By Darrel Girardier
As a church communicator, you will field many requests from people all over the church. In the midst of these requests, it can be hard to maintain one consistent look for your church brand. You will be the go-to person for questions regarding your church’s brand. In order to create consistency and dispel confusion, you should compile a list of the rules for your branding. This is where a brand guide comes in handy.
What’s a Brand Guide?
A brand guide is a central document that will help you become more effective as a church communicator. Your brand guide will be where you list out everything that encompasses your brand. When listing out everything, go into extreme detail to make sure that your brand is able to be consistently reproduced. Explain how the logo should be used, how it should or shouldn’t be stretched, and what colors are to be used with your brand. It’s also important to list the processes as to how you get things done so that you or others can do things more efficiently in the future. The more detailed you are, the more it will stick in the long-run.
Your brand guide doesn’t just cover what your design looks like but also how it is referred to. Specify what language you want associated with your brand and what terms you do and don’t use when speaking on behalf of your brand. The brand guide that you create should also lay guidelines for how others can use your brand.
This brand guide is a living document, so it will constantly be growing and changing. New situations and questions will constantly be popping up that will push you to change and adapt your brand guide and that’s normal! It’s important to make this brand guide accessible to anyone who wants it.
A brand guide works as your fallback document. It ensures that you aren’t making subjective brand choices but have an actual document to back up your decisions. Creating a brand guide allows you to be more consistent and efficient in your church’s communication.
Adapted from Training Pathway: Church Communications. Check out more training videos on Ministry Grid.
Darrel Girardier is the Digital Strategy Director at Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, TN.
