A company’s style guide will include all variants of your logo and specify colors, fonts, and images that will communicate who you truly are as a company. Here is a brief look at how a style guide can help your business.
Create consistency.
On the most fundamental level, of course, a style guide will help create a consistent style for your company. It does this by specifying which fonts, colors, and image styles will be used on anything that is designed for your company. Whether it’s a business card, flyer, balloon, or your website, you can rest assured that it will communicate a consistent message about your company.
Strengthen your brand.
A brand is a relationship that you earn with your audience over time. You can strengthen your brand with consistency. When every business card, brochure, direct mail piece, an infographic has a consistent design style and feel, you leave a lasting impression with your audience about who you are as a company. A style guide will give you exactly the consistency you need to strengthen your brand.
Build trust.
While we’re still on the subject of consistency, you should also know that consistency in design across multiple platforms will help build audience trust in your business. When you present yourself as a well-branded company, you show confidence in your service and in who you are as a company. When you are confident in your brand, your customers will be too.
Establish organization and efficiency.
A style guide also helps make your business more organized and more efficient—especially when you are introducing a rebranding or a redesign to your employees. You never have to ask “Which typeface is best for this?”, “Am I veering from my company’s color palette?”, or “Is this design consistent with our latest rebranding?” because everything will be specified right in your style guide. Even when you have many different employees—such as designers, writers, and developers—working on and creating things for your brand, everything will remain consistent.
Stay distinctive.
Finally, a style guide will help you remain distinctive as a brand. Your unique style will never drift towards those of your competitors because your style guide will serve as that standard against which you can always measure your brand.