Brand Style Guide Template for an App: One Page, Done in an Hour

Streakly and its values are invented for the example. The contrast ratios in row 7 were calculated with the WCAG formula from the hex values in row 6.

1. Step 1

   Collect What Already Exists (10 Minutes)

   Open your App Store listing and your app. Save the 1024 px icon file, your current screenshots and the hex values of the colors used in the app. If you have a website, note its fonts. Put all of it in one folder. This folder is your brand kit.

2. Step 2

   Name and One Sentence (5 Minutes)

   Write the app name exactly as it should appear, then one sentence on what it does. Naming rules sound fussy until someone writes your name three ways in one week. Linear's brand page opens with exactly this: the name is one word with a capital L, and it is not "Linear app".

3. Step 3

   Colors and Contrast (15 Minutes)

   List three to five colors and give each one a job. Then test every text and background pair in the WebAIM contrast checker and write the ratio next to it. Cross out any pair for body text that scores under 4.5 to 1.

4. Step 4

   Typefaces and Sizes (10 Minutes)

   Pick the typeface your app or website already uses. Choose two weights. Then fix three sizes for a 1080 px wide post and write them as numbers, so nobody picks a size by eye again.

5. Step 5

   Screenshot Style (10 Minutes)

   Decide light or dark mode, which three to five screens show the app best, what sample data appears on them, and whether screenshots sit in a device frame. Retake them once in that style and keep the files in the brand kit.

6. Step 6

   Voice, Post Rules and the Never List (10 Minutes)

   Write three voice traits with a limit for each, the post size and layout rules, and three to five things you never do. Add your name and the date at the bottom, then pin the page in the channel where posts get reviewed.

For an app team of one to five people, a Google Doc or a Notion page with the 14 rows, plus a dated PDF export, is enough. A designed version is nicer to look at and no more useful.

Northpine is invented. The ratios in row 7 were calculated with the WCAG formula from the hex values in row 6 and truncated to one decimal. Ember on Forest lands between 3 and 4.5 to 1, which is why the guide limits it to large text.

Ratios calculated from the hex values with the WCAG formula and truncated to one decimal. Check your own pairs in the WebAIM contrast checker, which also shows the stricter AAA level of 7 to 1 for normal text.

W3C treats the ratios as strict thresholds and does not round them: 4.499 to 1 does not meet 4.5 to 1. That is why the tables on this page truncate ratios and never round them up.

• One Mode

  Pick light or dark for marketing and stay with it. Mixing both in one feed makes two visual brands out of one app.

• Current Version Only

  Retake screenshots when the interface changes. A post that shows last year's tab bar tells users the marketing and the product are out of step.

• Sample Data, Never Real Users

  Create one sample account with believable content and use it for every screenshot. Apple's marketing guidelines ask for fictional account information in screen content instead of data from a real person.

• Official Frames or No Frames

  If you show a device, Apple's guidelines call for the product bezels it provides, unmodified. A plain screenshot with rounded corners and no device is also fine and often reads better at feed size. Pixel dimensions are in our App Store screenshot sizes table.

• One Screen per Image

  Choose the screen that proves the point of the post and show it large. In our own analysis of 35 social creatives, 89 percent sat at high or extreme whitespace, which leaves room for one screen and one headline.

Two public guides are worth reading for this row. Monzo's tone of voice guide rests on three principles and tells writers to apologize once and mean it. Microsoft's brand voice page names three principles too: warm and relaxed, crisp and clear, ready to lend a hand.

• Profile Picture

  Use the app icon, never a photo of the founder or a wordmark squeezed into a square. Write down the exact file, and check it in a round crop before you upload it, so the mark does not lose its corners. Every network should show the same picture, because that is how people recognize the account in a busy feed.

• Name and Handle

  One display name and one handle everywhere, written the way row 1 says. If the plain name is taken on a network, add the same suffix on every network, such as app or hq, rather than a different workaround on each one. List every handle in the guide so the team never links to an old account.

• One Master Canvas and Its Exceptions

  Make the post at one size and list where it changes. 1080 by 1350 works on most feeds: LinkedIn's photo requirements recommend 1080 pixels wide and accept ratios from 3:1 to 4:5. Pinterest is the exception, since Pinterest's product specs recommend 2:3, or 1000 by 1500 pixels, and say taller Pins may be cut off. The full list is in the social media image sizes reference.

• A Safe Area for Text and the Icon

  Write down a margin, for example 64 pixels on a 1080 pixel canvas, inside which the headline, the icon and any call to action must sit. Network buttons and crops eat the edges, and a margin written as a number stops each post from drifting a little closer to them.

• Caption Rules per Network

  The voice from row 11 stays the same. The format changes: how long the caption runs, where the link goes, and how many hashtags you use, if any. Keep one line per network in the guide. The social media caption generator page lists the current caption and hashtag limits for each network.

• What You Repost and What You Never Post

  Decide whether you share users' posts about the app, and under which rule: ask first, credit by handle, never crop out their name. Then add the network specific items to the never list, such as screenshots of private messages or reviews quoted without permission.

Checked October 11, 2026. Each company keeps its logo files on its own brand page. Download them there and keep them in the brand kit beside your own.

A small app rarely needs the right hand column. Add a row from it the second time someone asks for it, and keep the one page at the front of the document so the daily rules are still found first.

1. Step 1

   Put the Page Where Posts Get Made

   Pin it in the channel where posts are reviewed and link it from the first page of your design file. A brand style guide PDF sent by email is fine for a freelancer, but date it in the file name, because the copy in their downloads folder will outlive three of your changes.

2. Step 2

   Turn the Rules Into Tool Settings

   A rule that lives in the tool gets followed without being read. Canva's Brand Kit holds your logos, colors and fonts, and as of October 2026 Canva's pricing page lists one Brand Kit with three colors on the free plan and five kits on Pro. In Figma, color and text styles can be published to a library that every file draws from. Teams with many partners use dedicated guideline software such as Frontify, which keeps one live version in place of files.

3. Step 3

   Make One Template per Post Type

   Build an update post, a review post and a milestone post once, with the sizes from row 9 and the layout from row 12 locked in. People copy the last post they made. If the last post was built from a correct template, the guide is being followed whether anyone opened it or not.

4. Step 4

   Give It to Every New Person First

   A new teammate, a freelancer or an agency gets the one page before the first brief. It takes five minutes to read, and it saves the round of corrections that otherwise comes after their first draft.

5. Step 5

   Check Ten Posts Every Quarter

   Open your last ten posts and mark each one against rows 6 to 12. If the same rule is broken three times, either the rule is wrong or the template is. Change one of them and update the date line.

6. Step 6

   Change the Page When the App Changes

   A redesign, a new icon or a renamed feature makes rows 3, 6 and 10 wrong on the day it ships. Add the style guide to your release checklist next to the screenshots, so the marketing never shows an app that no longer exists.

• Resources

  ChatGPT Prompts for Instagram Carousels

  Twenty five copy ready prompts for hooks, slide outlines, captions and app carousels, with the 2026 Instagram carousel rules.

• Resources

  ChatGPT Prompts for a Content Calendar

  Twenty five copy ready prompts for brand voice, pillars, monthly and weekly plans, each network, a launch month and a calendar table for Sheets or Notion.

• Resources

  Claude Prompts for Social Media

  Thirty copy ready Claude prompts for brand voice, post ideas, captions per network, carousels, hooks, replies, export analysis, a weekly review and an audit.

• Use cases

  Startups

  A launch plan by phase for a new app, and the recurring posts Spreadcast covers once the listing is live.

• Tools

  Instagram Post Generator

  Spreadcast designs a 4:5 Instagram post for each app update, 5 star review and rating milestone, writes the caption and publishes it for you.

• Alternatives

  Hootsuite vs Sprout Social

  Both bill per seat. Hootsuite is cheaper for an inbox and listening, Sprout for approvals and report exports. Every plan, seat sums for 1 to 10 people and the verdict.