A brand identity checklist covers every element that makes your business recognizable and every file people need to use it correctly: logo versions, color, typography, imagery, voice and a short set of guidelines. If any of these are missing, each new website page, social post or van wrap ends up slightly different, and the brand slowly loses its shape.
Use this guide when you are commissioning a new identity, reviewing what a designer has delivered, or collecting the pieces of a brand that grew without a plan.
A logo is not a brand identity
A logo is one element. A brand identity is the whole system that makes your business recognizable wherever someone meets it: the website, a proposal, an invoice, a social post, the sign outside.
A complete identity has six parts:
- Logo: in every version and file format you will need.
- Color: a defined palette with exact codes.
- Typography: fonts for headings and body text, with rules for using them.
- Imagery and graphics: the style of photos, illustrations, icons and patterns.
- Voice and messaging: how the brand sounds and what it says about itself.
- Guidelines: a short document that brings it all together.
When we built a brand from scratch for Contractor Autopilot AI, a new US platform that uses AI to capture leads for contractors, the work did not stop at the logo. It included the logo variations, a brand guide with the palette (an orange, #FF6B00, and a blue, #0056D5), and then a sales landing page, domain, professional email and hosting, all built on the same identity so the brand was consistent from launch day.
Logo versions and files
Most logo problems come from missing files: a blurry logo on a website, a white box around it on a dark photo, or a print shop asking for “the vector”. Ask for every version up front.
Versions:
- Primary logo: the main lockup, usually symbol plus name.
- Horizontal and stacked layouts: for wide spaces such as a website header and narrow ones such as a social profile.
- Icon or symbol alone: for favicons, app icons and social avatars.
- Full color, single color, black and white (reversed): for light backgrounds, dark backgrounds and one-color printing.
File formats:
| Format | Use it for |
|---|---|
| SVG | Websites and anything on screen |
| PDF or EPS | Print, signage and suppliers who ask for vector |
| PNG (transparent) | Documents, slides and quick uploads |
| ICO or PNG icon | Browser favicon and app icons |
Rules to define: the clear space around the logo, the minimum size at which it stays legible, and a few examples of what not to do (stretching, recoloring, adding effects, placing it on busy photos).
Make sure you own the files and the rights to them, and keep the master files somewhere your team can find them without emailing the designer.
Color
Color is often the first thing people recognize, so define it precisely. A typical palette has:
- One or two primary colors that carry the brand.
- Neutrals for text, backgrounds and borders.
- An accent for buttons, links and highlights.
- Functional colors if you have an app or a busy website: success, warning and error.
Record each color in every format suppliers will ask for: HEX and RGB for screens, CMYK for print, and a Pantone reference if you print signage or merchandise. Without the exact codes, every printer and web developer picks their own version of “our blue”.
Check contrast too. Text needs enough contrast against its background to be readable by everyone; the W3C’s guidance on minimum contrast (opens in a new tab) sets a ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal body text. Note in the guide which color combinations pass, so nobody puts light gray text on a white page.
Typography
Type does a lot of quiet work. Choose:
- A heading font with character, used for headlines and short phrases.
- A body font that is easy to read at small sizes, on screens and in print. It can be the same family as the headings.
- Fallbacks for places where your fonts are not available, such as email and shared documents.
Then set the rules: the sizes and weights for headings, body text and captions, line spacing, and whether headings use sentence case or title case.
Check the license before you commit. Some fonts are free for any use, while others need separate licenses for websites, apps or print. For the web, a font that loads quickly matters; a heavy font file slows every page, which is one reason we plan the identity and the website design together.
Imagery and graphics
Photos, icons and graphics need a style as clear as the logo, or your materials will look like they came from five different companies.
- Photography: real or staged, people or places, bright or moody, how images are cropped. Real photos of your team, premises and work almost always beat stock images.
- Illustration: if you use it, one consistent style.
- Icons: one set, with a consistent line weight and corner style.
- Graphic elements: shapes, patterns or frames that come from the logo and tie materials together.
- Templates: social media graphics, presentation slides, letterheads and proposals, set up so your team can make new ones without a designer.
Include a few good and bad examples in the guide. Showing beats describing.
Think about where the brand will actually appear, too. A contractor’s identity has to work on a van, a hi-vis jacket and a yard sign as well as a website; a clinic’s has to work on appointment cards, intake forms and wayfinding signs. Test the imagery and graphics on the real applications early, before they are signed off.
Voice and messaging
Your brand also has a voice: how it sounds in a headline, a proposal, a support email or a social caption. Define it in a few lines:
- Three or four traits, each with a short “this, not that”: confident, not boastful; friendly, not casual; clear, not technical.
- A one-sentence description of what you do and who for, used everywhere.
- A short boilerplate paragraph for proposals, directories and press.
- Key messages: the three or four points you want every customer to remember.
- Words you use and avoid, including how to write your own name.
Consistent wording is not only good branding. When your website, your Google Business Profile and your social profiles describe the business in the same words, customers and search engines get a clearer picture of who you are.
Guidelines that people use
Brand guidelines fail when they are 80 pages long and nobody opens them. Make them short, practical and easy to find:
- Start with the essentials on the first page or two: the logo, the colors with their codes, the fonts and the voice in one paragraph.
- Show examples of real applications: a social post, a web page, a business card.
- Include do and do-not examples for the logo and color combinations.
- Link to the files, in one shared folder with clear names.
- Name an owner who answers questions and approves new uses.
- Review it once a year, or whenever you add a new product, service or channel.
Send the guide to every new employee and supplier on day one. That is when it saves the most time.
Checklist
- Primary logo, plus horizontal and stacked layouts.
- Icon or symbol on its own, for favicons and social avatars.
- Full-color, single-color and reversed versions.
- SVG, PDF or EPS, transparent PNG and favicon files, all in one shared folder.
- Clear space, minimum size and misuse rules for the logo.
- Color palette with HEX, RGB, CMYK and (if you print) Pantone codes.
- Approved text and background color pairs that meet contrast guidelines.
- Heading and body fonts, with licenses for web, print and apps.
- Type sizes, weights and spacing rules.
- Photography, illustration and icon style, with examples.
- Templates for social posts, slides and documents.
- Voice traits, a one-line description and a boilerplate paragraph.
- A short brand guide with an owner and a review date.
- You own the files and the rights to every element.
If your brand is missing some of these pieces, or you are starting from nothing, our graphic design and branding services cover logo design, brand guidelines, social media graphics and print, delivered as a complete kit your team can use from the first day.