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Brand guidelines nobody reads, and how to fix them
A hundred-page PDF is where good brands go to die. Here is the short, living toolkit we ship to clients instead.
Kai Nakamura
Senior designer
Most brand guidelines are opened twice: on launch day and when someone asks where the logo file is.
Make it searchable
We publish guidelines as a small website. Your team searches for "logo on dark" and gets the answer and the file in one click.
A rule nobody can find is a rule nobody follows.
Show, then tell
Every rule starts with a picture of it done right and done wrong. Paragraphs come second.
Notes and proofs from the same job.
Keep it alive
Guidelines change as the brand grows. A website can be updated in minutes; a PDF never is.
Check | Where we look | When |
|---|---|---|
Proofs | Printed, under shop lights | Every round |
Files | Named so a stranger can find them | At handover |
Rules | Written down, reviewed with the client | Each quarter |
We review the guideline site with the client every quarter for the first year. Rules that nobody used get removed, and questions that came up twice become new pages.
Key takeaway
Publish guidelines as a small searchable site with the file next to every rule.
Guidelines · Systems · Handover
Written by
Kai Nakamura
Kai designs websites and digital products and builds most of them in Framer himself.