To prove why you shouldn’t let your style guide go by the wayside, we’re going to take a look at 50 stunning and detailed examples of style guides that are sure to encourage you to begin compiling your own.
And when you’re ready to put that style guide to work, trial it the fun way, by designing a branded social media graphic in Canva.
Check out this brand manual for Foursquare that gives detailed rundowns for the rules and guides to each of the design elements a brand needs to be consistent. You can view all their brand assets here, which include logo files and the brand guide.
Foursquare's brand guide includes the correct color palette and proper use of the logotype.
Need inspiration for your brand guide? Check out the Yellow and Teal Modern Bordered Brand Guidelines Presentation template.
What better way for a designer to prove how detail-oriented they are than by compiling a detail-dense style guide for their own personal branding. Designer Amanda Michiru has done just this with a meticulous guide to her personal brand that ranges from logo construction to primary and secondary palettes and so much more. This guide is short but concise, just the bare necessities for a solid brand, a great example for beginners to style guide creation to have a look at. Have a read of the guide via Issuu.
In 2016, Animal Planet underwent a brand identity change. Helmed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, the new branding focuses on capturing the childlike joy and wonder experienced with interacting with animals.
The new logo—silhouette of a blue leaping elephant—is strong and distinctive, and was largely inspired by the classic Animal Planet logo and is a homage to the brand's history. This new identity was optimized to fit anywhere—both digital and non-digital platforms across various products and services.
We all know what communication from Apple looks like, right? And why is this so clear to us? The answer is a well-maintained brand, thanks to a meticulous set of style guidelines. This guide for official Apple product retailers is just one example of how detail-oriented Apple is (in case you weren’t already aware). With concise and detailed explanations on how to use just about every Apple asset, there’s really no excuse for any retailer’s errors in upholding the Apple brand.
It’s a good idea to tailor your style guide to your brand to ensure enough detail is given for the really important elements. Take this example by Argento Wine. Since the logo for Argento will be displayed on numerous pieces of packaging, this manual goes into extreme detail about sizing, signatures and logo colours to ensure there are no errors in application. Check out Argento’s style guide here.
This style guide is not an official set of guidelines for Barnes & Noble, but a project of Carolina Pistone for her industrial design class. It doesn’t mean it’s not beautifully compiled and worth a read. This fictional style guide is as meticulous as any real deal, it explains and deconstructs its’ primary logo, signatures and sub-brand logos in an informative and explanatory way. Topped off with a simple but beautiful design, this style guide provides an amazing template for a successful set of brand guidelines. Have a peruse of it via Issuu.
With competition against the likes of Google, it makes sense that search engine Bing would have to have a strong set of style guidelines in order to keep their brand strong. Bing deconstructs and explains nearly every fact of their brand, right down to the search bar dimensions and composition. Bing also explains just about every decision to provide a manual that would be easy to follow and rules that are easy to replicate. Read through Bing’s manual over here.
Download Free Background TemplatesStyle guides are informative tools, so most of the time the function is valued over the form, but this doesn’t mean that your guide has to look bland. Take a leaf from Black Watch Global’s book where informative brand rules meet punchy design. With big type that bleeds from page to page, stylistic typography and unique displays of colour, this is definitely one style guide that you won’t fall asleep while reading through. Check out more of the manual and design via Mash Creative.
If you’re not as keen on a more adventurous approach as the previous example, a more formulaic layout of a manual can work just as well. This manual by Mike Collinge for Bosphorus lays out each page similarly with a cohesive format that makes digesting the information easy and clear. As always, consider your brand and whether or not a more minimal approach would suit it/the guidelines better. Have a look at Bosphorus’ approach over here.
Get the simple but professional look with the Geometric Diamond Pattern Brand Guidelines Presentation template.
Don’t be afraid to get a little experimental with your style guide’s design. This guide for BPR has been executed as a poster. Why? Because it concerns BPR’s internal communications, so using the format makes in-office reference to the rules as easy as a glance over toward a poster. Do consider your own situation though, and what medium would be best for your brand/whoever will be reading your guidelines – a designer doesn’t want to open an A2 poster while at their studio desk just to find which size type to use. But for this instance, a poster is a useful medium. Have a closer look at the poster and well-organised rules via Red Stone.
If you’re looking for detail, be sure to have a peruse of the style guide for Calgary Chamber. Each element of this style guide is explained, demonstrated and displayed in extraordinary detail, making for a clear and strong set of guidelines toward the brand. This manual groups colours by emotion (intelligent through to energetic), maps out gradients, colour combinations, type combinations, sizes, weights, just about anything any future designer would need. Have a look at the detail of this manual via Iancu Barbărasă.
When it comes to an event like the Olympics, you want your country to stand out, and what better way to do this than with a meticulously designed and upheld brand. The Canadian Olympic team have a specific branding that is captured and outlined in this detailed and explanatory style guide. An interesting thing to take from this example is the use of translations on each page. Since the dominant languages in Canada are French and English, both languages have been represented in this manual, a clever way to tailor this manual to the audience. Check it all out via Ben Hulse.
Sometimes less really is best. Check out this simple style guide for concrete distributors Cemento. A minimal palette that coincides with the brand, and big, bold headlines that make flipping through the manual quick and easy. There has been a careful attention to the trademark Cemento pattern and its construction in this manual as this pattern is a large part of the brand. Again, be sure to tailor your style guide toward whichever elements are the most important to your brand. Have a read of the Cemento guide via BP&O.
Have you got a simple brand? Well, even the simplest of brands needs a comprehensive style guide, just as we can see with the guidelines for Channel 4. While Channel 4’s overall design is fairly simple, this does not mean that the instructions and brand rules are any less detailed. With some pretty specific instructions on placement, type size, logo application and much more, this simple brand is given just as much attention as any complex brand gets. Have a peruse through the manual via Issuu.
If you thought style guides were purely limited to corporate or retail brands, boy, were you wrong. This manual was created for the video game Child of Light and is as meticulously detailed and compiled as any corporate brand. This guide explains each decision in detail and deconstructs the logo in an understandable way, shedding some light on the process for anyone involved in the game’s creative direction. Remember: wherever there’s a brand there should be a brand manual. Have a look at the guidelines and development via Behance.
Mininal design with a distinct color palette, like the Purple Minimalist Production Brand Guideline Presentation template, can rock your brand guidelines.
Don't compromise the information on your brand guideline with a lackluster design. Try the Orange and Blue Frosted Photo Branding Guidelines Presentation template.
For another example of just how meticulous certain brands are, here’s an entire style guide dedicated to Sony’s tagline “like.no.other”. This manual runs down clearance space, positioning, sizing, background and type colour combinations, dimensions, it goes into unbelievable detail about each facet of the tagline, putting great importance on its construction and display. Check out this manual if you want to see just how in-depth the big brands like Sony get with their branding. You can find it over on Issuu.
Sometimes it’s best to just say it large and loud. This style guide by Stihl puts the main instructions for each page in simple terms and huge type, making each direction impossible to ignore. By using simple colloquial language like “Use this colour with this colour”, nothing is lost in translation and any reader would get the general idea of how to maintain the brand by just flipping through the pages. By using real and easy to follow visual examples, this guide is one that makes brand consistency easy. Check it out via Behance.
This is another set of brand guidelines that keep things ultra simple and extremely minimal while still communicating the foundations of the brand. If you’re looking for another example of a brand starter kit, you can’t go wrong with this one. With the logo, colours, type and iconography/patterning specified, the main brand is established. While such a simple set of guidelines may not work for every company (as many require detail), in this case, the minimal elements leave a little flexibility in the branding and applications. To check out these application examples and the project in more detail head over to Behance.
The Swedish Armed Forces has a detailed brand guidelines that includes a section explaining the concept and thought behind the main logo and the sub-brand logos. This manual also delves deeply into imagery–both the way it should be shot, and the colours, but also the subject matter that should be depicted as a part of the brand values–for example on the “don’t” list is “images that romanticize war”. Have a read through and a look at the detailed instructions over at Issuu.
This is another brand manual that puts content in the forefront, with simple and comprehensive visuals and complementary explanations and descriptions, this is another simply designed but cohesive and detailed brand manual. Be sure to check out the pages on vehicle livery that ensure every angle of the vehicle is represented and exemplified with attention to detail. Check the whole thing out at Visual Bits.
Are you designing for a more corporate-oriented brand? If so, have you considered specifying how some of the visual assets should look? From graphs and diagrams to charts and tables, if you will be presenting it to consumers or business partners, perhaps consider tieing it somehow into your style guide to keep it all cohesive, professional and branded. Check out this manual for Truth that specifies just this. Using the signature pink and sleek graphics, this manual has exemplified how each type of visual asset should look and work, which is guaranteed to make that process a lot easier for the brand in the long run. Have a closer look over at Mash Creative.
Business can be both professional and creative. Try the Dark Purple and Pink Circle Brand Guideline Presentation template.
There are a lot of arguments about whether or not printed brand manuals are a dying art. While the argument is strong on either side, some brands have opted for digital and publically accessible versions. One example is Twitter who have made their style guide accessible to everybody. A smart move on Twitter’s part, as their brand is applied just about everywhere over the internet, and while it’s not always applied in the right way, by providing the brand rules, they have a higher chance of having it presented right. Visit Twitter’s branding website page right here.
Università della Svizzera Italiana has an intricate brand mark that is built on specific degrees of rotation and alignment, all of which are specified in this brand manual. Using a grid to explain the alignment of elements, each element of this brand is highlighted and given reason. This manual is also given a comprehensive introduction that outlines the fundamentals and values of the brand which keeps the brand focused. Check it out via the official Moving Brands site.
Yet another imagined brand manual for a brand ‘rethink’, this time, it’s for the airline Varig. This manual presents the rethought brand in a simple and concise way, specifying brand applications, uniforms, communications, logos, signatures, patterns, the whole nine yards. An airline has a lot of communications and branding opportunities within it, and this imagined example covers many of those bases with a beautifully designed and incredibly well thought out style guide. Have a read of it in whole via Abduzeedo.
Looking for a piece of style guide inspiration that walks the line between fun and trustworthy? Well, check out Walmart’s style guide. Walmart’s manual is colourful and dynamic while still maintaining their trustworthy and professional retailer vibe. This manual covers all the bases of Walmart’s brand and looks good while doing it – yet another example of a brand manual that practises what it preaches by using their signature colours and type within the manual itself. Download the guide to flip through at your leisure over here.
Download Free Background TemplatesLet your information breathe. When it comes to creating your brand manual, ensure that you include plenty of examples, but not to the point where the manual becomes overcrowded. Why? In short, overcrowded pages don’t get read. Check out this manual for Yogen Früz that spaces out the examples and information over various spreads to make for a design layout that puts the focus on the content. Read the manual in full over here.
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Add custom charts, graphs and diagrams to visualize complex data, statistics or trends. Apply your brand colors and fonts with a quick click using My Brand Kit. Choose from over 40,000 icons with thousands of diverse options to reflect a range of skin tones and cultural backgrounds. Browse over three million high-quality, royalty-free photos and add an extra layer of professionalism to any design. There are countless ways to customize an infographic template in Venngage and do your ideas justice — no design skills necessary.
With Venngage’s selection of over 10,000 professionally designed templates, anyone can create an infographic in under an hour. Simply choose an infographic template that catches your eye and customize it to suit your needs with our user-friendly, drag-and-drop editor. Come back weekly to explore new templates and find what you need, every time.
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A quick-reference guide is any documentation that provides a one- or two-page set of condensed instructions on how to use a product. They can be highly detailed or very simple, depending on what’s needed.
Nearly every product requires some kind of documentation to help customers understand how to use it. Depending on the product, sometimes those user guides or product manuals can be hundreds of pages long with pages full of long blocks of text.
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