Brand guidelines PDF (free template)

You don’t need a 60-page brand book. You need 6 pages a designer can pick up and produce on-brand work without asking you 14 questions.

The 6 pages

Page 1: Cover + at-a-glance

Logo, brand name, tagline. One sentence: “what we are.” One sentence: “who we serve.” Document version + last updated date.

Page 2: Logo usage

• Primary lockup with clear-space rules (X = half the height of the logo mark)
• Minimum size (don’t go below 24px for digital, 12mm for print)
• Color variants: full color, single-color, reverse (white on dark)
• 3 examples of MISUSE (stretched, recolored, on busy background)

Page 3: Color palette

Each color: name, HEX, RGB, CMYK, intended usage. Token name if you have one (--am-primary).

Page 4: Typography

• Heading font: name, weights used, sizes (H1/H2/H3/H4)
• Body font: name, weight, size, line-height
• Accent font (if any)
• Fallback stack: "Inter", system-ui, sans-serif

Page 5: Voice + tone

Three rules: how we sound, how we DON’T sound, one example sentence in our voice. Plus 5-10 “always say / never say” word pairs.

Page 6: Applications

Real examples: business card, social post template, email signature, app icon. Show what right looks like.

Tools to build it in 1 hour

Use a free Figma brand guidelines template. Search “brand guidelines” in Figma Community. Fill in the 6 pages. Export as PDF. Done.

Update once a year, not every quarter. Brand consistency comes from following the doc, not rewriting it.