A brand book for Swiss SMEs: how to build it and make it useful

The brand book that gets used vs the one that gathers dust

90% of SME brand books in French-speaking Switzerland sit untouched in a Drive folder after delivery. Nobody consults, applies or updates them, and the investment is wasted.

10% of brand books are used: your in-house team checks it at the slightest doubt, your external providers (photographer, advertising agency, freelance designer) find the rules they need in it, and your partners use it to respect your brand.

To build a brand book that is genuinely useful, three things matter: its structure, concrete examples and the way it is distributed.

The minimum content of an SME brand book

An SME brand book for a company of 5 to 50 people does not need to run to 100 pages. 20 to 30 well-made pages are worth more than 60 confusing ones.

Recommended structure:

1. Brand (3-5 pages)

• Mission, vision, values
• Personality (tone, attitude)
• Who it is for, why
• Not to be confused with

2. Logo (3-5 pages)

• Logo versions (primary, secondary, monochrome)
• Clear space (minimum space around it)
• Minimum sizes
• Permitted and prohibited backgrounds
• Uses to avoid (concrete examples of misuse)

3. Colours (2-3 pages)

• Primary palette with HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone codes
• Secondary palette
• Recommended combinations
• Brand backgrounds

4. Typography (2-3 pages)

• Primary and secondary typefaces with their licences
• Hierarchy of use (heading, body, caption)
• Layout examples

5. Iconography and illustrations (2 pages)

• Icon style
• Illustration style, if applicable
• Examples of use

6. Photography (2 pages)

• Expected photographic style (lighting, framing, editing)
• Good and bad examples

7. Applications (5-10 pages)

• Stationery (business card, letterhead, email signature)
• Presentations (Google Slides and Figma templates)
• Social media (templates per platform)
• Documents (reports, brochures)
• Specific print items, if relevant

Format: an interactive PDF (with a clickable table of contents) + Figma or InDesign source files that your partners can retrieve.

The rule of concrete examples

An effective brand book shows each rule with an example.

Bad: “The logo must be used with an appropriate clear space and on backgrounds that respect its visual integrity.”

Good: a mockup of the logo showing the clear space in transparent cyan. Next to it, 3 examples of good backgrounds (white, black, a calm photo) and 3 examples of bad ones (a busy photo, insufficient contrast, a complicated pattern).

In a brand book, concrete examples are 10 times more effective than abstract rules.

Distribution: a PDF and four other formats

To be used, the brand book needs several formats, starting with a 30-page PDF:

PDF: for external partners (agencies, freelance designers, photographers). A fixed reference document.

Figma file: for designers and marketing teams. Direct access to components, colours, typography. Editable, copyable.

Notion page: for the in-house team. A page you can search and keep up to date, with links to the source files.

Dedicated website: for large brands (in the style of brand.figma.com, brand.atlassian.com). Published on a subdomain of your main site.

Printed mini cards: an A6 printed card with the essentials (logo, colours, typography). Given to freelancers and new employees.

More channels = more chances that the brand book is consulted at the right moment.

Adapting to the size of the company

Solopreneur or freelancer (1-3 people)

Light brand book: 10 pages of PDF + Notion. Focus on the logo, colours, typography and social media templates. No need for complex stationery.

Established SME (10-50 people)

Standard brand book: 20-30 pages of PDF + Figma + Notion. All the elements listed above. With a handover workshop for the team to explain the choices.

Scale-up (50-200 people)

Extended brand book: 40-60 pages + a dedicated site + a training workshop for the team. Multilingual if international. With governance (who approves exceptions).

Large company (200+ people)

Full brand centre: a dedicated website, an integrated design system with live components (Storybook, Figma library), a dedicated brand team.

Common mistakes

Mistake 1 · A brand book without applications. 30 pages of theory without a single ready-to-use template. Nobody knows what to do in practice.

Mistake 2 · A brand book too ambitious for the company’s size. An 8-person SME does not need an 80-page brand book. The longer the document, the harder it is to find a rule in it.

Mistake 3 · No updates. A brand book from 2020, never touched by 2026, becomes obsolete and loses credibility.

Mistake 4 · No handover workshop. The brand book is delivered by email, and then nobody knows how to use it. Plan a workshop of 1 to 2 hours at delivery.

Mistake 5 · A designer who keeps the source files. If you do not have the Figma or InDesign source files, you are a prisoner of the designer. Always negotiate the source files when you place the order.

The Voren brand book

At Voren, the internal brand book runs to 24 pages and covers:

• Mission, values, brand tone
• Logo (versions, clear space, misuses)
• Signal-lime palette #D2FB50 + dark base
• Schibsted Grotesk typography
• Consistent iconography
• Product photography (dark style, performance)
• Templates: presentation, social media, email signature, stationery

Format: PDF + Figma + Notion. A handover workshop is planned for every new partner who produces work for the brand.

What Voren offers

Three visual identity plans that include a brand book that grows with the plan:

• Mini: 12 pages, the essential brand book
• Complete: 20 pages, the complete brand book
• Brand book: more than 40 pages, the extended version, with a 2-hour handover workshop and proprietary illustrations

All of them include the Figma or InDesign source files, with the rights transferred to you.

Going further

See the Visual identity service: three plans, price fixed before we start.

See the Logo service: to start with the logo alone.

Read our article Visual identity vs branding: be clear about what you are buying.