How to Build a Brand Kit

Before we even get into the how, let’s get into the what.

What is a brand kit?

A brand kit is a collection of design choices and assets that make up your company’s personality, look and feel. It ensures brand equity, meaning your company is represented in a consistent and appealing way across all types of content, whether that’s social media, presentations, business cards, websites, printed materials, etc.

Think of it as a collection of your brand logos, colors, fonts, imagery, and feature photos.

Here’s an example of a brand kit:

Keep in mind, a brand kit differs from a brand style guide, which is typically a PDF or printed guide of your brand’s identity that includes brand tone of voice, logos, colors, fonts, font styles, messaging, imagery guidelines for photos and graphics, and even photography treatments.

So that’s what a brand kit is; here’s what they’re for.

Your brand kit ensures that all marketing and communications are accurate and on-brand, which helps your company become more memorable and quickly recognizable by your target audience.

-- Canva

Streaming service/media giant Netflix uses their brand style guide very effectively to show people the do’s and do not’s of using their logo.

Netflix brand kit example

How to Build a Brand Kit

We’ve talked plenty about what a brand kit is, what it isn’t, why it’s important, and the consequences of not having one and/or not abiding by it.

This is how you build a brand kit. Fear not; it’s a very simple, straightforward process.

The first thing you'll want to do is choose a format for your brand kit.

Whether it’s putting everything in a PDF, a shared folder on your company’s network, or in a digital design hub like Canva (that’s where Spark’d keeps its brand kit), determine where you’re going to put all of our assets.

Step two is to pool all your brand assets. Each company’s brand kit will look differently, but in general, there are a few essential elements that are best practice to include.

Logo - your brand kit should include the different sizes, variations, and configurations of your logo (for example, Spark’d has full color and white landscape versions, as well as full color and white icons)

Color palette - logos are the most recognizable element of a brand kit, but colors take a close second. You don’t want any guess work where your color palettes concerned, so make sure to identify the exact hex codes for each color in your palette (again, this is a lot easier of you use something like Canva as it will save your exact colors)

Typography - this is the signature font that you’ll use in all your digital and print content. Whether it’s for internal or external purposes, you want to use the same font(s) for your headings, body content, accent text, etc.

Building your actual brand kit is not difficult and doesn’t need to be overwhelming, especially if you already have all the essential assets like your logo and color palette.

If your company is doing a lot of design work in say Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, make sure those elements are easily accessible to your designer in a shared folder or drive.

If your company’s looking to do more design work but hasn’t identified the right tool, consider using Canva (PSA: Spark’d is not sponsored by Canva, we just like their platform a lot). There’s a free plan (the premium plan is also very affordable at $12 a month), it’s a very robust design platform, and it doubles as a brand management tool for all your brand kit assets.

Here’s how the Spark’d brand kit looks in Canva:

Spark'd brand kit in Canva