The 8 sections a brand guidelines document needs, what to write in each, and an example of each one filled in. The examples come from AXEL and Écurie: demonstration brands built on Playbook, not clients, read live from their own brand books.
Copy these headings into your own document, in this order. Strategy comes first because every later rule is checked against it; governance comes last because it says what to do when the rules run out.
What to write here. Who the brand is for, what it promises them and why it is different, in a few sentences. Every rule further down gets checked against this, so it goes first.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Brand foundation.
What to write here. Every version of the mark, the room it needs around it, the smallest size it still reads at, and what it must never be turned into.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Logotype.
What to write here. Each colour with its values and the job it does. A swatch without a role ends up used everywhere, and then the brand has no main colour.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Colour.
Pitch is the brand — on the sole, the zip, the drop number, and as a full field when the brand needs to be seen from across a street. Cobalt is the sky it is photographed against. Signal orange is heat: used once, small. Carbon and Paper carry type.
Open the AXEL brand book →Midnight is the brand — the box, the night sky, the coat. Flash is the light that finds the subject. Dusk orange appears once per image, as the horizon. Paddock green is the grass underfoot.
Open the Écurie brand book →What to write here. Which typeface does what, in which weights, and the licence. Without the licence, the font is the first thing a supplier swaps.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Typography.
Syne for the name and for headlines, set large and short. Geist for everything measured: sizes, weights, times, prices. Nothing in between.
Open the AXEL brand book →The marker belongs to the name alone. Headlines are set in Instrument Serif — calm, editorial, a caption under a strange photograph. Instrument Sans for everything else.
Open the Écurie brand book →What to write here. Light, subject, crop and treatment, described so that a photographer who has never met you could shoot it. Say what the pictures never look like, too.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Art direction.
What to write here. Rules short enough to test a sentence against, with do's and don'ts. “Friendly” is an adjective; “no exclamation marks” is a rule.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Tone & impact.
What to write here. The system on real things: a website, packaging, print, merch, a sign. This is where a supplier looks first, and where gaps in the rules above show up.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Brand in use.
What to write here. How the document is meant to be used, who approves what, and what to do when it says nothing. Add a version and a date, so readers know whether it is current.
In the example books, this is the chapter called Introduction.
The template is the skeleton. Brand book examples shows complete books you can open page by page.
Paste your website and see what your brand already says about itself.
Rather talk first? Thirty minutes on the brand you have or the one you are starting.