Madison

Brand Guidelines Template

Thirty-two pages. Every decision a brand makes. Yours by asking.

The Madison Brand Guidebook is a complete InDesign brand guidelines document — logo system, color palette, typography, social, stationery, imagery, and contact — with every page a brand might need already laid out. The worked example on every page below is the Bear Brown identity; the placeholder structure underneath is yours. Delete the pages you don't need. That's the customization.

You never have to learn InDesign: the .idml file is zipped XML, which means Claude can rename, re-color, and re-brand the whole document for you. InDesign is just the export button.

.idml — the file Claude edits (also opens in any InDesign version and Affinity Publisher). .indd — the native InDesign master. .pdf — just want to look? Every page, no software.

The walkthrough: what's on every page, and the one prompt that adapts it to your brand.

Every page in the file

HTML recreations of all 32 pages of brand-guidebook-000.idml, in the Bear Brown palette with the real marks — so you know exactly what you're downloading before you open anything.

BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
GUIDELINES PRESENTATION
BRAND
GUIDELINE
PRESENTED BY
Bear Brown signature
01Cover — Brand Guideline, presented by Nik Bear Brown
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
Bear Brown signature
BRAND GUIDELINE · TEMPLATE
02Cover alternate — the signature plate
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
WELCOME
Nik Bear Brown
Founder, Bear Brown
TEAMWORK
SKILLS
CRAFT
03Welcome — who this book belongs to
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
CONTENT
01.THE BRAND
02.LOGO
03.COLOR PALETTE
04.TYPOGRAPHY
05.ONLINE
06.STATIONERY
07.IMAGERY
08.INFO
04Contents — the eight sections
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
A brand is a small system of repeated decisions — this book is where they get decided once.
05Section intro — the argument for a guidebook
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
LOGO
2.0
06Divider — 02 · Logo
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
BRAND LOGO.
ELEMENTS KEY
EVERY LISTING TESTED. EVERY VERDICT SHOWN.
07Brand logo — the mark, tagline, and elements key
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
KEY ELEMENTS
PRIMARY · THE SIGNATURE
SECONDARY · THE MONOGRAM
08Key elements — primary signature vs secondary monogram
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
SECONDARY MARK
legible at every size
09Secondary mark — the BB monogram at every size
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
COLOR.
3.0
10Divider — 03 · Color
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
COLOR THEME
ELEMENTS KEY · 01 02 03 04
Color One
Color Two
Color Three
Color Four
11Color theme — the four brand colors
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
BRAND COLOR.
COLOR ONE
40
60
80
100
COLOR TWO
40
60
80
100
COLOR THREE
40
60
80
100
COLOR FOUR
40
60
80
100
12Brand color — tint ladders 40 / 60 / 80 / 100
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
BRAND SYSTEM
BRAND SYSTEM
BRAND MANAGEMENT
BRAND OPPORTUNITY
13Brand system, management, opportunity
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
COLOR THEME
ELEMENTS KEY · 01 02 03 04
Color One
Color Two
Color Three
Color Four
14Color theme — elements key variant
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
TYPO
GRAPHY.
4.0
15Divider — 04 · Typography
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
TYPOGRAPHY
AaBb
Boston
Pt — 60
Primary Typeface · Default Weight
16Typography — the specimen (Boston, 60 pt)
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
PRIMARY TYPEFACE
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 !@#$%&*()
17Primary typeface — full character set
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
TRIPLE TYPEFACE
AaBbCc 012 — the quick brown foxDISPLAY
AaBbCc 012 — the quick brown foxBODY
AaBbCc 012 — the quick brown foxCAPTION
18Triple typeface — display, body, caption
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
ONLINE
5.0
19Divider — 05 · Online
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
ONLINE.
POST STYLE.
20Online — post styles
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
MEDIA KIT 2026
WORK WISH · POWERED BY BEAR BROWN
01
02
21Media kit 2026 — work wish
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
MEDIA KIT 2026
WORK WISH · POWERED BY BEAR BROWN
01
02
22Online post — media kit layouts
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
ONLINE.
POST STYLE.
23Online post — post style variants
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
STATION
ERY.
6.0
24Divider — 06 · Stationery
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
STATIONERY.
Nik Bear Brown
Founder, Bear Brown · bearbrown.co
25Stationery — business card, letterhead, envelope
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
STATIONERY.
two grounds, one mark
26Stationery — card variants
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
STATIONERY.
space can be reduced based on design type.
27Stationery — “space can be reduced based on design type”
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
IMAGERY
7.0
28Divider — 07 · Imagery
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
IMAGERY.
29Imagery — photography style frames
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
IMAGERY.
PLACE PRODUCT OR BRAND IMAGES HERE TO SHOW YOUR IMAGE STYLE.
30Imagery — place product or brand images here
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
CONTACT.
Bear Brown
30 N Gould St Ste N, Sheridan, WY 82801
bearbrown.co
bear@bearbrown.co
31Contact — 08 · Info
BEARBROWN.CO
NIK BEAR BROWN
GUIDELINES
NIK BEAR BROWN GUIDELINES
THANK
YOU.
32Thank you

Make it yours

Download the .idml, give it to Claude (Cowork or Claude Code) with this prompt, fill in the brackets, and open the file it returns in InDesign — activate fonts if asked, then File → Export → PDF.

In this folder is brand-guidebook-000.idml, an InDesign IDML brand guidebook
template. Make me a customized copy named brand-guidebook-MINE.idml:

- Replace the name "Nik Bear Brown" everywhere with: [YOUR NAME]
- Replace the website "bearbrown.co" / "BEARBROWN.CO" with: [YOUR SITE]
- Replace the email "bear@bearbrown.co" with: [YOUR EMAIL]
- Replace the title "Founder, Bear Brown" with: [YOUR TITLE]
- Replace the contact-page address with: [YOUR ADDRESS or "leave placeholder"]
- Change the accent palette from Bear Brown brown (#8B3A0F) to: [YOUR HEX]

Rules for editing the IDML safely:
- It is a zip archive: unzip it, edit the XML, re-zip with the "mimetype" file
  as the FIRST entry, stored uncompressed (zip -X out.idml mimetype -0, then
  add the rest).
- All visible text lives in <Content>...</Content> elements inside
  Stories/*.xml. XML-escape any & < > characters.
- Keep each replacement roughly the same length as the original (within ~25%)
  so frames don't overflow.
- Colors live in Resources/Graphic.xml as ColorValue attributes — re-map the
  accent family tint-preserving, not just the exact accent value.
- Validate every changed XML file parses; verify the zip with unzip -t.

When done, list every replacement you made and anything you could not find.
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