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A style guide is an essential part of your charitable toolkit. This is the only way to create a cohesive identity throughout your organization.
Consistent use of logos and language helps create a professional, cohesive and strong brand. And the benefits of that are huge: making your brand recognizable to a wider audience, showing that you are a trustworthy and reliable charity, advancing your mission, and reinforcing your values ​​inside and out. outside the organization.
Creating a style guide can be a complex project, involving outside branding consultants and big budgets. But also, if your charity is small or just starting out, it might just be a concise Word document that outlines a few key rules that anyone can use.
The important thing is to make sure that it works for your organization. You might want to start small with key information about logos, color, and words to watch out for. You can always add to it later. And keep in mind that style guides can easily get unwieldy, so make sure they’re quick to use or they might never be used.
Here are the key sections and information you will need to include.
The basics
Visuals
Making the visual identity of your organization consistent is crucial to creating a strong and recognizable brand.
Logo
Display all versions of your logo with usage examples (including location, sizes, and exclusion zones). If you have older versions you can include them to remind people not to use them. Examples of how not to use the logo can also be helpful (for example, not stretching them, changing colors, or adding additional text).
Fonts
What fonts do you use? And when do you use them? For example, do you always avoid using italics in titles? Choose the fonts that you think best represent the personality of your organization, but most importantly, make sure they are clear and easy to read. Recite Me has an accessible font guide.
Color
What are the colors of your brand? You could have a base palette of three colors and a slightly larger selection of secondary colors. If possible, include RGB and Hex values ​​(for digital) and CMYK and Pantone references (for printing). This is especially useful if you are using external designers.
Imagery
Gather some key guidelines on the types of images and photographs you want to use. For example, you might want to display only active images or focus on images of the positive results created by your charity.
Is there a specific style that the illustrations should follow? Also be aware of making your images inclusive. Media Trust reports certain sources of free and miscellaneous images.
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