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The One-Page Brand Sheet: A Simple Way to Keep Your Team on Brand
Not every business needs a 60-page brand book. A one-page brand sheet keeps colours, fonts, voice and logo rules in one place. How to make one.
Not every business needs a long brand book. A small team that needs to look and sound consistent often gets more value from one clear page that people actually use. Here’s what goes on it and how to make it.
In this article
Why one page
A 60-page guideline document is wonderful for a large organisation. For a small business it often goes unread. A single page can be pinned to a wall, saved on a desktop and dropped into a freelancer’s inbox. If people use it, your brand stays consistent. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter how good the long version is.
What goes on the page
- Who we are. One sentence on what you do and for whom.
- What we stand for. Three words or short phrases, such as warm, practical, honest.
- Logo. The main version, the version for dark backgrounds, and the clear space around it.
- Colours. Your main palette with hex, RGB and CMYK values.
- Typefaces. One for headings and one for text, plus a safe fallback for documents.
- Imagery. Two or three lines on the style of photos or illustrations, and one example.
- Voice. Three “we say / we don’t say” examples. See our tone of voice guide.
- Do and don’t. Three quick rules, such as “never stretch the logo”.
- Who to ask. A name and an email for questions or approval.
How to build it
- Start from your existing brand strategy if you’ve one. If not, a short positioning statement will do.
- Use real examples, not abstract rules.
- Keep each section short enough to read in a minute.
- Test it. Hand the page to someone new and ask them to make a flyer. Where do they get stuck?
- Save it as a PDF and an image, so it opens anywhere.
When one page is not enough
A longer document makes sense when you’ve several brands, many partners or a team spread across locations. Our guides to what to include in brand guidelines, brand guidelines examples and what a brand book is will help you decide.
Keep it alive
Review the sheet once a year and update it when something changes. Tell people where it lives, and refer to it when you give feedback. Consistency is built by repetition. Our guide to brand consistency across channels explains why it pays.
Would you like one made for your brand? Book a free brand consultation or see our small business branding agency page.
