What is a brand kit, and does a small business need one?

A brand kit is the short list of things that make your business look like itself everywhere: your logo, a few colors, two fonts and a handful of rules for using them. It is what a designer reaches for before making anything. It is also the reason some small businesses look put together on Instagram while others look different every week.

What is in a brand kit

• Logo files. The full logo, a compact version for small spaces and a one-color version. At least one file with a transparent background (PNG or SVG), so the logo can sit on a photo without a white box around it.
• Colors. Three to five, each with its code, such as #0F766E, and each with a job: a main color, an accent for highlights, a background and a color for text.
• Fonts. One for headings, one for everything else. Two is enough.
• Graphic elements. Anything you already use: a pattern, an illustration, a stamp, the shape of your sign.
• A few rules. Three sentences are plenty: what always appears, what never does, and how you sound.

Why it matters on social media

People scroll fast, and they often do not read your name. They recognize a color, a typeface, a way of framing a photo. A kit is what makes post number 40 look like it came from the same business as post number 1.

It also saves time. With a kit, nobody has to decide which blue to use, and somebody else can make your posts without asking you twenty questions.

Make a simple one in an afternoon

1. Find your best logo file. Ask whoever made it for the original, usually an SVG, AI or PDF file. A screenshot from your website is the last resort.
2. Take your colors from what you already have. The logo, the sign, the awning, the van. Your customers know those colors already.
3. Give each color a job. One main color, one accent, one light background, one dark color for text.
4. Check that the text can be read. The accessibility standard used across the web (WCAG) asks for a contrast of at least 4.5 to 1 between normal text and its background, and 3 to 1 for large text. Pale yellow letters on white fail. Dark green on cream passes. A free contrast checker online will tell you in seconds.
5. Pick two fonts. One with character for headlines, one plain and easy to read for everything else.
6. Write down three rules. For example: the logo always sits in a corner and never on a busy photo, prices are always in the accent color, and we never shout.
7. Keep it in one place. One folder or one page that you can send to anyone who makes something for you.

Five common mistakes

• Too many colors. Seven colors are a rainbow, not a brand.
• Light on light. Pale text on a pale background looks elegant on a big screen and disappears on a phone in sunlight.
• A logo in a white box. That file is a JPG. Ask for a PNG or SVG with a transparent background.
• A font nobody can read small. Script fonts are for one or two words, never for a paragraph.
• A new look every month. Being recognized takes repetition. When you start to find your own look boring, it is usually just starting to work.

Do it yourself, or pay a designer?

Do it yourself if you already have a logo you like and colors people connect with you. The seven steps above are enough, and you can refine as you go.

Pay a designer if you have no logo, or one you are embarrassed by, or if you are about to spend real money on a sign, a vehicle wrap or packaging. Those things last for years, and fixing them later costs more than getting them right the first time.

How it works with us

Every customer has a brand kit page in their account. You upload your logo, and we suggest colors taken from it. You pick one of eight styles, choose your fonts, and watch sample posts change as you go. If you have your own fonts, patterns or a brand book, you upload those too. From then on, every graphic we make for you follows your kit.

No logo or colors yet? Our designers can build the whole kit for you as a one-time job. It is listed with our other one-time services on the pricing page.