Brand and Creative Guides

Learn brand and creative, one guide at a time

Brand and creative guides teach small businesses how to build a logo system, brand guidelines, and a rebrand. Each guide answers one question and teaches one skill, so you can use it the same day you read it. Use the guides to build your own brand for your audience, or to know what to ask for when you hire a designer. The guides cover logo system, brand guidelines, and brand strategy, in that order.

Most small businesses start with a logo and stop there. A logo alone does not make a brand. Your logo variations, your colour palette, your typography, and your tone of voice must match, or customers see a different business each time they meet you. These guides close that gap, one topic at a time. Which topic do you start with?

Guides by topic

Each guide answers one question. Start with the topic you need now.

How to use the guides

Read one guide at a time. Start with the topic you need now. Apply the guide the same day you read it. Each guide shows the logo system, the brand guidelines, and the brand strategy, so you finish with a brand that looks like one brand. The guides cover visual identity, colour palette, typography, and tone of voice, so your work looks the same on print and on screen. What mistakes should you avoid while you use them?

Mistakes to avoid

A common mistake is to use a logo as a brand. A logo is one mark. A brand is the logo system, the colour palette, the typography, the tone of voice, and the guidelines, used the same way on every touchpoint. Other mistakes follow the same pattern: logo variations that do not match, colours that change from post to post, typography that changes from page to page, and a rebrand with no guidelines to follow. A brand audit finds the gaps before you rebuild. Fix the mistake, then use the guide for that topic. What do you do after you fix the mistakes?