Brand guidelines: what to include and where to keep brand assets so everyone uses the right logo

The short answer: brand guidelines have five parts: the logo with its variants and rules, colours (HEX, RGB, CMYK, Pantone), fonts, image style and tone of voice, plus correct and incorrect examples. The PDF is only half the job. The other half is the files: the logo in SVG, PNG and PDF/EPS, in every variant, kept in one place where anyone can get them through a link.

What brand guidelines contain

Section	What goes in it
Logo	variants (horizontal, stacked, symbol only), clear space, minimum size, which variant goes on which background, what not to do (stretch, recolour, add shadows)
Colours	primary and secondary colours, each with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone where you have one
Fonts	heading and body fonts, the fallback when the font isn’t available (email, Office), where to get them
Imagery	the kind of photos you use, how they’re cropped, which filters are off-limits, how people appear
Tone of voice	how the brand speaks, forms of address, words to avoid, how to write the company name
Applications	real examples: email signature, slide deck, social post, roll-up banner, name badge

For a small company, 10–15 pages is enough. Guidelines people actually read are worth more than an 80-page book nobody opens.

The logo files you need

Format	Used for	Why
SVG	website, apps, email signatures (where supported)	vector: sharp at any size, small file
PNG with transparent background	presentations, Word documents, social media	sits on any background, opens anywhere
Vector PDF or EPS	printers, large-format print, engraving, embroidery	printers work with vectors, not pixels
JPG	only when nothing else is accepted	no transparency, and it loses quality on every save

Each format in three variants: full colour, black and white (for dark backgrounds). Print files in CMYK, screen files in RGB. Boise State University’s brand guide, for example, keeps print and digital files in separate folders for exactly this reason: a CMYK JPG can look off on screen, and an RGB PNG can print washed out.

RGB, CMYK or Pantone

• HEX and RGB: colours for screens. HEX is the 6-character code used on the web, for example #1E3A8A.
• CMYK: colours for standard four-ink printing. The same colour can come out slightly differently from one printer to the next.
• Pantone (PMS): an exact, pre-mixed print colour. Use it when the shade has to match on business cards, packaging and banners.

If your guidelines only list HEX values, ask your designer for CMYK too. Otherwise every printer converts them their own way.

Where to keep the guidelines and files

The problem usually isn’t the guidelines but what happens next: the logo emailed to an agency two years ago, a small JPG grabbed from the website, an old version left on a former colleague’s laptop. A few months later, three different logos are in circulation.

The fix is one source:

1. A “Brand” folder with a simple structure: 01_Logo/digital, 01_Logo/print, 02_Colours, 03_Fonts, 04_Templates, 05_Photos, plus the guidelines PDF.
2. Clear file names: brand_logo-horizontal_white.svg, not logo final new.png. See our guide to file naming conventions.
3. A link, not attachments. Agencies, printers and partners get a link to the folder. When the logo changes, you update the folder instead of re-sending emails.
4. Watch the font licences. Google Fonts can be shared freely. Commercial fonts are usually licensed per company or per user, so keep them out of the folder you share with agencies and note in the guidelines where to buy them.

How to do it in Nivlo

In Nivlo, the brand folder can have its own section (from the Professional plan), and the team finds it through search. You send the agency a share link to the folder and choose what they can do: view only, download the web version or download the originals. From the Professional plan the link can have a password. When the logo changes, you upload a new version over the file and the history is kept.

Two features help with brand work in particular: tag synonyms (from Professional), so a search for “logo” also finds “brand mark”, and your logo applied automatically to downloaded images (Business plan).

Common mistakes

• The logo only as a JPG. Ask your designer for vector files (SVG, PDF or EPS) from the start.
• Only the colour version. On dark backgrounds or single-colour print, you need white and black variants.
• Colours only in HEX. Without CMYK, colours come out differently at every printer.
• Guidelines emailed once. A year later nobody knows which version is current.
• Passing on commercial fonts. Check the licence first.