A Style Guide is a manual that specifies the house style of a business. It typically includes details such as:
- Font
- Brand Colours
- Editorial Choices (such as capitalisation, and spellings)
- Logo and image usage
- Tone of Voice
All businesses should create a style guide in order to keep their brand consistent. Having a consistent brand makes it much more effective as a marketing tool, and adds value to a business.
7 Ideas & Facts About Style Guides
- Using consistent colours, fonts, and design elements make a brand more recognisable and feel more authentic (and 80% of consumers say they like authentic brands).
- Either e.g. or eg is ok – it’s a choice. Whichever you choose, put it in your style guide so you don’t have to keep making that choice every time you write something.
- A Cascading Style Sheet is essentially an automated version of style guides for websites. It’s still a good idea to have an explicitly written style guide too however so you know which rules are set in stone.
- Including ‘don’t use’ examples in your Style Guide for things like your logo, slogan, or images can stop your brand from making the same mistakes over and over again.
- Choosing a specific set of colours to use for your brand actually makes design work easier. Fewer choices can sometimes mean more freedom.
- Your Style Guide should include instructions on Tone of Voice as well as technical instructions. Use examples to make sure you are understood.
- The AP Style Guide is perhaps the most well-known style guide and is widely used for journalism corporate communications.
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