Last updated November 2026
Most small businesses do not set out to have an inconsistent brand. It happens gradually: the signwriter picks a slightly different green, a staff member makes a flyer in whatever font is on their laptop, and the logo gets stretched to fit a Facebook banner. A year later the van, the website and the menu look like three different businesses. Brand guidelines are the simple fix, and for a small Rotorua business they can be a single page.
★View the Best Graphic Design in Rotorua→What are brand guidelines?
Brand guidelines (also called a brand style guide, brand sheet or brand book) are a written record of how your business presents itself: which logo to use where, the exact colours, the fonts and the general look and tone. Their job is practical. They let anyone who produces something for you, from a printer to a new staff member, get it right without guessing or asking you every time.
Brand guidelines vs a brand style guide
The terms are often used interchangeably. Where people do draw a line, “brand guidelines” means the whole picture, including values and tone, and a “style guide” focuses on the visual and written rules. For a small business the distinction matters less than having something written down at all.
What to include in brand guidelines
Logo rules
- The main logo and any alternative versions (stacked, horizontal, icon only, one colour).
- Clear space: how much empty room to leave around the logo.
- Minimum size, so it is never shrunk until it is unreadable.
- A few examples of what not to do: stretching, recolouring, adding shadows, placing it on a busy photo.
Colour palette
List each brand colour with all of its codes, because different suppliers need different ones:
- CMYK
- Printers, for brochures, cards and stationery
- Pantone (if used)
- Printers and signwriters matching an exact spot colour
- RGB and hex
- Web designers, social media, email and anything on screen
This one table prevents the most common problem of all: the same “brand blue” coming out four different shades across signage, uniforms and the website.
Typography
Name the fonts for headings and for body text, and give a fallback for programs that do not have them, for example a free alternative for Word or Canva. If staff produce their own flyers or social posts, this is the section they will use most.
Imagery and tone
A short note on the style of photos (bright and outdoorsy, or clean product shots), and a few words on how the business sounds in writing. A Rotorua tourism operator speaking to visitors will sound different from an accountant, and both benefit from being consistent.
Te reo Māori and local names
Plenty of Rotorua businesses use te reo Māori in their name, signage or messaging. If yours does, record the correct spelling with macrons, how place names are written, and any agreed translations, so they are reproduced the same way every time. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission, has guidance on written Māori.
One page or a full brand book?
Large organisations publish brand books running to dozens of pages. A small or medium business rarely needs that. A single brand sheet with the logo versions, colour codes and fonts covers most day-to-day decisions and is far more likely to actually be used. A longer document starts to earn its keep when:
- several staff or locations produce their own marketing
- you work with more than one agency or supplier
- you are franchising, licensing or selling products through other retailers
When to get brand guidelines made
The best time is straight after a new logo or rebrand is finalised and before the expensive items are ordered. Signage, vehicle graphics, uniforms and a new website are all costly to redo if the colours are wrong, and they are exactly the jobs where suppliers will otherwise make their own guesses. If you already have a logo but no written rules, it is still worth doing: gather the original logo files, pull the colour codes from them, and write down what you are already using.
Putting brand guidelines to work
- Send the brand sheet with every new job, to printers, signwriters, web designers and embroiderers.
- Keep the guidelines and logo files together in one shared folder that staff can find.
- Check new work against the sheet before approving the proof.
- Review it when something changes, such as a new product line or a second location, rather than letting exceptions creep in.
Getting started with Page Design
For Rotorua businesses that want this done properly from the start, Page Design Ltd’s branding service includes a simple brand sheet with your colours, fonts and logo guidelines, built after a discovery conversation about your business, audience and goals. It is run by Linda Page, a graphic designer with more than 30 years of experience, and pairs naturally with a new or refreshed logo. When talking to any designer about brand guidelines, ask what the document will include, which file formats the logos and colours come in, and whether it covers both print and screen.
