# Brand audit: a one-hour check of how you look everywhere [Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-audit) You don't need an agency to see whether your brand is holding together. You need an hour, a folder of screenshots and an honest scorecard. Here is the whole audit, minute by minute. ## 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 - The most common problems a brand audit finds are colour drift, stray fonts, outdated logos and inconsistent tone of voice.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. 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](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-refresh). ## Before you start: what you need - Your guidelines or [brand kit](https://gradiently.design/guide/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. | Criterion | Score 2 if | Common failure | | --- | --- | --- | | Colour | Only palette colours, in their agreed roles | Near misses: a slightly different blue picked by eye | | Type | Brand heading and body faces only | A default font creeping in on stories or slides | | Logo | Current version, right variation, clear space respected | An old logo on print or a profile picture | | Background | The brand's background or colour world | Borrowed templates with their own look | | Legibility | Every word easy to read at real size | Text over the busiest part of a photo or gradient | | Voice | Sounds like the brand | Formal on LinkedIn, jokey on Instagram, robotic in email | Six criteria, scored the same way for every touchpoint. Consistent scoring is what turns a vague feeling into a list. ```text 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. ``` Copy this scorecard. Add or remove touchpoints to match your business. ## 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. - Official teal: #0f766e - Found on menu: #14857a - Found on website: #0e6b75 - Found on stories: #2a9d8f - Found on cards: #115e59 One brand colour, five versions found in an audit. None is wildly wrong, which is exactly why nobody noticed. Replace them all with the official code. An Instagram post announcing spring classes, fully on brand with the studio's usual background and type A post that scores 12: brand background, brand type, current logo, words easy to read. The same spring classes post on an unrelated background that doesn't match the studio's brand 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](https://gradiently.design/guide/brand-asset-management), not more design. If the scores are high but the brand still feels generic, read [cohesive branding](https://gradiently.design/guide/cohesive-brand) and [distinctive brand assets](https://gradiently.design/guide/distinctive-brand-assets). If you discover you need to change something fundamental, the [rebrand checklist](https://gradiently.design/guide/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. ## FAQ ### 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.