# Annotated Guidelines

> How to write brand guidelines people and AI agents can follow

How to write each part of a brand guide so people and AI agents can follow it, with excerpts from published guides annotated, and outlines to copy.

## When to use this site

- Writing or fixing a brand guide: what each part needs (logo, color, type, imagery, voice, words, layout, and rules for using AI), with wording to copy.
- Finding how named companies word a part of their published brand guidelines, quoted with the source and the date checked.
- Making brand guidelines that AI agents such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor can follow: exact values, examples, reasons, and the real files.
- Getting finished brand guidelines to a team and its AI agents, including across many client brands.

Every page is also available as Markdown: add `.md` to its address, or request it with `Accept: text/markdown`. The facts behind the pages, each with its source, are in [data.json](https://aibrandguidelines.org/data.json). Facts were last checked on 2026-11-11.

## Pages

- [Brand guidelines people and AI agents can follow](https://aibrandguidelines.org/index.md): How to write each part of a brand guide so people and AI agents can follow it, with excerpts from 12 published guides annotated, and outlines to copy.

## About

- [About Annotated Guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/about.md): Who runs Annotated Guidelines, how published guides are chosen and quoted, how the notes are written, when facts were checked and how to report errors.

## Examples

- [Published brand guidelines, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples.md): Twelve brand guides that companies and public bodies publish, from Mailchimp to the NHS, each with its best rules quoted with notes, and what it leaves out.
- [Mailchimp Content Style Guide, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/mailchimp.md): Mailchimp’s public style guide pairs each voice trait with the line it must not cross. Its best rules on voice and words, quoted with notes, and its gaps.
- [GOV.UK style guide, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/gov-uk.md): The UK government’s style guide turns plain English into word swaps anyone can check, with dated changes. Its best rules quoted with notes, and its gaps.
- [Microsoft Writing Style Guide, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/microsoft.md): Microsoft’s writing guide dates every page and gives each banned word a replacement and a reason. Its best rules on voice and words, quoted with notes.
- [NHS identity guidelines, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/nhs.md): The NHS identity guidelines give each color in five systems, logo space for screen and print, and the research behind the rules. Quoted with notes, with gaps.
- [IBM Design Language, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/ibm.md): IBM’s design language measures clear space in logo heights, icons in pixels and spacing in fixed multiples, with open font files. Quoted with notes, with gaps.
- [Mozilla brand guidelines, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/mozilla.md): Mozilla’s brand guide gives color as proportions, line spacing for every text size and a date on every page. Its best rules quoted with notes, with its gaps.
- [Spotify’s design and branding guidelines for developers, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/spotify.md): Spotify’s rules for developers give exact logo sizes for screen and print, and the real files to download. Its best rules quoted with notes, and its gaps.
- [Atlassian’s content and logo guidelines, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/atlassian.md): Atlassian’s design system ties each voice trait to the reader’s mood and gives logo sizes in pixels. Its rules on voice, words and logos, quoted with notes.
- [Shopify’s content guidelines for apps, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/shopify.md): Shopify’s writing rules for apps in its admin turn plain language into a reading level and a limit on exclamation marks. Its best rules, quoted with notes.
- [Dropbox brand guidelines, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/dropbox.md): Dropbox’s brand site says when to use photos, illustration or icons, and its legal page lists every banned logo change. Quoted with notes, with its gaps.
- [GitHub brand guidelines, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/github.md): GitHub’s brand toolkit names its open source typeface with download links and limits the logo to a few colors. Its best rules, quoted with notes, and its gaps.
- [Experian’s generative AI guidelines, annotated](https://aibrandguidelines.org/examples/experian.md): Experian’s brand site has seven rules for using AI, each with a do and a do not, from consent to disclosure. Quoted with notes, with what it leaves out.

## Parts of a guide

- [The ten parts of a brand guide, and how to write each](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts.md): The ten parts most brand guides have, from positioning and logo to voice and using AI. Each page says what the part needs, with published examples and wording.
- [How to write the positioning and messaging section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/positioning.md): Who the brand is for, what it does in a customer’s words, what it never claims, and how to write its name, so that people and agents describe it the same way.
- [How to write the logo section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/logo.md): Which logo versions exist and when to use each, the clear space and minimum size as numbers, each misuse written out, and links to the real files.
- [How to write the color section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/colour.md): Every color as hex, RGB, CMYK and Pantone in text, how much of each to use, which pairs are readable, and what each color is for, with published examples.
- [How to write the typography section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/typography.md): Which fonts, weights and sizes to use, where to get the files or licenses, and what to use when the brand font is not there, with published examples.
- [How to write the photography and imagery section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/imagery.md): What the brand’s photos show and avoid, in sentences and not only in mood boards, with approved examples, the limits of each style, and rules for AI images.
- [How to write the icons and illustration section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/illustration.md): The style rules for icons and illustration as measurements, when to use each, and the source files, so that new drawings match the set and do not imitate it.
- [How to write the voice and tone section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/voice.md): Name a few voice traits, show each one in a real sentence and in one that goes too far, and say how the tone changes by situation, with published examples.
- [How to write the words and style section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/words.md): The words to use and avoid, product names, spelling, capitals, dates and numbers, written as pairs that people can search for. With published examples to copy.
- [How to write the layout and templates section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/layout.md): The grid, margins and spacing as numbers, and links to the templates that people must start from, so that layouts come from the brand, not from a copy by eye.
- [How to write the using AI section of brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/parts/ai.md): Which AI tools people can use, what AI can and must not make, what goes into a prompt, what gets a label, and who checks the work, with published examples.

## Sharing

- [Where brand guidelines can live, for people and AI agents](https://aibrandguidelines.org/sharing.md): A PDF, a website, a guidelines platform, files in each AI tool or a brand layer: how people and AI agents reach each, and what happens when the guide changes.
- [Getting your brand guidelines to AI agents](https://aibrandguidelines.org/sharing/ai-agents.md): How to give Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor your brand guidelines and files, what each tool’s project files and rules do, and when one shared brand is worth it.
- [One brand guide for a whole team and its AI agents](https://aibrandguidelines.org/sharing/team.md): How a team keeps one current version of its brand guidelines that every person and AI agent works from, and what to do with the copies that are out there.
- [Brand guidelines across many client brands](https://aibrandguidelines.org/sharing/agencies.md): How an agency or studio keeps the brand guidelines of each client separate and current, for its people and its AI agents, from the first day to handover.
- [Your customers’ brand guidelines in an AI product](https://aibrandguidelines.org/sharing/ai-products.md): For founders and engineers whose product makes work under customer brands: how to take in the guidelines of each customer, follow them, and keep them current.

## Start here

- [What brand guidelines are, and what makes them work](https://aibrandguidelines.org/start.md): Brand guidelines are the rules and real files that keep a brand consistent. What a guide contains, who reads it, and one published guide annotated.
- [What makes a brand rule easy to follow](https://aibrandguidelines.org/start/good-rules.md): Six things that let a designer, an agency or an AI agent follow a brand rule without a question: an exact value, an example, a reason, the file, a date.
- [What changes when AI agents read your brand guidelines](https://aibrandguidelines.org/start/ai-agents.md): An AI agent follows your guide literally and cannot ask what you meant. Which parts of a typical guide it can use, which parts it misses, and what to add.

## Templates

- [Outline of a full brand guide to copy](https://aibrandguidelines.org/templates.md): A brand guide outline in plain text, with every part and the questions for each part. Copy it, fill in the brackets, and delete what you do not need yet.
- [One-page brand sheet to copy](https://aibrandguidelines.org/templates/one-page-brand-sheet.md): A one-page brand summary for a freelancer, a partner or an AI agent: logo files, colors, fonts, voice and words as plain text. Copy it and fill it in.

## Data and full text

- [Data snapshot](https://aibrandguidelines.org/data.json): the facts behind the pages, each with its source and the date it was checked.
- [Whole site in one file](https://aibrandguidelines.org/llms-full.txt): every page as Markdown.
- [Sitemap](https://aibrandguidelines.org/sitemap.xml)

## Who runs this site

Annotated Guidelines is run by the team at Rainbrand.