When you think of the world’s most recognisable brands, chances are you can picture their logo, colours, and even the way they “sound” in your head. That’s not luck, it’s consistency. And the magic behind that consistency? Brand guidelines.
At ADhesive, we’ve just wrapped up our own brand refresh, which gave us the perfect chance to walk the talk. We turned up the brightness on our colours, sharpened our typography, and added graphic elements with a whole lot more personality, along with plenty of other tweaks that made the refresh uniquely ours. But the real power move was pulling it all together into brand guidelines, our blueprint for making sure every piece of communication felt unmistakably us.
Why brand guidelines matter
Brand guidelines are basically your brand’s GPS. They tell you (and anyone working with you) how to get from the idea to the finished product without taking a dozen messy detours. From colours and fonts to imagery and tone of voice, they keep everything pointing in the same direction.
Skip them, and things get chaotic. Your socials start looking like they belong to three different businesses, your flyers don’t match your website, and suddenly your audience can’t quite place who you are. That lack of consistency doesn’t just look sloppy; it chips away at trust and weakens the recognition you’ve worked so hard to build. With guidelines, your brand shows up polished, confident, and recognisable everywhere it goes.
How we brought ours to life
Our brand refresh wasn’t about becoming someone new, it was about amplifying who we already are. The fun, the sharpness, the little wink of wit, it’s all in there, backed by guidelines that give our creativity structure.
Think of guidelines like guardrails on a winding road. They don’t stop you from taking exciting turns, they just make sure you don’t go flying off a cliff. For us, that means we can experiment, play, and push ideas further, while still looking and sounding like ADhesive every single time.
The bigger picture
Brand guidelines aren’t about restriction, they’re about recognition. They’re the difference between a brand people scroll past and a brand people remember.
That’s why we took the time to get ours right. Because while trends will change and platforms will shift, guidelines make sure your brand always shows up as its boldest, clearest, most consistent self.
In the end, they’re not just rules on a page. They’re your brand’s backbone, voice, and secret weapon all rolled into one. Or as we like to put it, the stuff that makes communication stick.
