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How to create a style guide
09 Dec 2021by Mary Wessel
A style guide is an essential way to ensure consistency, both in the visuals and words you choose. We explore the basics and offer some best practice advice
A style guide is an essential part of your charity toolkit. It’s the one way you can create a consistent identity right across your organisation.
Consistent use of logos and language helps to create a professional, coherent and strong brand. And the benefits of that are far-reaching – making your brand recognisable to wider audiences, conveying that you’re a trustworthy and reliable charity, driving forward your mission, and strengthening your values both inside and outside the organisation.
Creating a style guide can be an involved project, using outside branding consultants and big budgets. But equally, if your charity is small or just getting off the ground, it can simply be a concise Word doc that outlines a few key rules for everyone to use.
The important thing is to make sure it works for your organisation. You might want to start small with key information around logos, colour and words to watch out for. You can always add to it later. And remember, style guides can easily become unwieldy, so make sure it’s quick to refer to – or it might never get used.
Here are the key sections and information you’ll need to include.
The basics
Visuals
Making your organisation’s visual identity consistent is crucial to create a strong, recognisable brand.
Logo
Show all versions of your logo along with examples of how to use them (including placement, sizes, and exclusion zones). If you have old versions, you might want to include them to remind people not to use them. Examples of how not to use the logo can also be useful (for example, not stretching them, changing colours, or adding extra text).
Fonts
Which fonts do you use? And when do you use them? For example, do you always avoid using italics in headings? Choose whichever fonts you think best represent your organisation’s personality, but above all, make sure they are clear and easy to read. Recite Me has an accessible fonts guide.
Colour
What are your brand colours? You might have a core palette of three colours, and a slightly wider selection of secondary colours. If possible, include the RGB and Hex values (for digital) and CMYK and Pantone refs (for print). This is particularly helpful if using external designers.
Imagery
Pull together some key guidelines about the kinds of images and photography you want to use. For example, you might want to only show active images, or focus on images of the positive outcomes your charity creates.
Is there a specific style any illustrations should follow? Also be aware of making your imagery inclusive. Media Trust signposts to some sources of free and diverse images.
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After the basics
Writing about yourself
Create some boilerplate copy that explains what you do and what you stand for. These are some of the most important words for your organisation. Even going through the process of writing them can help you to clarify exactly what you’re about and what your mission is.
It’s useful to have three different versions of this (short, medium, and long) so they can simply be picked up and used in any communications you send out.
You might also want to clarify here any names. For example, do you always upper case or lower case the name of your organisation? And you might want to standardise how you write about job titles, teams, or departments.
Tone of voice
What is your organisation’s personality? Supportive and caring? Bold and assertive? Innovative and irreverent? Think about how you want your supporters and beneficiaries to experience you, and pin down a few core qualities. You might want to include a couple of before and after paragraphs in this section, to show this in action.
Your tone of voice can shift depending on who you’re writing for (a social post can be much less formal than the language of a significant research project).
This is also a good place to share guidelines about accessibility and plain English, and to include a few tips on best practice writing. The plain English A-Z of alternative words is a useful document when choosing accessible language.
Editorial guidelines
Here’s where to include topics such as dates, numbers, use of upper and lower case, punctuation (Oxford comma or no Oxford comma?) and how to format bullet points.
You might want to refer to an established style guide as your baseline (such as The Guardian and Observer style guide), and just highlight areas that differ for your organisation.
Words to watch out for
It’s likely there are certain words or phrases that are used frequently in your organisation, or phrases that often catch people out. Do you write ‘wellbeing’ or ‘well-being’? ‘Covid-19’ or ‘COVID-19’? Simply a create a list of words that crop up most often. You’ll probably want to add to this section, so make sure you have an editable version.
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