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When it comes to branding, we all know that consistency is key, but in order to achieve that you need a solid style guide.
This is especially true when you create a lot of branded content or work with many designers.
However—there's a problem:
Creating your guidelines can take a really long time—often long weeks or months.
That's why it's helpful to jump start your style guide creation with a great, design-ready template.
Thing about it—you have to figure out what to include, then lay out the content, design the book, write descriptions and annotations—the process can be very time consuming.
Save yourself time and effort by customizing one of the templates from my list that fits your needs best.
Whether you’re looking for an InDesign, Photoshop, illustrator, Keynote, Powerpoint or even a GoogleSlides template—I got you covered.
Looking to creating a simple style guide or a comprehensive brand guidelines? In landscape or portrait orientation?
No matter what your preferences are, I include on my list something for everyone.
At the same time I also make sure that all templates are well designed.
Check out my list of 50+ best style guide templates to download in 2023.
I organized them into 10 categories that feature top 5 templates in each one—making it a list of 50 templates total.
PS. If you want to learn how to create a style guide—check out my YouTube video.
In the first category I feature just simple one-page templates, also called brand boards or style sheets—they will get you started with the basics.
A good brand board is an absolute must-have for any designer!
They simply show your client every element of their brand—all nicely presented on a single page document.
Brand boards are important because they help convey brand attributes, personality, and style at a glance.
When you view style sheets you can see every element of a brand on a single document—that's what makes it easy to access and use.
They simply help designers (and your client) maintain a unified visual identity across the board: from colors, to logo do's and dont's to typography and more.
Single page guidelines are very convenient as they literally show everything on one page for the ease of use.
Download one-page style guide templates
In the second category I feature a bit more detailed logo & identity guideline templates that consist of more than just one page.
A solid logo & identity guidelines will take your designer career to the next level.
They include about two dozen of pages that cover everything from the logo mark, to alternative graphics, color scheme, typography, layout and much more.
They're much more detailed that style sheets and will definitely help you provide more value.
However, if you don't need certain elements—you can just delete pages or move things around and customize it for your specific needs.
If you’re commissioned to design a logo and want to add more value to the project, providing an accompanying set of brand identity guidelines is the way to go.
Use these minimalist templates, replace the content with your own and either print or save it as a pdf for the client.
Download Logo & Identity Style Guide Templates
If you’re looking for a style guide template that looks even more professional and a bit more sophisticated—here’s the list for you.
If you consider yourself a pro—focus on getting a professional-looking template.
Design agencies and experienced designers will use only the most professional-looking style guide templates to deliver work to their clients (as they want to look professional themselves).
These templates cover all aspects of brand design including: logo, colors, fonts, photography, web design, social media, stationery, packaging and more.
They're much more comprehensive that previously mention templates, so if you're going for that pro look—here's the list for you.
They also come in many different file formats: Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator CC so that you can choose whichever you prefer.
If you looking for a professional template, any of the templates above could be your option.
The templates on this list consist of about 40 pages each—they’re pixel perfect, with consistent style and usable copy that covers all brand assets.
Download Professional Style Guide Templates
If none of the above templates are quite up to your liking—check out this list of the most comprehensive style guide templates I could find on the internet.
For top designers and experts—check out the all-inclusive brand book templates.
This is the ultimate selection of complete brand standard templates & kits—fresh and clean design with all things covered.
This list consists of all-inclusive templates that cover all necessary sections and often go beyond just graphics, including also strategy (mission, vision, personality, tone of voice etc.).
Of course they also cover all aspects of visual branding like: your logo, typography, colors, imagery, composition, illustrations, animations, packaging, web design, icons and more.
They might be a bit pricy, but they often come with full money-back guarantee and future updates for free.
Overall, they’re very extensive yet still easily editable—just drop in your own images, fix some text, and it’s ready!
Download Comprehensive Brand Book Templates
You can use different applications to create your style guide, but InDesign templates are the most common.
Opt for Adobe InDesign to create a solid, multipage style guide.
InDesign is the best choice to design and publish multipage documents containing text, vectors, and images—this makes it a perfect software to design your guidelines.
These templates use master pages, paragraph styles, gird system, color swatches and other helpful tools to make your design process fast and enjoyable.
When using InDesign, everything can be easily be changed in one location (globally) and you can instantly publish your document to the cloud or export as a PDF.
All of these templates come with InDesign files (.INDD)—just drop in your own vectors, images and texts and you’re good to go.
I recommend all designers to use InDesign to create their style guides, but if you’re not familiar with it—below I feature templates for other Adobe CC apps like Illustrator and Photoshop.
Download InDesign Style Guide Templates
If you’re not familiar with InDesign (like many designers), then check out my templates for Adobe Illustrator.
Most designers are more comfortable with Illustrator—it’s the next best app to get your style guide done.
Illustrator offers options for developing print and digital designs which makes it still a great option to go for when designing your guidelines document.
For those who work on a branding project using a design-ready Illustrator template is an effective way to introduce the new brand (since Illustrator is used for logo design as well).
That's why I’ve compiled a list of some of the best illustrator templates that come with flat, clean, classic and minimalist style.
All of these templates come with Illustrator files (.Ai, .EPS)—just add images, vectors and texts and the style guide will be ready to send to your client.
Choose any of the above templates to make your branding presentation stand out and look professionally.
Don’t spend time creating your own style guide from scratch—just download one of these great templates to create your style guide in Illustrator fast and easy.
Download Illustrator Style Guide Templates
While Photoshop is NOT preferred choice to use when creating your style guide—it can be used if you don’t know illustrator or InDesign.
Adobe Photoshop is known to most designers which makes it a great app to create your guidelines.
Adobe Photoshop is a critical tool for any graphic designer, which makes it super accessible if you don't want to learn how to use proper software like illustrator or InDesign.
All of these style guide templates are available in both A4 and US letter sizes, so that you can use them successfully all over the world.
They focus on simple clean style and a strong grid layout which makes it a perfect choice if your brand identity is modern and minimalist as well.
As we all know—It’s easy to edit things in Photoshop (especially with SmartObjects) therefore you can customize these templates up to your liking.
They all come with Photoshop files (.PSD)—just add your logo, edit the colors and fonts and voila!
These templates are created in order to be used by everyone with just basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop—which makes it very convenient for all graphic designers.
Download Photoshop Style Guide Templates
If you’re not a designer per se, then you can use basic presentation software to build your style guide—Keynote being one of them.
Use Keynote to get your style guide done, if you’re not familiar with Adobe products.
Keynote is an easy to use (and standard) presentation software on Mac, which makes it a great tool to build your style guide.
Every of these style guide templates includes pages that are unique—not just repetitive layout.
You don’t have to buy Adobe CC, just using Keynote alone you can create gorgeous brand guidelines for your brand.
Any of the below listed style guide templates will work for you if you’re into modern & sleek look.
Alternatively, check out this great PowerPoint style guide template if you’re on Windows.
Download Keynote Style Guide Templates
Most style guide templates will come in landscape orientation, but if you’re fixed on portrait mode—here’s the list for you.
Opting for portrait orientation will make your style guide easy to print and use in physical form.
In my other article on how to create a style guide, I recommend landscape letter size format so that you can use it for both: print and digital.
However, if for any reason you prefer vertical orientation—here are my top 5 picks for you.
The only downside of using vertical page orientation is the fact that most screens are horizontal (laptops, monitors, TVs).
Therefore your style guide might not look as good on screen as it looks in print (you will get horizontal bars on full screen).
However, if you prefer portrait orientation—I’ve put together a list of 5 best style guide templates for your inspiration.
All of the above templates has everything you need to flesh out a fully complete brand style guide.
From the color and image guidelines to font choices and logo placement rules, this list of vertical style guide templates has you covered.
Download Vertical Style Guide Templates
As said before, it’s recommended to use landscape orientation for brand guidelines development these days because they can be easily printed out or viewed on screens.
Landscape orientation will make your style guide easy to view in digital as well as print.
If you want to ensure that your guide can be easily viewed in both print and digital, you can even go a step further and opt for specific size (A4 or Letter).
I like to design style guides for my clients in landscape orientation and letter size, so that they can be easily printed, or viewed comfortably on a monitor as well.
All of these templates are highly focussed on a minimalist approach featuring bold typography, a clean colour palette and flexible layout choices to help you easily customize them to your own liking.
The templates include chapters like: logo, typography, colour, photography, logo misuses, social media and more.
All of these templates come with files that are fully editable and are both: print and digital ready.
Download Horizontal Style Guide Templates
As a brand designer, one of the most important documents you can provide your clients with is a brand style guide—but designing one ain’t easy.
It’s clever to speed up your process with a design-ready, well-structured style guide template.
Whether you’re a graphics designer who works with InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop, or perhaps you prefer using apps like Google Slides, PowerPoint or Keynote—I’ve got you covered.
My list of the 50+ best style guide includes something for everyone—from simple one-page style sheets to more comprehensive brand guidelines and beyond.
Also check out my new product—The Brand Guidelines Kit—a whooping 70 pages template with a real style guide example included (brand guideline I developed for one of my clients).
Here's my YouTube video tutorial on how to use that template:
Whether you’re a brand designer or an agency—I hope you’ll find a great template to customize for your needs.
Also check out my other relevant articles:
Do you have a great style guide template to add to the list?—Leave a comment below.
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I'm a branding expert and graphic designer based in NY. I specialize in the development of brands: brand strategy, identity & web design. Need help with your project?—Get in touch
