The short version
- A brand audit is a structured look at every place your brand appears, checking whether it still looks, sounds and works as intended.
- A useful visual brand audit can be done in about an hour by collecting screenshots of every touchpoint and scoring them side by side.
- The most common problems a brand audit finds are colour drift, stray fonts, outdated logos and inconsistent tone of voice.
- Scoring each touchpoint on the same few criteria turns opinions into a fix list you can act on.
- Running a short brand audit once or twice a year catches drift before it becomes a reason to rebrand.
On this page
A brand audit is a check of every place your brand shows up, from your Instagram grid to your invoices, to see whether it still looks and sounds like one business. The fast version takes an hour: ten minutes to collect screenshots of every touchpoint, forty minutes to lay them side by side and score each one against your colours, type, logo, backgrounds and voice, and ten minutes to turn the low scores into a fix list.
This is a visual and practical audit, not a market research project. It answers one question: are we applying our brand properly everywhere? If the answer is yes and it still feels wrong, that's when to think about a brand refresh.
Before you start: what you need
- Your guidelines or brand kit, even if it's just a logo file and three colour codes.
- A blank board or document where you can paste screenshots side by side.
- A colour picker: most design apps have one, and so do browser developer tools.
- The scorecard below, copied into a notes app or spreadsheet.
- An hour without interruptions. Do it alone first; show the team afterwards.
The one-hour brand audit, minute by minute
- 1
0 to 10 min: collect everything
Screenshot your last nine posts, three stories, profile pages on every platform, website home page, link preview, newsletter, a receipt email, email signature, and photos of your print and signs.
- 2
10 to 20 min: lay it out
Paste everything onto one board, grouped by channel. Seeing it all at once is the point: drift that is invisible one post at a time becomes obvious side by side.
- 3
20 to 30 min: check colour
Pick the main colour from five items and compare the codes with your palette. Note every colour that isn't in it.
- 4
30 to 40 min: check type and logo
Count the typefaces in use. Check every logo is the current version, the right variation for the space, and has its clear space.
- 5
40 to 50 min: check backgrounds, photos and voice
Do the backgrounds match? Do the photos share a style? Read five captions aloud: do they sound like the same person?
- 6
50 to 60 min: score and list fixes
Score every touchpoint, sort by lowest score, and write the top five fixes with an owner and a date.
The brand audit checklist and scorecard
Score each touchpoint from 0 to 2 on each line: 0 is wrong, 1 is close, 2 is right. A perfect touchpoint scores 12. Anything at 7 or below goes on the fix list.
Common failure
Common failure
Common failure
Score 2 if
Common failure
Score 2 if
Common failure
Common failure
BRAND AUDIT Date: ____ By: ____
Touchpoint Colour Type Logo Bkgd Legible Voice Total
Instagram grid _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Stories _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Website home _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Link preview _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Newsletter _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Receipt email _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Email signature _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Business card _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Signage / menu _ _ _ _ _ _ __/12
Top five fixes (owner, date):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.What brand drift looks like
Drift is rarely dramatic. It's a slightly different green on the menu, a second font that someone liked, a story made in another app. Each one is small; together they make a brand feel scattered. Colour is the easiest to spot with a picker.
A post that scores 12: brand background, brand type, current logo, words easy to read.
The same post on a borrowed background. Nothing is broken, but it no longer looks like the studio.
Turning the audit into fixes
Sort the scorecard from lowest to highest. The lowest scores are usually the touchpoints nobody designed on purpose: receipts, signatures, quick stories. They are also the quickest to fix, because one good template solves them for good.
Fix list that stalls
- "Make everything more consistent"
- Twenty items, no order
- No owner, no date
- Redesign the logo first
Fix list that works
- "Replace the story template with the brand one"
- Five items, lowest scores first
- One name and one date per item
- Fix how existing assets are applied first
If most problems trace back to people not finding the right files, the fix is brand asset management, not more design. If the scores are high but the brand still feels generic, read cohesive branding and distinctive brand assets. If you discover you need to change something fundamental, the rebrand checklist starts from an audit just like this one.
How often to run a brand audit
Once or twice a year is enough for most small businesses, plus after any big change: a new team member who makes content, a new platform, a new product line. The audit gets faster each time because the scorecard is already set up and the problems are smaller.
The easiest way to keep scores high between audits is to make the right choice the default. In Gradiently, your brand kit holds your logos, palettes, fonts and voice, and the Designer applies it when it lays out a design or makes other sizes, so a quick story made on a busy afternoon still scores 12.
Questions people ask
What is a brand audit?
A brand audit is a structured review of every place your brand appears, checking whether colour, type, logo, backgrounds and voice are applied as intended.
How do you do a brand audit?
Collect screenshots of every touchpoint, lay them side by side, score each against your brand rules, then list the lowest scoring items as fixes with an owner and a date.
How long does a brand audit take?
A visual brand audit for a small business can be done in about an hour. Larger organisations with many channels may need a day or more.
What should a brand audit checklist include?
Colour, typography, logo use, backgrounds and imagery, legibility and tone of voice, checked across social, web, email, print and physical spaces.
How often should you audit your brand?
Once or twice a year, and after any big change such as a new platform, new staff making content or a new product line.
Written by Gradiently
The team behind Gradiently, a design tool built around Marks: living gradients that make everything you design look like yours.
See our profile