Branding · 2 min read
Web3 Brand Guidelines: What to Hand Over to Your Team
A practical Web3 branding handoff covering logo exports, accessible colour roles, community templates, product components and ownership.
A brand book is not the whole handoff
Web3 brand guidelines should help people make the next real asset, not merely explain the identity in a beautiful presentation. List who will use them: a product designer, developer, community moderator or freelance motion artist. Each needs different working material. A community announcement template cannot replace a product component, and a rendered logo cannot replace a scalable source file. Define the handoff around recurring tasks and provide a small example showing how each part is used.
Export a logo set people can identify
Supply an organised set of vector and raster files for appropriate light and dark backgrounds. Include a small avatar version if the main wordmark becomes unreadable in a circle. Explain clear space, minimum readable size and which modifications are not approved. Use filenames that describe the variation instead of final-final labels. Test the actual exports in the website and community profiles. Technical file availability is only part of a handoff: the recipient also needs to know which file belongs in which situation.
Document colour roles, not just swatches
Name colours by their purpose: brand emphasis, text, background, primary action and status. Show acceptable foreground/background pairings with real captions and buttons. Keep status understandable without relying on colour alone. Check the light and dark versions separately against relevant WCAG contrast criteria. A saturated brand orange may work for a graphic but need a different pairing for small text. Record the usable combinations so developers and contributors do not have to guess while producing new screens.
Include content-heavy product examples
A design system should show long addresses, unfamiliar network names, empty states and meaningful error messages, not only a polished dashboard with short labels. Keep keyboard focus and field labels visible. Separate the rules for expressive campaign graphics from the rules for readable product controls. Ethereum.org's design resources are useful context for Web3-specific journeys, but your actual product determines the required patterns. Review the samples with the people implementing them and resolve ambiguities before the handoff is considered complete.
Give the community editable starting points
Provide a few announcement, event and product-update templates rather than a large collection nobody can maintain. Include guidance on official naming, link destinations and how unofficial remixes should be identified. Explain whether illustrations may be recoloured and what third-party marks may be used. Preserve room for long headlines and essential context. Community creativity benefits from clear boundaries, especially when an unofficial asset might otherwise be mistaken for a project announcement.
Assign ownership after delivery
Choose who maintains the master files and who approves changes to the identity. Keep a simple change record when the product name, supported networks or templates evolve. Ask a teammate to make a real announcement from the delivered kit without coaching; their questions reveal gaps better than another polished slide. MRL Creation's Brand Kit and Promo Kit portfolio entries are relevant starting points for discussing reusable identity and campaign deliverables. Agree on editable formats and maintenance responsibilities before work begins rather than assuming every future asset is included.
