What is a brand book (and what goes in it)? Sections, use and common mistakes

As a brand grows, so does the number of people working on it: new hires, agencies, freelance designers, partners. If each of them applies the brand the way they understand it, the work soon stops looking like it comes from the same place. A brand book is the document that keeps that from happening. In this piece I cover the sections a brand book should have, how it differs from logo guidelines and the mistakes I see most often.

Why does a brand need a brand book?

Brand decisions usually live in the heads of a founder or a few people. As long as those people touch every piece of work, nothing seems wrong. But when the team grows, the agency changes or the brand enters a new market, the same questions get answered again and again. A brand book puts those answers in writing, so the brand no longer depends on one person.

What should a brand book include?

1. Brand essence: why the brand exists, what it promises and the values it stands on.
2. Positioning: who it is for, which need it meets and what sets it apart from similar brands.
3. Audience: the people the brand speaks to, what they expect and what they look at when deciding.
4. Brand voice and tone: how the brand speaks, example sentences and phrases to avoid.
5. Logo use: logo versions, clear space, minimum size and what not to do.
6. Colour and typography: colour codes (HEX, RGB, CMYK), typefaces and the hierarchy between headings and body text.
7. Visual style: the approach to photography, illustration and graphics, and what is and is not used.
8. Examples of use: real applications such as social media, presentations, email signatures, packaging or signage.

Is a brand book the same as logo guidelines?

The two are often confused, but they answer different needs. Logo guidelines are one section of a brand book.

	Logo guidelines	Brand book
Scope	Logo, colour and type rules	Brand essence, positioning, voice, visual identity and applications
Question it answers	How does the brand look?	Who is the brand, how does it speak and how does it look?
Who uses it	Mostly designers	The team, agencies, new hires and partners
When it is enough	When only visual consistency is needed	When more than one person speaks for the brand

Who uses a brand book?

• The team: to quickly check whether a text, deck or post fits the brand.
• Agencies and freelancers: to understand the brand before starting and deliver the right work with fewer rounds of changes.
• New hires: to describe the brand the same way from day one.
• Partners: so that resellers, distributors or collaborating brands use the logo and message correctly.

A good agency brief also draws on the brand book. I cover that separately in how to write a creative brief an agency can use.

Common mistakes

• Visual rules only: the logo and colours are there, but not what the brand says. The team knows how it looks, not what to say.
• Too long: nobody opens and reads a hundred page document. What is short and searchable gets used.
• Rules without examples: writing "a friendly tone" is not enough. Right and wrong example sentences make the rule clear.
• Never updated: the brand changes, the book stays the same, and after a while nobody trusts it.
• Hard to find: a book lost in a folder might as well not exist. It should live in one place everyone knows.

How do you build a brand book that gets used?

A brand book starts with decisions, not design. Positioning and the core message come first, then the brand voice, and only then is the visual identity built around those decisions. When the order is reversed, the result is a document that looks good but does not explain what the brand stands for.

I run this process end to end in the Brand Foundation package: positioning, brand voice, visual identity and a single brand book that brings it all together. If you are wondering who protects these decisions in day to day work, see what does a brand manager actually do.

Frequently asked questions