Brand guidelines
The document that stops your brand drifting. So anyone working with you knows what they can and can't do.
- Manual
- Rules
- Examples
- Document
- Arrangement
- Fixed project
- Indicative timeframe
- 2 – 4 weeks
- Billing
- In two or three payments
- Ideal for
- Brands with suppliers or a team of their own
What's included
In the price
Rules for using the logo
Minimum sizes, clear space around it and which backgrounds it can sit on.
Colour specification
The exact values for web, screen and print, with no ambiguity.
Examples of correct use
And of incorrect use too, which usually teaches more.
The document itself
In a file you can pass to any supplier.
What isn't
Quoted separately
Designing the identity
The guide documents an existing brand. If there isn't one, it gets created first.
Producing the pieces
The guide says how to make them; making them is another job.
Policing it
The document is the tool, but enforcing it is down to you.
What you get
01
The guide as a PDF
Ready to send to printers, agencies or anyone working with your brand.
02
Downloadable assets
Logos and typefaces packaged alongside the document.
03
Short version
One page with the essentials, for whoever won't read the whole manual.
How we do it
- 01Week 1
Gathering
I collect every element of your brand and spot what's still undefined.
- 02Week 2
Setting the rules
I close the missing rules and resolve any contradictions.
- 03Weeks 3 – 4
Writing and layout
I write the document with visual examples of every rule.
Price and payments
The price is fixed before we start, with the scope in writing, and split into several payments along the way. If halfway through you want to add something unplanned, I quote it separately — it never turns up on the invoice as a surprise.
First payment
At the start
On accepting the quote
It books the dates in my calendar and gets the work going.
Second payment
Halfway
With the main part signed off
Once you've seen and approved the bulk of the work.
Final payment
On delivery
When it's finished
With everything done and checked by you.
Common questions
It's for you two years from now, and for the first outside supplier you hire. It also forces decisions that tend to be left hanging.
Only as long as it needs to be. I'd rather have twenty pages people read than a hundred nobody opens. It also comes with a one-page version of the essentials.
No. What we sign is what you pay. If during the project you ask for something outside the scope, I tell you the cost first and you decide whether it goes in.
The dates get recalculated, at no extra cost. All I ask is that you tell me: I reserve the time in advance, so I can reorganise.
Does anyone besides you use your brand?
If you already work with printers, agencies or a team, a guide saves you arguments. Let's talk.