Style guides vs Brand guides, what’s the difference?
Would you be able to tell difference between a style guide and a brand guide? Probably not. 😁 Most people, including a lot of designers, use them interchangeably. Websites also tell different stories. Some state they are the same thing, others state a style guide is more a copy guide for writers, etc.
Kind of confusing, right? They are quite different if done well though. Let me break it down for you!
📙 Style guide
This is primarily aimed at (external) designers. It outlines how to use and apply the existing brand identity, such as the logo(mark), colours, fonts, grids, photography, etc. Sometimes there is also a section on writing copy, but this is pretty rare. The size and amount of information can differ quite a bit. Some have a simple guide with basic dos and don’ts. Others have book-sized guides full of technical info.
This really differs per company. I’ve seen huge style guides from multinationals that were almost 300 pages long. They were full of detailed technical information on grids, pixel distances between letters, etc. But there’s also quick 10-page readers from similar-sized companies. This comes down to preference and needs, which varies quite a bit.
Personally, I don’t think huge guides work that well. It overwhelms anyone using them, and nobody thoroughly knows what’s allowed or not. The infamous brand police can help here sometimes. However, sometimes they’re also conflicting compared to what their style guides are telling you.
The style guide is sometimes used by in-house designers for consistency. This often goes on intuition more than referencing any guide though. You risk getting haunted by the brand police for this, hihi.
What a style guide usually contains:
· Logo usage
· Color palette
· Fonts / typography
· Imagery guidelines (photography, illustration, video, iconography, etc.)
· Grids (if applicable)
· Tone of voice
📕 Brand guide
In theory, this guide should be useful for everyone in a company. This includes the janitor up to the CEO and everyone in-between. That’s because brand guides are more overarching compared to style guides. They hold the company’s fundamentals, like their vision, mission, brand strategy, target audience, etc. This sets expectations of how the company represents itself. This includes how to speak, interact, and look on average. Brand guides often include everything the style guide has but also provides the strategic reasoning and goals behind it.
What does that have to do with a janitor? Well, everyone is representative of your brand. If you know you want to be known for, even they make an impact on that. A brand guide isn’t necessarily some huge bible-sized thing by the way. Being to the point and cohesive will always be beneficial as it is more accessible for anyone. E.g. Oatly made a wooden book for every employee to get everyone on board with the vision of the company. This gave everyone a direction and knew what they could look forward to.
What a brand guide usually contains:
🧠 Core Brand identity
· Fundamentals (mission, vision, purpose, values)
· Positioning (compared to competitors)
· Target audience(s)
💬 Verbal identity
· Brand persona / personality
· Tone of voice
· Slogan / tagline
· Value proposition
🦄 Visual identity
· Logo usage
· Color palette
· Fonts / typography
· Imagery guidelines (photography, illustration, video, iconography, etc.)
· Grids (if applicable)
When do you need which?
Personally, I usually find brand guides more useful than style guides. Knowing who you’re making something for and what the brand wants to achieve is more important than super nitty gritty details. This doesn’t mean you should neglect consistency, but just keep the end goal in mind.
‘We just hired a freelancer to quickly make us something! Isn’t a style guide enough?’
Yes and no. Sure, they can probably make you something that looks or sounds like your brand. But knowing who it is for and why can help a lot with developing better creative solutions. Style guides can feel more set-in-stone because they tend to be solely technical.
Ironically, a lot of start-ups tend to get a style guide instead of a brand guide. This may make sense cost-wise, given branding can seem expensive. However, they might miss out on a lot of the strategic fundamentals needed to develop a brand. They need to paint a clear picture of who they want to be and where they want to go in the long run. Just knowing where to place a logo perfectly won’t help with that.
So, when do you actually use a style guide?
In my own experience, I’ve mainly found them useful in a production setting. If everyone already knows the bigger plan and you just need a quick check on specifics. It can also be helpful if you’re leading a (external) team. In this case, you can explain the overall goal and hand out the style guide. At this point, you’re basically the creative lead or brand police. 👮You’ll oversee if the direction that other people are going in is in line with the brand.
Spot the differences
Check Brandingstyleguides.com to see if you can tell the difference between a brand guide and a style guide. This is also a good spot for some inspiration!
If you’re able to distinguish them, you’ve already came a long way!
What else?
Is branding as a whole kind of vague to you? Perhaps this article can help you understand it a bit better!
Did this article help you?
Let me know, happy to hear your thoughts on this! Give it a 👏 as it helps me to produce more content.
