Moving Beyond Rigid Brand Guides
Brand guides used to have weight, and in many cases, they still do. But the role of a brand guide has evolved. If you haven’t updated yours in a while, here’s what it should do, what old rules you can ditch, and how flexible systems can empower your whole creative team, from in-house designers to agencies to the freelancer you’re budgeting for next quarter.
Lay the foundation
I can’t tell you how many brand guides I’ve seen that are 40+ pages long. When that happens, I usually just grab the five pages I actually need and stash them on my desktop. Experienced designers don’t need every rule spelled out, they just need the essentials:
Your logo: preferably in vector format (.ai, .svg, .eps). Show us the color combinations and layouts you’ve approved, but don’t waste pages on crossed out versions of your logo at a 45 degree angle or in hot pink. We already know.
Color palette: best practice is to provide brand colors in CMYK for print, RGB for digital and HEX codes for web. If you’re in a pinch, start with HEX codes. It helps to also provide a percentage guide or general rules of thumb like “we use light colors for backgrounds to create an airy feel” or “earth tones compliment our primary brand color best.”
Typography: if you can send the font file, that’s great! If not, please provide a link to Adobe fonts or Google fonts so we can install it on all our apps.
Image style: should be a quick description like “2-color illustrations only” or “no humans in stock photos” or simply the demographics of the target audience. You can also include a link to your chosen icon library or provide examples of custom icons to replicate here. Senior designers will pick up on these when getting familiar with your brand, but general rules speed up the process.
Voice and tone: typically applies to content development, but visuals should mirror the tone. If your brand speaks in a playful and witty voice but your photos are slick corporate professionals, there’s a disconnect.
From there, your system should flex across formats, funnel stages, and campaigns.
Flex where it counts
Your visuals should adapt to the context, the audience, and the stage of the funnel, helping your brand stand out, build trust, and ultimately drive action. Here’s how to make it flex where it counts.
Lead-Gen: This is where you grab attention. Lean into bold, unexpected visuals like off-beat illustrations, AI-generated animals doing human things, or anything nostalgic. Think iterative ads, LinkedIn campaigns, or trade show booth themes that make people stop scrolling (or walking). Even if it stretches the brand rules a bit, it’s worth it if it sparks curiosity and creates a memorable impression. Here’s a fun example I did for a Fortune 500 company.
Nurture: Now we tighten things up. Use clean, consistent visuals that still have range but reinforce your brand while building trust. Here, your website hero sections, email campaigns, and webinar graphics all follow a recognizable style without feeling repetitive. This stage is about making your brand familiar and approachable while guiding prospects closer to conversion.
Convert: This is where the brand guide lands fully. Fonts, colors, CTAs, and layouts are fully aligned with your core identity. Product dashboards, proposal decks, datasheets, and in-person sales collateral all maintain consistent branding so that nothing distracts from the message: here’s the value your solution delivers, and here’s the next step to take.
Play smart, not safe
A brand system shouldn’t be static. Especially in SaaS, where new products, features, and campaigns roll out constantly, your visual language needs to do more than maintain consistency, it needs to adapt. Flexibility allows you to grab attention with bold graphics in lead-gen campaigns, build trust with clean, consistent visuals in nurture stages, and drive conversions with familiar, on-brand assets in the bottom of the funnel.
The brands that win aren’t the ones who never break the rules, they’re the ones who know when to bend them, while keeping every touchpoint cohesive and recognizable.
Empower your whole creative team
A flexible brand system isn’t just about keeping your visuals intact, it’s about giving every creative contributor the tools to do their best work.
In-house designers get clarity without feeling boxed in. They can experiment within the system, keeping their work engaging, which is essential to sustainability. Bored creatives are often the first to jump ship.
Agencies benefit from understanding the boundaries and the freedom. They can push campaigns further, test new ideas, and align quickly with your goals, instead of spending weeks in the same creative rut you were stuck in, or guessing what’s “allowed.”
Freelancers, whether you’re bringing them on for a short-term project or a long-term partnership, can hit the ground running. With clear guidelines for color, typography, imagery, and voice, they can contribute high-quality work without slowing down your timeline.
Flexible brand systems allow complex creative teams to collaborate faster while still leaving space for creativity to thrive. Let’s move past the rigid brand guides of the past and build systems that support creativity, drive results, and make your brand stand out.
Does this all sound like a lot? Furiously taking notes? Take a deep breath.
You don’t have to hold all these rules in your head. The trick is partnering with the right designer (ahem… hand raised over here) who can translate your brand into a flexible system that just flows.
Ready for the CTA?
If you’re ready to make your brand work hard without trapping your team, I’d love to hear about your next project. Just fill out the pesky little form.