One of the cool things about being a small business owner is you get to connect and collaborate with other small business owners. From the people who help you build out your retail space and the bookkeepers who keep you organized to the copywriters who make you sound amazing and the graphic designers who make you look equally as cool, you have plenty of opportunity to work with other folks. But sometimes hiring someone else to help you get the job done comes with requests. Can I get measurements of your shop? Can you fill out this intake questionnaire? Can you send me your brand style guide?Wait—what even is that last one?

If you’re here, it’s likely you’ve hired a graphic or website designer to create business cards, a website, pricing guide or signage for your store and that you’ve been asked to send them your brand style guide—and had little to no idea what they needed. So, let’s make sure you’re getting them what they asked for and setting your project with them up for success from hereon out! Read on to learn what a brand style guide is as well as how to easily create and send one.

What is a brand style guide?

A brand style guide is a set of standards or rules about how your brand elements (logo, colors, fonts, etc.) should be used. And they are important because they help make sure your brand is consistently being represented with the same look and feel.

What goes into a brand style guide?

A brand style guide can be a PDF, a hidden page on your website or shareable page with download links (if you’re using Enji!), but regardless of where you build it, it definitely should include:

• The different versions of your logo with notes about placement, sizing, and which version to use where
• Your brand color palette with color codes so people aren’t guessing which shade of something is the correct one
• Your brand fonts with notes about which is used for headlines, subheads, and body copy; this is also a great time to be clear about which fonts can be used together

If you want to create an even more robust guide, you can include select brand photos, video clips, and notes about your brand voice (which is how you “sound” in written form).

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Where can I get a brand style guide?

If you hired a professional graphic designer to create your brand, it’s very likely they created one for you and sent it as a PDF. But, if you didn’t hire a graphic designer (or perhaps it wasn’t included in your brand package), you can easily create one for yourself in Enji! Here’s how:

1.    Start your free trial or log into your Enji account

2.    Click into the Brand Assets tool you see in the left-hand menu

3.    Upload the different versions of your logo in the logo section (you can do different file types and colors)

4.    Create your brand color palette (you can use the color picker or enter in your color codes if you know them)

5.    Select your brand fonts

6.    Upload brand photos to the image section (you can create different galleries if you want or need)

7.    Copy and paste links to any brand videos you have in the video section

8.    Enter in any notes about how any of your brand assets should or should not be used

And you’re set! Next time you’re asked for your brand style guide, you can quickly send it off and the person receiving it will be able to download what they need from there! No more digging around for things, sending multiple emails because you sent the wrong version or getting something back that isn’t in line with how your brand should be!

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