The why, how, and what for a useful, strategic style guide for your clean energy brand
TL;DR: Yes, your clean energy brand needs a style guide.
Do you relate to the following when asked if you have a style guide?
No. We have a logo and generally use the same colors, but any consistency in our visual identity is because one person manages all our marketing.
Sort of. We rebranded ten years ago and have a style guide we sometimes still use from that rebrand. It’s out of date, so we mostly rely on our team’s tacit knowledge of what’s expected to convey our brand.
No, why would we? We don’t want to limit our team’s creativity.
Yes, marketing uses it, but no-one else does. Style guides only apply to marketing materials.
No, they’re a waste of money. We got our logo from 99designs. That’s all we need.
These are all paraphrases of real-world responses heard multiple times over the past few years.
A foundational document like a style guide can feel unnecessary when a company is small. Maybe there is a misunderstanding that a style guide is only needed for marketing. Or one person manages the entirety of the company’s external presence. Or it can feel like an expense with no value.
And yet, even leaning into the ability to set up templates in programs like Canva, having a document that defines your visual identity is increasingly important as companies have multiple externally-facing channels. In branding, consistency is key.
Before we get into why a style guide is important, what is a style guide?
Often, the terms style guide and brand guide are used interchangeably. Some people even say brand style guide. If you don’t live and breathe branding, then the difference can get a bit lost in the weeds.
What is a style guide?
A style guide defines the visual aspects of your brand. What does your logo look like? What colors do you use? What fonts/typography are used when? What visual cues are implemented to create a cohesive visual style regardless of the media? How do the components fit together and reinforce your brand message?
A style guide should be elaborate enough to define a cohesive look and feel, while offering flexibility to address new or novel approaches to media.
Then what is a brand guide?
A brand guide has a portion dedicated to style guide components addressing the items above. A brand guide goes further, covering brand purpose, vision, and mission. It defines the framework in which the style was created, giving it context. A brand guide will also delve into content tone of voice, giving examples of brand writing styles. A brand guide will address how a brand name is written in text for consistency. Brand guides might also go into demographics and audience definition, depending on the brand scale.
Content and visuals play an equally strong role in brand identity, and it is difficult to separate them when defining a brand. When working with your branding team, be clear in what you expect included in a brand guide or a style guide. What you call it should not get in the way of having an effective document on the other side.
A style or brand guide “document” may be a PDF, a web page/site, or other way to present the information.
Brand or style guides don’t need to be huge documents. When style guides are larger documents, organizations sometimes also create a shorter style cheat sheet. This is a one to two-page document that addresses the most common everyday questions - fonts to use, colors to use, acceptable logos, and acceptable use of the brand name in text. This should not be confused with the web term “style sheet” (the “ss” in cascading style sheet – CSS), which is specific code defining the look and feel of your website.
Larger organizations may have brand or style guides for specific products, initiatives, or sub-brands.
Why do clean energy companies need a style or brand guide?
From this point, the term style guide is used to mean style or brand guide.
In spite of the current political climate, active clean energy companies number significantly higher than it did even ten years ago. Differentiating your clean energy brand from others has risen proportionally. Building brands takes time, consistency, and yes, repetition. A style guide helps move that process along, providing the groundwork needed for a consistent, recognizable brand. Your social posts will look and sound like they’ve come from the same company as your website or that sales presentation.
Brand consistency helps with recruiting top talent as well. It is much easier to say “yes, this is a company I want to work for” if you can see their brand values clearly, and consistently, articulated across media.
While a style guide may be an investment initially, in the long run, it will save you money. It provides “bumpers” from within creativity can flow without starting from zero. For example, think of the time, money, and effort it would take to create, review, and revise a brochure 20 times because there was no clear starting place. Shortcutting that process by giving a starting place will lower agency estimates and give you a framework from which to evaluate. Essentially you are not recreating the wheel each time a piece is created.
Speaking of frameworks, a style guide gives your team a tool to keep everyone on the same page. If your company tone of voice is defined as casual professional, but your social media feed is full of snark, it will feel discordant to your audience. This creates a confused impression of your brand.
This framework applies across the board from email signatures to tradeshow booths. We all know that one person who wants to “spice up” their email signature by using Comic Sans and fuchsia pink despite the corporate color being blue.
What's included in a style guide?
A basic style guide should include the following elements
- Brand name usage in text format: what is acceptable and what to avoid
- A short design/identity intent statement
- Overall visual identity layout elements: the look and feel to be applied to all materials
- Logo treatment: the dos and don’ts and options for favicons and profile icons
- Logo colors
- Color palette (including at the least values for CMYK, RGB, and Hex # for each color)
- Typography use: web, documents, and marketing collateral
- Photography treatment and style if applicable
- Illustration and icon style if applicable
A full style guide will include all of the above items, and visual reference examples. Depending on the scope of the style guide project, most often examples will use placeholder images and text. Style guides are living documents and can be added to as materials are developed.
Visual reference examples might include:
- App screen
- Brochure
- Business card
- Clothing (e.g. hats, shirts, lab coats, etc.)
- Custom icons
- Datasheet / technical documentation
- Digital and print advertising
- Document (e.g. Word doc)
- Email newsletter
- Email signature
- Envelope
- Flyer
- Letterhead
- Long-form materials (e.g. white paper, manuals, etc.)
- Presentation (e.g. PowerPoint)
- Signage
- Social media post and headers
- Tradeshow or banner
- Vehicle markings
- Video screen
- Web banner
- Website
The example list can be as long or as short as your budget allows. And the list is not set in stone. It should be agreed upon prior to the start of the process and should reflect your particular brand needs. Note that packaging requirements/styles are often completed under a dedicated packaging style guide.
As noted earlier, style guides should be living documents. At a minimum, they should be reviewed and revised every two years to ensure the information is accurate.
Even with updates, there will come a time when your style guide feels out of date and no longer matches your brand. You will tell that new agency you’re working with that yes you have a style guide, but it’s not current. This is a “flag” moment, telling you that it’s time to go through a rebranding process.