How to Create Brand Guidelines in Illustrator (Generate for FREE)

Every brand designer knows that creating brand guidelines is the longest and most time-consuming part of a branding project. But that has finally changed.

In this video, I’ll show you the fastest and easiest way to create brand guidelines in Adobe Illustrator and how you can generate professional brand guidelines in seconds, even for free.

I previously made a video called How to Create Brand Guidelines in Illustrator, where I built everything manually from scratch. While that works, it’s slow and inefficient.

This method is by far the fastest way to create brand guidelines, not only in Illustrator, but in general.

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Creating Brand Guidelines in Illustrator (The Fast Way)

Here inside Adobe Illustrator, we’re using Akrivi GuideIt, a brand guidelines generator included in Akrivi Studio.

You’ll see a Brand Assets panel, where we upload and manage:

• Logos
• Fonts
• Brand colors

To start, I select the logo mark and click Set Logo Mark.

Illustrator registers it instantly.

I repeat the same steps for:

• Logotype
• Full logo

Next, I enter the brand name and choose the fonts:

• Heading font
• Subheading font
• Body font

For brand colors, I simply paste in the HEX codes, and repeat for each color.

Once all brand assets are added, we’re almost ready to generate the brand guidelines.

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Choosing a Brand Guidelines Template

Before generating, we switch to the Templates tab.

Here you’ll see a library of automated brand guideline templates:

• Corporate
• Tech
• Contemporary
• Urban

The default template is Corporate, but my personal favourite is Tech.

All we do now is click Generate.

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Brand Guidelines Generated Automatically

In under a minute, the brand guidelines are fully generated.

Nothing is edited or cut. This is the full process.

You’ll see:

• Logos automatically placed correctly
• Fonts applied consistently
• Colors converted to HEX, RGB, and CMYK
• Pages created for logos, colors, typography, visual elements, applications, and more

All relevant pages are generated automatically, so there’s no risk of missing anything.

You can then simply add brand imagery if needed to complete the document.

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Trying Different Brand Guideline Styles

I’ve also generated the same brand using different templates:

• Contemporary – works perfectly with rounded logos and secondary colors
• Urban – best suited for condensed fonts and bold identities
• Corporate – clean, simple, and ideal for traditional brands

You can customize font sizes and layouts at any time to match the brand perfectly.

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Sharing Brand Guidelines with Clients (No Re-Exporting)

One of the most frustrating parts of brand guidelines is having to re-export the file every time a client requests a small change.

Here’s how to avoid that.

I save the Illustrator file inside Google Drive.

Once it finishes syncing, the brand guidelines are instantly available online.

This is exactly what your client sees. Simple and clean.

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Updating Brand Guidelines Instantly

If a client requests a logo or color change, you don’t need to manually update every page.

You simply:

1. Replace the logo or color in Brand Assets
2. Let the file sync
3. Refresh the browser

The brand guidelines update instantly.

This saves hours on every project.

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