Brand Guidelines Modernization Template

Read the old guide in full before you change anything, and note who made it and when. A guide written for a launch often covers the logo in depth and says little about daily work, like email headers, slides and social posts. Ask whoever made it for the vector logo files too, and for the font names and who holds their licenses.

Copy a rule over only when the old guide states it: a hex or Pantone value, a clear-space measurement, a named typeface, an explicit always or never. File each rule under a plain heading (logo, color, type, imagery, voice) instead of the old page order.

• A picture is not a rule. A logo shown once on a photo, with no caption, leaves that case unspecified.
• Keep loose wording loose. "Use generous white space" should not become a margin nobody agreed to.
• Flag values that have drifted, like a green no live asset uses, and let the audit settle them.
• Where the source is ambiguous, write "unclear in the source, confirm" instead of picking the stricter reading.

Nielsen Norman Group, a UX research firm, separates two jobs when reviewing published content: an inventory lists what you have, and an audit evaluates it¹. If there is more than you can check, it suggests starting with a manageable subset, favoring what people use most or need for key tasks.

1. 1

   Sample every channel

   Pull assets from the website, email, social, ads, sales decks, packaging and print. A sample that is 90% web pages hides the old logo in a sales deck.

2. 2

   Log each asset before judging it

   Record its channel, when it was last updated, and which logo, colors and typefaces it uses.

3. 3

   Sort every asset

   Mark it compliant, a violation of a named rule, or a gap no rule covers. Note the channel, so each fix reaches its owner.

4. 4

   Count the gaps by question

   Group gaps by the question they raise, such as "logo on a photo", and count the assets and the different treatments in each.

Next, test the palette on screens. WCAG 2.2, the W3C's web accessibility standard, asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text². Large means at least 18 point, or 14 point bold. Icons that carry meaning, and the visual cues that identify buttons and form fields, need 3:1 against the colors beside them.

Approve each pair only for the sizes it passes. The rust misses 4.5:1 by a hair, so it suits a large sale banner but not body text.

Logos are the exception: WCAG sets no contrast requirement for text that is part of a logo. But when a logo works as a link, W3C guidance suggests, as a best practice, a variant of the logo with sufficient contrast, if the brand guidelines allow one³. Your guide is where that permission lives, so include one.

Dark mode needs its own values, not an inverted palette. Apple's design guidelines tell app makers to specify a bright and a dim variant of each custom color⁴. They add that an image that looks good in only one mode should be modified or split into light and dark versions. Give your logo and core colors light and dark versions too.

Not every gap deserves a new rule. The template on this page sets a simple bar: the same question must show up in at least three live assets, handled in more than one way.

When you decide, state what you found before what you chose, and prefer a treatment people already use over a new one. The GOV.UK Design System, which publishes shared patterns for UK government services, sets a similar bar. A new pattern needs evidence that it would be useful for many teams or services⁵, such as screenshots of versions in use.

List the formats your team makes most, such as email signatures, social posts, email headers, one-pagers and slide decks. For each, write the exact spec: logo version and minimum size, color values, typeface and sizes. A freelancer can check their work against "logo at least 120 px wide, #1F3D2B on #F5F1E8". Nobody can check it against "feels premium".

Voice needs the same treatment. Kate Moran of Nielsen Norman Group describes tone on four scales: formal or casual, serious or funny, respectful or irreverent, and matter-of-fact or enthusiastic⁶. Place your brand on each, pick a handful of tone words, and name the tones to avoid. Spelling, capitalization and number rules belong in a house style guide.

Then point each creative brief at the guide section that applies, instead of writing "follow our branding".

Put an owner and a date on the guide, and log every change with its reason. Re-sample live assets every few months and after any launch, because new work keeps shipping. Nielsen Norman Group makes the same point about content audits: they are ongoing tasks that are never really finished¹.

If your voice section needs more depth, a brand voice guide builds it from your best writing. For a faster start, open this template in River, which reads your old guide, checks your live work against it and drafts all five files.