In this guide
In short
To stop hunting for the right logo, keep your brand elements in one place. Keep one up-to-date version of each file, its usage rule next to it, and give access to everyone who produces. A shared folder is enough at first. It shows its limits as soon as several teams and contractors produce.
The sign that your brand elements are scattered
Friday, 6 pm. The agency needs the white logo for a slide, and the person who has it is in a meeting. The agency finds one online: blurry, and in the old version.
The files live in emails, folders and presentations, and nobody knows anymore which one is right. The old color comes back in an agency visual, the font becomes a similar font. It is nobody’s fault.
The method
Take inventory
List everything your teams use: logos and their variants, colors, fonts, icons, photos, presentation templates. Note where each element lives today.
Element Where it lives To do Main logo Drive, emails, 3 presentations keep a single version Colors PDF guidelines, page 8 add the RGB codes Fonts a single computer check the license Photos image bank, Drive sort out the approved ones Presentation templates Drive, 2023 version update The inventory fits in one table: the element, where it lives, what is left to do. Keep one up-to-date version of each element
For each logo, a color version and a white version, in SVG and PNG. For each font, the files and the weights you use. Archive the old versions so nobody picks them up by mistake.
Store each file with its rule
A logo on its own does not say where it goes. Next to each element, write its usage rule in one sentence: on which background, at what minimum size, what is off-limits.
File Its usage rule logo-white.svg On dark backgrounds only, 24 px minimum. Orange #E8703A For numbers and accents, never as a background. Brand font, bold For headlines. Body text stays in regular. Each file with its rule, in one sentence. Give access to everyone who produces
Marketing team, agencies, freelancers, local teams: everyone should find the right file on their own, even on a Friday at 6 pm. Decide who sees what, brand by brand if you have several.
Who Brand A Brand B Marketing team access access Agency access no access Freelancer no access access Local team access no access Who sees what, brand by brand. Name the person who keeps this folder up to date
When the guidelines change, this person updates the files, and everyone gets the new version in the same place.
Give your AI tools the same folder
Your AI tools need the real files too. Connect them to the same folder as your teams, for example with an MCP connector (MCP is a standard plug that connects an AI assistant to your tools). Claude and Cursor can use it.
AI assistantsDraft our launch post for LinkedInClaudeUsing your brand from Graphist: logo, colors, fonts and tone of voice.Graphist connected · revoke anytimeThe same folder, connected to Claude, Cursor and your other tools.
With Graphist
The Graphist brand portal opens with a question: “What do you need?”. You type “the white logo, in SVG”, and it returns the right file, with its usage rule and the guidelines version. Agencies, freelancers and local teams help themselves.
Access is set brand by brand: each team only sees the brands that concern it. Your AI assistants connect to the same brand, and anyone can cut their access whenever they want.
Your guide · §5 LogoWhite logo on dark backgrounds, color logo on light ones. Download SVGFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between brand guidelines and a brand portal?
The guidelines describe the rules. The portal gives everyone who produces access to the files, up to date, with each file’s rule.
Which file formats should you plan for?
For logos, SVG for the web, PNG for tools that cannot read SVG, and a vector PDF for print. For colors, HEX and RGB codes for screens, CMYK for print. For fonts, WOFF2 files for the web and OTF for desktop software, if your license allows sharing them.
How do you stop an agency from using an old version?
Give it access to the same portal as your teams, rather than sending files. When the guidelines change, it gets the new version in the same place.