--- title: "Brand guidelines examples" description: "Public brand guidelines worth studying, from Mailchimp to GOV.UK and Atlassian, what a good brand book includes, and how to keep the PDFs searchable." source: https://savepad.app/blog/brand-guidelines-examples --- [Blog](https://savepad.app/blog) · 3 April 2025 # Brand guidelines examples Public brand guidelines worth studying, from Mailchimp to GOV.UK and Atlassian, what a good brand book includes, and how to keep the PDFs searchable. *A brand guidelines PDF saved in Savepad, open on the colour page* **TLDR** - A good brand book covers logo, colour, type, imagery, and voice, with examples of right and wrong, and explains the why. - Public ones worth reading: [Mailchimp’s content style guide](https://styleguide.mailchimp.com), the [GOV.UK style guide](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide), and [Atlassian’s design system](https://atlassian.design). - Keep brand PDFs somewhere that can search inside them, or you’ll never find “the page about logo spacing” again. ## What a good one includes 1. **Logo.** Versions, clear space, minimum size, and what not to do (stretched, recoloured, on a busy photo). 2. **Colour.** Primary and secondary colours with hex, RGB, and CMYK, and how much of each to use. 3. **Typography.** Typefaces, weights, sizes, and what to use where. 4. **Imagery.** Photo style, illustration rules, icons. 5. **Voice and tone.** How the brand sounds, with before-and-after examples. 6. **The why.** The ones people follow explain the reasoning. The ones people ignore just list rules. ## Public ones worth studying **[Mailchimp’s content style guide](https://styleguide.mailchimp.com).** The voice and tone section is the most copied in the industry for good reason: clear principles, lots of examples, and it reads like a person. **[GOV.UK style guide](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide).** Writing for millions of people who don’t want to be there. Brutal clarity. Every content designer should read it once. **[Atlassian design](https://atlassian.design).** A full design system: brand, components, and content guidelines in one place. **Brand portals.** Plenty of big companies publish brand sites for partners and press. Search “[company] brand guidelines” for any brand you admire, and look for a press or brand page in their footer. *A mock brand guidelines PDF open on its colour page* 0569 · pdf · p. 14, colour *A specimen for the brand typeface* 0666 · font · Fraunces *A mock brand guidelines web page about voice and tone* 0763 · brand site · Lumen Brand guidelines kept in Savepad: the PDF opens on the page that matched a search, next to the font and palette. ## PDF or website A website stays current and you can link to the exact section. A PDF is what you send an agency on day one. Most teams end up with both and they drift apart, which is how you get three slightly different blues. ## Keep them searchable Brand books are long, and you always need one specific page: logo clear space, the secondary palette, the rule about photos of people. Savepad reads every page of a PDF, so search “clear space” and it opens on that page. Save the brand fonts and the palette alongside, and the whole brand sits in one folder. Voice is its own topic, covered in [tone of voice examples](https://savepad.app/blog/tone-of-voice-examples), and if you’re briefing someone with all of this, the [creative brief template](https://savepad.app/blog/creative-brief-template) helps. ## FAQ ### What should brand guidelines include? Logo use, colours with codes, typography, imagery, and voice and tone, with examples of right and wrong. The best ones also explain why each rule exists. ### Where can I find examples of brand guidelines? Many companies publish theirs: Mailchimp's content style guide, GOV.UK's style guide, Atlassian's design system, and brand portals from companies like Uber and Wise. Brand guideline collections like Brandguides.com gather more. ### Should brand guidelines be a PDF or a website? A website is easier to keep current and to link to. A PDF is easier to send to an agency. Many teams have both. [Join the waitlist](https://savepad.app/#waitlist) ## Read these next - [Tone of voice examples: Brand tone of voice examples, voice vs tone, how to write a voice guide people use, and the AI tells that make every brand sound the same.](https://savepad.app/blog/tone-of-voice-examples) - [How to use Pinterest secret boards as a swipe file: How to make a secret board on Pinterest, use sections to sort a swipe file, cut down the AI pins in your feed, and know when Pinterest stops being the right place.](https://savepad.app/blog/pinterest-secret-board-swipe-file) - [How to find a website's colour palette: Three ways to get the exact colours a website uses, from Chrome dev tools to an eyedropper and a screenshot, and how to keep the palettes you like.](https://savepad.app/blog/find-website-colors)