If there’s one thing the biggest brands have in common, it’s the power of their visual identity. A beautifully crafted visual system that automatically imprints itself on the minds of both internet users and consumers. However, it’s worth noting that behind this polished image, more often than not, there’s an indispensable document—one that specialists in the field generally hold in high regard. That document is the website’s style guide.
In this article, we’ll take a look together at how to create a brand guide. But that’s not all—you’ll also find plenty of tips and practical advice to inspire you to create your own. Even if you’re starting from scratch, you can create something that will impress even the industry leaders.
Everything You Need to Know About a Website's Visual Identity Guidelines
A brand style guide is a multi-page working document. It contains essential elements of your visual identity, such as your logo, typography, colors, and imagery. The brand style guide also includes guidelines for using these various elements, both online and in print.
Its primary role is to ensure maximum consistency in your visual communication, while also strengthening your brand image. It is also important to note that the brand guidelines are often confused with many distinct elements, which are, however, complementary.
What is an editorial charter?
An editorial charter is a document that outlines a company’s content production principles. It typically includes the editorial guidelines, style rules, target audience, section structure, production process, and SEO strategy. The editorial charter is primarily intended for web editors.
Understanding What Graphic Identity Is
Also known as visual identity, graphic identity encompasses a set of organized visual elements. Their purpose is to help identify a single entity among the many communication channels it uses.
To summarize, we can say that the elements of visual identity—such as colors, the logo, and typography—are presented and implemented as part of a comprehensive process for applying the style guide.
Understanding the Concept of Brand Image
Brand image represents the very identity of a brand. In other words, it is how a brand is perceived by consumers—particularly through its various elements, such as the logo, textual content, and colors.
What are some reasons for creating a style guide for a WordPress site?
The need to create a brand style guide stems primarily from the need for consistency. Indeed, a brand style guide helps harmonize and refine the visual identity of your website, as well as all of your various communication materials.
When you take a closer look, it’s a logical process of great importance. When you use a well-designed logo on your home page, it’s the same one you’ll need to use on your Contact page.
By prioritizing consistency, you make it easier for all visitors to your site to understand your brand. Better yet, you help them easily identify your brand by following a proven guideline. Furthermore, if you change the colors and logos on your WordPress site too often, visitors may lose track of what your brand stands for.
Let’s take a musical example to exaggerate the point. It’s as if Gims showed up at a concert wearing his sunglasses, then wore an unusual mask the next time, or had his face half-exposed yet another time. That would certainly be enough to throw people off, but as we all know, Gims never goes out without his sunglasses, which carefully conceal his face. This “outfit code” is, in fact, his own personal brand identity. That’s how it should be for your website, too. You need to offer something polished and consistent. As a result, your WordPress site’s visual identity needs to grab people’s attention.
The various steps involved in designing a brand identity guide
Now let's take a step-by-step look at how to create a visual identity for your WordPress site. This will help boost your brand image, appeal, and professionalism—regardless of the size of your company or business.
Defining Your Brand Identity
Long before you take the plunge, you need to do some groundwork. This involves setting aside some time to think about the message you want to convey through your brand guidelines.
This step will go a long way toward helping you refine your project and better understand the next steps. To do this, you’ll need to take stock of several elements in order to define them in detail. These are the goals you’ve set for yourself in creating a style guide for your WordPress website.
Next, we’ll focus on values—in other words, what drives your company’s operations and growth, and therefore your WordPress site. Possible areas of focus include performance, success, innovation, or expertise.
You also need to define your personality. At this stage, you’ll need to explain how and why people recognize you. You can list a few adjectives that most accurately reflect your definition. Another thing you need to include is your mission.
In addition to these various elements, you should also, as a next step, consider your target audience. This refers to your audience or, in marketing terms, a “persona,” which is a fictional profile of your ideal customer.
Admittedly, it’s not easy to reflect deeply on both yourself and your personal creations. Indeed, it’s not always easy to critique your own work or to gain the perspective needed to master all the intricacies of your craft. A brainstorming session is never a waste of time and can make a real difference in helping you achieve many of your goals.
Select the typeface for your brand guidelines
To briefly address the topic of typography: it refers to all the characters used in the text on your WordPress website. By extension, the terms “font” or “typeface” are also very commonly used.
In most cases, it’s recommended that you use no more than two or three fonts on your WordPress website. For example, you might choose one for your various headings and another for your body text to maintain consistency. Certain font families are also known for being easy to read on the web.
You can therefore prioritize them over others. We’re talking about sans-serif fonts, as opposed to serif fonts. This is therefore a factor to consider when developing the visual identity of your WordPress website.
Font size as an important factor
In addition to this factor, your font size also plays an important role. On screen, it’s recommended to use at least 14 pixels. A sans-serif font, no matter how beautiful it may be to the eye, won’t be very useful if it’s displayed in such a small size.
The right font is one that complements your brand image and visual style. Each font has its own unique personality, which may not suit your needs. To find the font that’s right for you, there are several websites that can help.
You can search on Google Fonts, which offers more than 1,000 free fonts. MyFonts, for its part, offers more than 130,000 fonts, some of which are free and others for purchase. As for DaFont, it provides hundreds of creative fonts to anyone who needs them.
However, these fonts are intended for personal use only. Through Font Squirrel, you have access to hundreds of royalty-free fonts, even for commercial use. When you first start streamlining your fonts, it’s essential to choose fonts that complement each other. This ensures you don’t ruin the visual appeal and maintain maximum readability.
There are some very useful resources available to help you pair your fonts effectively. These include FontPair, Fontjoy, Typewolf, Typespiration, and Google Fonts.
The typographic elements in your brand guidelines
When discussing the style guide for your WordPress website, we often present the various styles of your typeface—such as Regular, Bold, and Italic—along with their recommended uses. You should also include the typeface used for the logo, if there is one, and the typefaces available on your website. You’ll also need to show the alignment and spacing of the typeface.
Adding a Font to WordPress
It’s also recommended that you add your fonts to your WordPress site. This isn’t an easy task. In practice, you may have a theme that works perfectly with the fonts, which will make your life much easier.
If you choose the Astra theme, for example, you’ll have access to all the fonts in the Google Fonts library. To enable them, each theme requires its own settings. You can do this either through the Customization Tool or via a specially designed settings interface.
When the selection is limited and doesn’t meet your needs, you can embed these fonts directly into your WordPress site’s code. When you’re just starting out, it’s recommended that you use a plugin. This is a simpler and less risky option that might be just right for you. When adding fonts to your WordPress site, it’s best to limit yourself to two at most. Using more than that triggers additional requests that can slow down your page load times. For a beginner, it’s also not easy to combine more than two fonts.
The logo design phase for your WordPress website's visual identity
A logo is a graphical representation of a company's brand. It is of paramount importance because the logo is essentially how the brand is first identified. In addition to your website, keep in mind that the logo can be used across all your communication materials.
Flyers, brochures, and business cards, to name just a few. That’s why you need to pay close attention to them. A few key qualities stand out when it comes to a successful logo. Your logo should be easily recognizable and memorable.
So, choose a simple, understated, and concise logo that can be adapted to any type of medium, whether on paper or on a website. The logo must also be legible. Without expertise in web design, designing your logo will be a challenging task.
However, some websites offer their services for free. These include Logogenie, Canva, Logaster, and Logomaker, among others. If you’re looking for a professional and unique result, consider hiring a professional.
This person may specialize in graphic design and/or web design. You’ll likely find one through an agency or by contacting a freelancer. Once your logo is created, it’s essential to incorporate it into your brand guidelines.
To add your logo as part of your brand guidelines, you'll need to upload it to your WordPress site. You can use the customization tool by going to "Appearance > Customize > Site Identity."
The Color Definition Stage
Now that the logo phase is complete, let’s move on to another—and by no means the least important—step: colors. Don’t make your choice on a whim or just because you happen to like a particular color. Stay consistent in your choices, because every color carries a meaning.
Colors should therefore be chosen to best convey your message. Your color selection should reflect class and professionalism without relying on any pre-established color schemes. When choosing your colors, stick to no more than 3 or 4.
The primary color to feature in your logo, two secondary colors, and possibly a complementary color. To blend the various colors together effectively, you can use Color Hunt, Paletton, Adobe’s Color Wheel, or Material Palette.
The step of creating your visuals
It's important to outline your visual guidelines. This helps illustrate both the ideas and concepts you want to convey. You can therefore select examples of images that align with your expectations.
The process is the same for icons, which should blend seamlessly into your color scheme. When it comes to photos, it’s best to use your own.
The Simulation and Application Phase
To provide a more comprehensive overview, you can present variations of your brand guidelines across a wide range of media. These include office documents, business cards, flyers, vertical and horizontal posters, PowerPoint presentations, brochures, and informational signs.
Press kits, press releases, T-shirts, caps, and mugs are also items that can help you get a clear picture. Now that you have all the necessary information and materials for the content, you’ll need to format all of this information.
For software or tools, you can use InDesign and Illustrator, which are paid essentials from the Adobe suite. You can also use Frontify or opt for free alternatives. Scribus, Lucidpress, and Canva can help you with this. When it comes to designing and formatting your brand guidelines, choose professional websites.
This is the case with Behance and Dribble, which offer some excellent examples. As for length, there are no set rules for a graphic design style guide. Often in PDF format, it can range from ten to one hundred pages, depending on your needs and what you want to include. Keep in mind that keeping your work concise and simple will yield better results, so plan accordingly.
How to Create a Brand Guidelines Document: A Summary
All in all, you now know how to create a visual identity for a WordPress site. You’re familiar with the various essential components, such as typography, the logo, and colors. You can therefore create a credible, high-quality visual identity—even if you’re new to the world of graphic design and web design. It will take some time, though. If you don’t have enough time and want a project that’s outstanding in every way, you can hire a professional graphic designer or web designer. Whether you work with an agency or a freelancer, the cost will likely depend on the scope of the work you request.
