The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Back to feedPost
Brand guidelines shouldn’t be something clients have to dig for.
I’ve been working on a prototype for a better way to deliver them.
Instead of static PDFs, this approach lets clients search by task (social, print, web) and instantly find the right assets with clear usage guidance.
Still early, but here’s a quick walkthrough.
Curious if something like this improve your workflow or client handoffs?
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
Related posts
Every brand has a surface hierarchy and most companies invest in the wrong one first.
Here's what I mean:
Your brand lives on surfaces such as awebsite, pitch deck, social profiles, sales collateral, product UI, email templates.
Every one of these is a moment where someone decides whether to trust you or move on, but they're not equal and there's an order of operations.
Your website is Surface #1. It's where 80% of your prospects form their first real impression, before the demo, before the deck and before anyone on your team gets to explain anything.
If your site doesn't close the credibility gap, nothing downstream can fix it.
Surface #2 is your pitch deck and It inherits the expectations the website set. If the site looked like a Series A startup, the deck is fighting uphill no matter how good the content is.
Surface #3 is everything else like social, collateral, email signatures, conference booths. These reinforce. They don't establish.
The mistake I see constantly: companies spend $50K on a brand identity system, deliver a beautiful guidelines PDF, and then launch with the same outdated website they had before.
The brand exists in a document and it doesn't exist in the world.
A brand system isn't done when the guidelines are done. It's done when your #1 surface reflects the full system.
Everything else follows from there.
Hi daniel, i'm taking seriously posting here, any advise, just starting. I have 1700 on X so i want to replicate
Does a portfolio with 20+ projects signal range or confusion? 🤔
I've been sitting with this question about my own work.
(need your help at the end)
My portfolio currently has 20+ case studies across Framer, Kajabi, Shopify, and Wix Studio, spanning e-commerce redesigns, coaching platforms, creator sites, and membership builds.
Here's my honest tension 🫢
I'm a CRO & web design specialist, but the breadth of tools and client types could read as "I'll build anything" instead of "I solve this specific problem."
I'm putting one case study under the microscope: the FjØRD Store Redesign, full e-comm store, Klaviyo/Shopify scope, with a growth strategy layer on top.
Here's what I would love your feedback on (pick one):
Does the project title communicate value, or does it just describe the tools?
or
Would you know who to hire me for after seeing this one project?
Project's link.
Drop your honest take. I can handle it 👇
For you I think this comes down more to curation and tweaking than the number of projects. You can present your work in a way that says “I solve this specific problem across multiple platforms” instead of “I do a bit of everything.” Contra doesn't have a way to archive projects,...
I just vibe-coded the Brand Guidelines Generator plugin and opened it up to the public today.
Available for both: Illustrator and Figma.
⏰ It saves me time when working on brand guidelines for my clients as I don't have to start with a blank canvas anymore!
This is amazing! Can’t wait to try it
Trending
Notion
Notion isn’t just where you work, it’s starting to work for you. What agents are you building?
portfolioreview
The best portfolios tell a story, not just show a grid. Share yours for feedback.
brandguidelines
Brand guidelines are becoming living systems, not static documents. What are you building for your clients?
aivideo
AI video tools are moving at warp speed. Which ones are you experimenting with?
freelancerlife
Freelancer life is wins, pivots, and everything in between. What’s yours right now?