Creating a Style Guide

I am excited to share some important things you want to be considering when it comes to the visuals you have on your website and something I always create for my clients is a brand cheat sheet (also known as a brand board). 

A style guide is a comprehensive set of parameters that clearly articulates how your brand should come across in terms of spacing, color, size, fonts, and more. I like to create a mini version of this or a brand board/cheat sheet for yourself that helps you stay consistent and cohesive throughout your website and your communication platforms. Examples of this would be when building an email template, building or editing different aspects of your website, or when creating social media graphics. In addition to creating brand cohesion, having a brand cheat sheet allows you to work so much faster! You aren’t wasting time trying to figure out what color you used last time, what font did I use as my body font, etc. 

Brand boards are pretty simple to make, I would suggest using Canva or Adobe Express to make one for your business if you don’t have one already. Listed below are some things to include in your brand cheat sheet if you are creating your own.

What to include on your website brand cheat sheet

Hex Colors

What are hex colors? They are color codes that have a hashtag followed by a combination of six digits (can be letters or numbers or both!). For example, one of my hex codes is #3C462D — the super secret code for the dark green in my branding. 

How do I find out what the hex codes are for my brand colors? If you have the color makeup for your brand colors in CMYK or RBG you can convert to HEX here: https://convertacolor.com/

I would suggest having 3-5 hex colors for your brand. You should be able to use these hex codes throughout your email marketing, social media, and website seamlessly.

Fonts

It is always nice to outline the fonts you are going to come across throughout your branding. Having two to four font treatments gives you some great variation to make your brand stand out while also remaining consistent. At the very least the two types of fonts you want to make sure you include are a headline font and body copy font.

Logos

All variations of your logo—horizontal, vertical, square, emblems, one-color, full-color, etc. and any specific parameters that you need to adhere by. This could include spacing around the logo or colorways available.

Brand Imagery

Here you’ll include main brand images you want to show alongside your logo. You want these to be cohesive with your brand and serve as examples of what type of imagery you want to use and want people to associate with your brand.

I hope the tips above help you create a quick brand board that serves as a catalyst for brand cohesion in your business going forward!