Brand Guidelines: What Goes Inside and How to Use Them

A brand has a decent logo. Then a freelancer makes Ramadan posts in a different green, a printer stretches the logo to fit a banner, the new moderator writes captions in formal Arabic while the old one used Egyptian slang, and the packaging uses a font nobody approved. Six months later, the brand looks like four different companies. We see this constantly.

Brand guidelines stop that. It's a document that sets out how your logo, colors, fonts, images and voice should be used, with examples. Good ones are short, visual and practical. They answer the questions your team, designers and printers ask most, so the brand stays consistent even when you're not checking every post. We deliver guidelines with every identity in our branding service, and below is what should be in yours.

Here's what this covers:

• Why guidelines matter more as you grow
• The brand foundation page
• Logo rules
• Colors and typography
• Imagery, graphics and video
• Voice and language
• Templates and examples
• Keeping guidelines alive
• What to do this week

Why guidelines matter more as you grow

When the founder does all the design, consistency happens naturally. The moment you add an agency, a freelancer, a second branch, a printer, an influencer or a new marketing hire, it stops happening on its own.

Every person brings their own taste. Without rules, each one adjusts the brand slightly. The changes are small, but they add up. Recognition drops, ads stop looking like they belong together, and the brand starts to feel less professional than the business behind it.

Guidelines also save time and money. Fewer back-and-forth messages, fewer reprints, fewer "can you send me the logo in white?" requests at 11 p.m.

The brand foundation page

Start with one page that explains the brand before the rules. Keep it short:

• Who the brand is for.
• What it promises.
• Three to five personality words.
• A one-line positioning statement.

This page matters because rules only make sense when people understand the reason behind them. A designer who knows the brand is "calm, careful and family-friendly" makes better decisions on things the rules don't cover. If you haven't written this yet, our guide on what branding is helps you get there.

Logo rules

This is the section people use most, so make it very clear.

• Every logo version, and when to use each: primary, horizontal, symbol, one-color, white, dark background.
• Arabic and English lockups, if you have both, and how they sit together.
• Clear space: how much empty room must surround the logo.
• Minimum size for print and screen.
• Placement on common formats: social posts, stories, video end cards, packaging.
• What not to do, with visual examples: stretching, recoloring, adding shadows, rotating, placing on busy photos, outlining.

The "don'ts" page is often the most used page in the whole document, and it only works with pictures.

Colors and typography

For colors, list each one with its codes for screen (HEX, RGB) and print (CMYK, Pantone if relevant). Show the proportions: which color dominates, which is an accent, which is just for backgrounds. Include approved color combinations for text and background, so nobody puts light gray text on white. Our guide on choosing brand colors goes deeper into building the palette itself.

For typography, name each font in both Arabic and English, say where to get it and whether it's licensed, and show the hierarchy: headline, subheading, body, captions. Include sizes and spacing for common formats, and a fallback font for when the main one isn't available, such as in a quick PowerPoint.

Imagery, graphics and video

This section is often missing, and it's where most inconsistency comes from because it's what gets produced weekly.

Describe your photo style with examples: lighting, color tone, people or products, staged or natural, close-up or wide. Show good examples and ones that don't fit.

Cover graphic elements: shapes, patterns, icons, how text sits on photos, how far corners are rounded.

And cover video, because for most brands in Egypt video is now the main channel. How does the logo animate? How should captions and subtitles look? What's the color grade? How does a Reel cover look, and how does an end card read? When we produce content at HOK, these few pages save hours on every shoot and edit.

Voice and language

How you sound is part of the brand too. Write down:

• Formal or friendly, serious or playful, and how far each goes.
• Language choices: Egyptian Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, English, or a mix, and for which channels.
• Words you always use and words you avoid.
• Emoji rules, if any.
• How to talk about price, discounts and complaints.
• A few example captions and a few sample WhatsApp replies.

The sample replies are gold for moderators and sales teams. They show the tone instantly in a way descriptions can't.

Templates and examples

Rules are only half the job. Give people ready-made starting points:

• Social media post, story, carousel and Reel cover templates in editable files.
• Presentation and proposal templates.
• Email signature, letterhead and business card files.
• Examples of real applications: menus, packaging, signage, ads.

In practice, templates do more for day-to-day consistency than the rules do, because using them is easier than ignoring them.

Keeping guidelines alive

The most common problem with guidelines is that nobody opens them. A 90-page PDF sits in a Google Drive folder and gets forgotten.

Keep them short and visual. Share a link, not an attachment that gets lost in WhatsApp. Put the logo files, fonts and templates in the same shared folder. Walk new hires and new agencies through the document in a 20-minute call. And update it once or twice a year, when you add a new product line, a new platform or a new campaign style.

If the brand itself feels outdated, that's a different conversation. Our piece on when to rebrand helps you tell a guidelines refresh from a full rebrand.

What to do this week

Collect every version of your logo, colors and fonts you can find, and you'll quickly see how much drift has already happened. Then decide on one correct version of each, write a one-page foundation, and add a "don'ts" page. That's a basic set of guidelines, and it's better than none.

When you're ready for a full set with templates and video rules, our brand identity and guidelines service handles it, and you can reach us through the contact page.