
- Illustration — How to use texture, photo collage and other graphics.
- Photography — Examples of artful, editorial and intentional style.
The website is terrific, a great example of an online manual.
Having a dedicated website like this, that shows uses of typography, grids and colors is very helpful to ensure consistency.
It’s easy to navigate and includes everything you need in a style guide.
2. Uber
Uber, on the other hand, calls its standards document “a system”.
The Uber brand system is composed of 9 core elements.
This available online on a dedicated website.
The system shows a new brand identity as efficient to use, flexible across applications, and able to feature localized content in a globally consistent way.
The Uber guidelines cover 9 elements:
- Logo
- Color
- Composition
- Iconography
- Illustration
- Motion
- Photography
- Tone of voice
- Typography
As you can see, the Uber’s style guide covers much more than Starbucks’ does.
You’ll also find a showcase of best-in-class examples to get inspired.
The system is very comprehensive and covers everything from the brand story, to how to use the logo, typography and colors to create new graphics.
What’s interesting is that the brand system also covers a set of motion principles and base motion states, which really makes sense for the company that “moves people”.
3. YouTube
Youtube calls its guideline “Brand Resources”.
The Youtube brand resources page contains of 4 brand elements.
The YouTube brand guideline is available online on Youtube’s website.
The YT standards is pretty tight and concise, but it covers the basics.
The YouTube guidelines cover 4 elements:
- Logo
- Icon
- Colors
- Do’s & Dont’s
You’ll find here also how to use the logo, minimum sizes, placement, color versions, the do’s and don’ts and a few examples.
This is probably the most basic version of a brand guideline you can get.
The page is there just to get you started and any usage needs special approval of YouTube. (submit request)
So if you’re looking to cover the absolute minimum for your brand, this is a great example of a solid style guide.
4. Dropbox
Dropbox calls its guideline “Brand Materials”.
The Dropbox brand materials page contains of 7 brand elements.
The Dropbox brand guideline is available online on Dropbox’s website.
This style guide is a simple page but it guides you clearly on how to use the logotype, brandmark and other brand assets.
It also contains other product logos, do’s and don’ts, application icons and product screenshots.
The Dropbox brand guidelines cover 7 elements:
- Logo
- Color
- Typography
- Writing
- Visuals
- UI
- Motion
What’s interesting, you can check the Dropbox logo files to get inspired when creating your own resource folder.
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Which brand guidelines is best in your opinion and why? — Leave a comment.
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