A skill that makes Claude write your brand book the way a senior brand designer would, starting from the files you already have. It reads your logo files, colour codes, fonts and site, lists what is missing, then works through eight stages with you, one at a time. Clear space is defined from a part of the mark itself. Minimum sizes are worked out from the thinnest stroke in your artwork, with the arithmetic shown. Each colour gets HEX, RGB, and CMYK for coated and uncoated paper, with Pantone left to be confirmed. It finishes with a one-page quick reference and builds the book as an editable PowerPoint file and a PDF.
Inside are four reference files. One holds the contents, the layout of a rule page, application specs for cards, labels, signs and email signatures, the quick reference and a final check. One holds the logo sizing method and tested code for colour conversion through free print reference profiles, gamut checks and WCAG contrast. One lists dated facts with their sources, covering WCAG 2.2, USPTO trademark symbols, FTC claim rules, Pantone and font licences. The last is a full worked example for an invented tea company. Claude never redraws a logo, never invents a fact or a Pantone number, and never takes a brand colour from the pixels of a screenshot.
It cannot design a logo, draw illustrations or take photographs, and it does not give legal advice. Pantone values need a current physical guide. Print-ready CMYK needs your printer's colour profile or one of the free reference profiles, which you upload; without one, CMYK is marked provisional. Switch on code execution before you start. Bring vector logo files rather than screenshots, the codes from your designer's files and your font licence receipts. The files are set in a named stand-in font unless you upload font files your licence lets you share. Print the logo at its minimum size on your usual paper before the book goes out.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Brand book builder
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In the download · 8 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows: eight stages from an inventory of your files to story, logo, colour, type, imagery and voice, applications, a one-page quick reference and the finished files.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/book-template.mdLean and full contents, how a rule page is laid out, application specs for cards, labels, signs and email, the quick reference template, the final check and how to keep the book current.
- references/logo-and-color-method.mdClear space units, the minimum size arithmetic, misuse and file naming, Pantone matching, and tested code for HEX to CMYK through ICC profiles, gamut checks in Delta E 2000 and WCAG contrast.
- references/dated-facts.mdWCAG 2.2 contrast thresholds, USPTO trademark symbol rules, FTC Green Guides and Made in USA, Pantone and Adobe, print reference profiles, font licences and icon sizes, each with its source, checked October 2026.
- references/worked-example.mdA complete run for an invented tea company, from inventory to quick reference, with every minimum size, CMYK value and contrast ratio computed.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/brand-book-builder.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /brand-book-builder. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the brand book builder skill. We are [BRAND NAME] and we sell [WHAT YOU SELL] in [COUNTRY]. I have attached [LOGO FILES AND COLOUR CODES]. The book is for [WHO WILL USE IT, E.G. OUR PRINTER AND STAFF]. Start with the inventory and tell me what is missing.Attach SVG or PDF logo files rather than screenshots, plus any colour codes from your designer. Switch on code execution first, because the colour maths and the finished files depend on it.
Worked example
From loose files to a finished brand book
- 01Share everything you have and let Claude list what is usable, what needs a better file and what is missing.Colours read from an SVG's code are your designer's exact values. Colours sampled from a screenshot are not.
- 02Agree the story, the positioning statement and three to five values, each with a behaviour and a cost.A value that costs the brand nothing reads as a slogan, and a claim with no evidence stays out of the book.
- 03Set clear space from a part of the mark and work out minimum sizes from its thinnest stroke.A minimum copied from another brand either wastes space or lets your logo fill in on press.
- 04Convert colours through a real print profile and compute every contrast pair before writing a rule.A simple formula can give a different green on press, and WCAG thresholds are never rounded up.
- 05Write the type hierarchy for screen and print, with the stand-in font for slides and email.If the book does not name the stand-in, everyone picks their own.
- 06Write imagery as five decisions with numbers and the voice as three traits with real rewrites.A photographer can light a set from numbers. Nobody can light one from a mood word.
- 07Spec only the applications the brand really makes, then fit everything on a one-page quick reference.The quick reference is what gets pinned up, so it must agree with the book to the last digit.
- 08Run the final check, name one owner and give the book a version number.Without an owner and a change log, nobody knows which rules changed or when.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
- Pantone ConnectFree tier, paid above it
Looks up and converts Pantone references, and pushes them into design files.
Bad at Licensing moved behind a subscription and broke files people had already made. Screen values are a guide; a printed book is the truth.
- Google FontsFree
Open-licensed typefaces, hosted and self-hostable, covering many scripts.
Bad at Quality is uneven across the catalogue, and the defaults are the most-used type on earth.
Why it matters
Ask a chat for brand guidelines and you get a template of headings, a logo minimum copied from another brand, CMYK from an online converter and contrast nobody checked. Printers and shops then work from screenshots. This skill makes Claude measure your actual artwork, convert colours through a real print profile, compute every contrast pair, turn every gap into a question, and write rules a stranger can measure, so the book still holds when it reaches a supplier you have never met.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing