Brand guidelines

Brand Guidelines

Brand is not decoration — it is recognition. Every time a user encounters your product, email, presentation, or doc, they either build trust or erode it. Consistency builds trust. Inconsistency erodes it.

This skill applies brand identity across any artifact: presentations, documents, emails, landing pages, marketing copy, UI components, or any written content. It covers both visual identity (colors, fonts, spacing) and verbal identity (voice, tone, word choices).

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Brand Guidelines Principles

• Consistency is the work. One perfectly on-brand artifact is easy. Applying the same standards to the 50th artifact in a quarter is the actual challenge. Document decisions so they can be applied without re-inventing each time.
• Brand is a system, not a vibe. "Make it feel premium" is not actionable. "Use Playfair Display at 40pt for headlines, #1A1A2E for text, and never use more than two typeface weights on a page" is actionable.
• Voice is harder than colors. Anyone can apply a hex code. Writing in a consistent voice — warm but not casual, authoritative but not cold — requires explicit rules and examples.
• Exceptions must be deliberate. Breaking brand rules is sometimes right (a playful social post, a technical doc for developers). But it must be a conscious choice, not an accident.
• When in doubt, ask for the guidelines. Never invent brand colors or voice. If the user hasn't shared guidelines, ask. A wrong brand color is worse than no color.

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Step 0: Gather Brand Assets

Before applying anything, collect:

1. Color palette — primary, secondary, accent, neutral, semantic (success/error/warning)
2. Typography — headline font, body font, monospace font, sizes, weights, line heights
3. Logo — file format, clear space rules, do/don't use cases
4. Voice and tone guidelines — adjectives that describe the brand voice, examples of good/bad copy
5. Imagery style — photography direction, illustration style, icon style
6. Spacing and layout rules — grid system, margins, component spacing

If the user has a brand guide document, ask them to share it. If they only have partial guidelines, ask the targeted questions above and document what they provide.

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Visual Identity Application

Color System

Define and apply colors as a semantic system — never use raw hex values scattered throughout:

PRIMARY PALETTE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Primary:     #[hex]  — Main CTAs, key UI elements, headlines
Primary Dark:#[hex]  — Hover states, dark mode accents
Primary Light:#[hex] — Backgrounds, subtle highlights

SECONDARY PALETTE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Secondary:   #[hex]  — Supporting elements, secondary CTAs
Accent:      #[hex]  — Highlights, callouts, badges

NEUTRAL PALETTE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Text Primary:  #[hex]  — Body text, labels
Text Secondary:#[hex]  — Captions, metadata, muted text
Background:    #[hex]  — Page/slide background
Surface:       #[hex]  — Cards, panels, modal backgrounds
Border:        #[hex]  — Dividers, input borders

SEMANTIC COLORS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Success: #[hex]  — Confirmations, completed states
Warning: #[hex]  — Caution states, pending items
Error:   #[hex]  — Errors, destructive actions
Info:    #[hex]  — Informational states, tips

Contrast requirements (WCAG AA minimum):

• Normal text (< 18pt): 4.5:1 contrast ratio against background
• Large text (≥ 18pt or 14pt bold): 3:1 contrast ratio
• UI components and icons: 3:1 contrast ratio

Check contrast: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

Typography System

TYPEFACE STACK
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Heading:    [Font Name], [fallback], sans-serif
Body:       [Font Name], [fallback], serif
Monospace:  [Font Name], [fallback], monospace

TYPE SCALE
━━━━━━━━━━
Display:    48–64px / 1.1 line-height / -0.02em tracking
H1:         36–40px / 1.15 line-height / -0.01em tracking
H2:         28–32px / 1.2 line-height / -0.01em tracking
H3:         22–24px / 1.25 line-height / 0em tracking
H4:         18–20px / 1.3 line-height / 0em tracking
Body Large: 18px / 1.6 line-height / 0em tracking
Body:       16px / 1.6 line-height / 0em tracking
Body Small: 14px / 1.5 line-height / 0em tracking
Caption:    12px / 1.4 line-height / 0.02em tracking

FONT WEIGHTS
━━━━━━━━━━━
Use maximum 2 weights per design:
Regular (400): body text
Medium (500):  labels, UI elements
SemiBold (600):subheadings
Bold (700):    headlines, emphasis

Applying to Presentations (PPTX)

from pptx.dml.color import RGBColor
from pptx.util import Pt

# Brand colors (never use # prefix in pptxgenjs)
BRAND = {
    "primary":     RGBColor(0x1A, 0x1A, 0x2E),
    "accent":      RGBColor(0xE9, 0x4F, 0x37),
    "light":       RGBColor(0xF8, 0xF9, 0xFA),
    "text":        RGBColor(0x21, 0x25, 0x29),
    "text_muted":  RGBColor(0x6C, 0x75, 0x7D),
}

def apply_brand_text(run, style: str = "body"):
    """Apply brand typography to a text run."""
    if style == "heading":
        run.font.name = "Poppins"       # or brand heading font
        run.font.bold = True
        run.font.color.rgb = BRAND["text"]
    elif style == "body":
        run.font.name = "Lora"          # or brand body font
        run.font.bold = False
        run.font.color.rgb = BRAND["text"]
    elif style == "accent":
        run.font.name = "Poppins"
        run.font.bold = True
        run.font.color.rgb = BRAND["accent"]

Applying to HTML/CSS

/* Brand Design Tokens */
:root {
  /* Colors */
  --color-primary:       #1A1A2E;
  --color-primary-dark:  #0F0F1A;
  --color-accent:        #E94F37;
  --color-background:    #FFFFFF;
  --color-surface:       #F8F9FA;
  --color-text:          #212529;
  --color-text-muted:    #6C757D;
  --color-border:        #DEE2E6;

  /* Typography */
  --font-heading:        'Poppins', Arial, sans-serif;
  --font-body:           'Lora', Georgia, serif;

  /* Spacing scale (4px base) */
  --space-1: 4px;
  --space-2: 8px;
  --space-3: 12px;
  --space-4: 16px;
  --space-6: 24px;
  --space-8: 32px;
  --space-12: 48px;
  --space-16: 64px;
}

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
  font-family: var(--font-heading);
  color: var(--color-primary);
  line-height: 1.2;
}

body, p, li {
  font-family: var(--font-body);
  color: var(--color-text);
  line-height: 1.6;
}

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Verbal Identity (Voice & Tone)

Visual brand is only half the work. Voice consistency is what makes written content feel on-brand.

Defining Brand Voice

Document voice along four axes. Rate each 1–5:

Axis	1	5
Formal ↔ Casual	Legal/corporate	Conversational/friendly
Serious ↔ Playful	Clinical precision	Wit and humor
Authoritative ↔ Humble	Expert pronouncements	Collaborative, asking
Technical ↔ Accessible	Deep jargon	Plain language

Example: Stripe = Formal(3) Serious(3) Authoritative(4) Technical(3) — precise but human, expert but not arrogant.

Voice Application Rules

For each brand voice, create explicit do/don't rules:

BRAND VOICE: [Company Name]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
We are:   [3 adjectives]
We aren't:[3 adjectives]

DO:
✅ Use active voice: "We help teams ship faster" not "Teams are helped to ship faster"
✅ Lead with user benefit: "You get X" not "We provide X"
✅ Be specific: "Reduces deploy time by 40%" not "Significantly faster"
✅ Use contractions: "you'll", "we're", "it's" — sounds human
✅ Address the reader as "you" — direct, personal

DON'T:
❌ Use filler superlatives: "amazing", "incredible", "game-changing"
❌ Use passive voice in marketing copy
❌ Start sentences with "We are excited to announce..."
❌ Use jargon without explanation in user-facing copy
❌ Use ALL CAPS for emphasis — use bold instead
❌ Use more than one exclamation point per page

Tone Adaptation by Context

Brand voice stays constant. Tone adapts to context:

Context	Tone shift	Example
Marketing copy	More energetic, aspirational	"Ship with confidence."
Error messages	More direct, helpful, calm	"Your session expired. Sign in again to continue."
Onboarding	Warmer, encouraging	"You're almost ready — just one more step."
Technical docs	More precise, less personality	"The API returns a 401 status code when..."
Crisis / incident	Calm, factual, direct	"We identified an issue affecting X users at HH:MM UTC."

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Brand Audit Checklist

Run this on any artifact before delivering:

Visual

• All colors are from the brand palette — no off-brand hex values
• All fonts are brand-specified fonts (or approved fallbacks)
• Font sizes follow the type scale — no arbitrary sizes
• Contrast ratios meet WCAG AA on all text
• Logo used correctly — correct version, correct clear space
• No unapproved color combinations (e.g., accent on accent)
• Spacing follows the grid/scale — no random padding values
• Images match the brand photography/illustration direction

Verbal

• Voice matches the brand voice profile (formal/casual, serious/playful)
• No banned words or phrases (per do/don't list)
• CTAs are specific and active ("Start your free trial" not "Get started")
• No filler superlatives ("amazing", "revolutionary", "game-changing")
• Contractions used appropriately for the voice
• Technical terms defined or linked on first use
• All copy reviewed for tone match to context

Consistency

• Same terminology used throughout — no synonym drift ("workspace" vs "project" vs "board")
• Product names spelled and capitalized correctly every time
• Date/number formats consistent (US vs EU, $1,000 vs $1.000)

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Brand Style Reference Card

When guidelines are provided by the user, document them here for reference:

## [Company] Brand Quick Reference

### Colors
| Name | Hex | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | #______ | [use case] |
| Accent | #______ | [use case] |
| Background | #______ | [use case] |
| Text | #______ | [use case] |

### Typography
| Element | Font | Size | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headline | | | |
| Subheading | | | |
| Body | | | |
| Caption | | | |

### Voice
- Tone: [adjectives]
- Do: [key dos]
- Don't: [key don'ts]

### Logo Rules
- Minimum size: [px or mm]
- Clear space: [measurement]
- Approved on: [white / dark / brand color]
- Never: [common misuses]

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Definition of Done — Brand Guidelines

• Brand palette documented with named tokens and hex values
• Typography stack documented with sizes, weights, and line heights
• Voice profile documented with do/don't examples
• Tone adaptation defined for at least 3 key contexts
• All artifacts pass the visual brand audit checklist
• All copy passes the verbal brand audit checklist
• Consistency audit done — no synonym drift, no off-brand terminology
• Brand style reference card updated with any new decisions