Best Brand Style Guide Designers

What a good brand style guide includes

Style guide gigs range from a one-page sheet to a full brand book. Check which of these sections the package covers:

• Logo use: versions, minimum sizes, clear space, and examples of what not to do.
• Colors with codes for screen and print, such as HEX, RGB and CMYK.
• Typography: fonts, sizes and how headings and body text are styled.
• Imagery: the style of photos, illustrations and icons.
• Examples: the rules applied to a business card, a social post or a web page.
• Tone of voice, if you want writing rules too.
• Files: PDF, source file, and logo files in all versions.

How to brief a style guide designer

1. Your logo files, including vector versions.
2. What the brand stands for, in a few sentences, and who it serves.
3. Where the brand appears: website, social media, packaging, signs, uniforms.
4. Existing materials you like and ones that feel off-brand.
5. Colors and fonts you already use, or want to keep.
6. Who will use the guide: your team, freelancers, printers or developers.

Ask the designer to write rules as simple instructions, for example "use the white logo on dark photos". Rules that can be followed without a designer are what make a style guide useful.

Once it is delivered, give the guide to the next freelancer you hire and see whether they have questions it cannot answer. Those questions show what to add in the next version.

What drives the price

• number of sections and pages
• whether the logo or colors are created or refined as part of the work
• examples applied to real materials
• tone-of-voice writing
• templates for documents, presentations or social media
• the designer's experience with brand identity

Red flags

• A guide with mood images but no concrete rules or color codes.
• Paid fonts chosen with no mention of licensing.
• No source file, so the guide cannot be updated later.
• A portfolio of style guides that all use the same template.
• Colors that fail basic contrast for text on screen.

If your logo needs work first, read our logo design guide. With a style guide in hand, briefing a website designer or a social media designer becomes much easier.

Plan who will keep the guide up to date. Brands change over time: a new product line, a refreshed logo, new social platforms. Name one person as the owner of the guide, keep the latest version in one shared place, and date each version so nobody works from an old copy they saved months ago.

Quick pre-order checklist

• I have my logo in vector format.
• I know which sections I need and who will use the guide.
• The guide will include color codes for screen and print.
• Font licensing is clear.
• I will receive the PDF and an editable source file.