How consistent is your brand?
Score your brand against 12 criteria in 4 groups. It takes about 3 minutes, and honest answers are the only ones worth giving.
A brand audit checks whether your business looks, sounds and behaves the same everywhere a customer meets it.
This checklist scores yours against 12 criteria in 4 groups: assets, consistency, clarity and governance.
It takes about 3 minutes, and the score is a plain percentage of criteria met.
The group your gaps cluster in tells you whether the fix is a document, artwork or a clearer message.
My logo looks professional and legible at every size, from a favicon to a vehicle.
I have a defined colour palette with specific hex codes I can refer to.
I consistently use the same 2 or 3 fonts across all my marketing materials.
I can clearly describe what makes my business different from its competitors.
My website, social media and printed materials all feel visually consistent.
I have a written description of my target customer and what they care about.
My business cards, email signatures and invoices look like they come from the same business.
A stranger can tell what my business does, and why to choose it, within a few seconds.
I have a consistent voice and tone across my marketing copy.
My logo is available in high-resolution vector format (SVG, AI or EPS).
I have documented rules for how my brand should be used by staff or contractors.
My social media profiles use consistent profile photos and cover images.
What the 4 groups are testing
The 12 criteria fall into 4 groups, and where your gaps cluster tells you far more than the total does.
| Group | Criteria | What it is testing |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | 1, 2, 10 | Whether the raw material exists in a usable state: a logo that survives being scaled, a colour palette with actual values, and vector source files. |
| Consistency | 3, 5, 7 | Whether the same business shows up the same way across every surface a customer touches, including the unglamorous ones like invoices and email signatures. |
| Clarity | 4, 6, 8, 9 | Whether the business can state what it does, who for, and why that matters, in language a stranger understands immediately. |
| Governance | 11, 12 | Whether the brand survives contact with other people: staff, contractors, printers and anyone posting on your behalf. |
Assets
This is the cheapest group to close and the one everything else depends on, because vector artwork and defined colour values are what consistency is built from.
Consistency
Often closed with documentation: the assets exist, and a written record says which one to use where.
Clarity
Closed with strategy and words first, then artwork.
Governance
Written rules. Drift builds slowly, so this group shows most clearly when you lay 12 months of material side by side.
What each score band means
The bands below are labels on percentage ranges, published here so you see them before your result. They describe where the brand stands today, and your next check shows the direction.
| Score | Band | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 85 to 100 | Consistent | The foundations are in place, so the useful work is maintenance: keeping the documented rules current and checking new material against them. |
| 65 to 84 | Solid, with gaps | The brand holds together, with specific criteria still open. Close the individual items you said no to, one at a time. |
| 40 to 64 | Working, undocumented | There's a brand, and it lives in 1 person's head and in whichever file was opened most recently. Documentation and a tidy-up will do more for it than a redesign. |
| 0 to 39 | Foundations missing | Several basics are still to be set up. Start with the assets group, because the other 3 depend on it. |
How to act on the result
Work in this order, because each step makes the next one cheaper:
- Recover the assets. If criterion 10 is a no, find or rebuild the vector artwork first, because every consistency fix downstream depends on the source file. It’s normally a small piece of logo design work rather than a new logo.
- Set the values. Write colour and type decisions down as actual values. It costs nothing when the decisions already exist.
- Write the rules. Governance and consistency gaps on this list close with a written document. The structure guide sets out what belongs in one, and brand guidelines covers what a set I write for you adds.
- Close the clarity gaps. Criteria 4, 6, 8 and 9 are answered by brand strategy: who the customer is, what the business claims, and the language that carries it.
- Then consider redesigning. If the identity itself needs work, that’s a brand refresh or a new brand design project, and it’s worth scoping as a whole.
If you want the gaps priced, send them through the quote form, or call me on 0403 454 199, and describe what you found. A brief that names which of these 12 criteria came back no is far easier to quote accurately than one that says the brand needs updating.
Frequently Asked Questions
A structured review of where a brand stands: whether the assets exist in usable form, whether the business looks like itself across every surface a customer touches, whether it can explain what it does, and whether the rules hold when someone else applies them.
A full audit goes further and looks at how customers see the brand.
This page covers the part you can assess yourself.
It's a plain percentage: the number of criteria you answered yes to, divided by 12.
Each criterion counts equally, and the score measures your brand against itself rather than against other businesses.
The bands are labels on ranges, published on this page so you can see exactly what a number means.
Every 6 months is a sensible rhythm for a self-check, and again whenever something material changes: a new location, a new market, a name change, or a first hire who will produce artwork.
Drift is gradual, so the value comes from comparing the same 12 answers over time rather than from any single score.
Read which group the gaps fall in, because that tells you more than the total.
Missing assets and missing documentation are the cheapest gaps to close, with recovered artwork or a written page of rules.
Clarity gaps close with strategy and words first, then artwork.
Keep exploring
Brand refresh
What's involved when the audit says the identity itself needs work as well as documentation.
Brand guidelines structure
The 8 sections that close the governance and consistency gaps on this list.
Branding cost calculator
Turn the gaps you found into a scope, and see a range for it from my starting prices.
Ready for a real quote?
A tool gives you a starting point, and a quote comes from me reading your actual brief.
Send the brief, and I aim to reply within 1 business day.