What Should Saudi Brand Guidelines Include?

2026-08-02 · 1507 words · Updated 2026-09-19 · Eclipse Advertising Agency

Brand guidelines have one job: to let someone who has never met your team produce work that looks and sounds like you. For a Saudi brand almost everything has to work twice, in Arabic reading right to left and in English reading left to right. Many guides detail the English logo and treat Arabic as a translation job. Here is what a working guide for a bilingual Saudi brand should contain.

1. Brand foundation, kept short

Open with one page on positioning, audience and personality, not a manifesto. Designers and copywriters need a few lines to check their work against, like "confident, not loud". Write these in both languages; a word that sounds right in English can sound wrong in Arabic.

2. The logo system

Arabic and Latin logotypes designed together

The Arabic and Latin wordmarks should be drawn as a pair, not as a Latin logo with Arabic added afterwards. Match stroke weight, visual size and personality, and accept that Arabic letterforms have different proportions: ascenders and descenders go further, and the baseline behaves differently. The guide should show both versions and explain how they were balanced, so no one "fixes" them by stretching one to match the other.

Bilingual lockups

Specify each approved arrangement: Arabic-only, English-only, stacked (usually Arabic above English for a Saudi-first brand), and side by side. For side-by-side lockups, say which language goes on the right and whether that changes with the layout direction of the page. Include the symbol-only version and when it is allowed.

Clear space and minimum size

Define clear space with a unit taken from the logo itself, such as the height of a particular letter or the symbol, rather than a fixed measurement. Give minimum sizes for print (in millimetres) and screen (in pixels) for every lockup. Arabic details close up sooner at small sizes, so the Arabic minimum is often larger than the Latin one.

Legal and cultural checks

Record the trademark status of each version. If you plan to protect the marks, the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property's trademark registration service is where applications are filed. Take advice on whether to register the Arabic and Latin versions separately or as a combined mark. Also record what the logo and campaigns must not use. The Ministry of Commerce has banned the commercial use of state symbols and emblems and of religious and sectarian symbols (Ministerial Decision 136, published in Umm Al-Qura in November 2024). This matters most around National Day and Founding Day.

3. Colour, specified for every medium

Every colour needs a HEX and RGB value for screens, a CMYK value for print, and ideally a Pantone reference for spot printing and signage. Add the ratio between colours (for example, a mostly neutral palette with the brand colour used as an accent), approved background combinations, and text contrast pairs that meet accessibility requirements. Many Saudi brands lean on green or gold. If yours does, say how its shade differs from national and government green so it cannot be mistaken for them.

4. Typography in two scripts

Choose an Arabic typeface and a Latin typeface that work together at the same point size, or a family designed for both scripts. Specify the weights for headings, body text and captions, and say how to size Arabic relative to Latin. Arabic set at the same point size often looks smaller, so many guides set a fixed adjustment. Line spacing needs to be looser for Arabic because of its vertical range.

Write down licensing. Commercial Arabic fonts are often licensed separately for desktop, web, app and broadcast use. The guide should say which licences the brand holds, who holds the files, and which free fallback to use in systems where the main font cannot be installed, such as email clients and some content management systems.

Numerals

Both Arabic-Indic numerals (٠١٢٣) and Western numerals (0123) are used in Arabic text in Saudi Arabia, so the guide should pick one for each context, such as body copy, prices, phone numbers and data, and apply it consistently. Whichever you choose, write it down, including how dates are formatted and whether you show Hijri dates, Gregorian dates or both.

5. Layout rules for RTL and LTR

An Arabic layout is not an English layout flipped horizontally. The guide should say what mirrors (reading order, navigation, progress indicators, directional arrows) and what does not (the logo, photographs, charts with time axes, media playback controls, brand marks). Show grids for both directions and for bilingual pages, where the usual approach is two columns or Arabic first with English below. Specify how to handle Latin words, product names and numbers inside Arabic sentences, where the text direction changes mid-line.

6. Photography and illustration

Describe the style with examples: lighting, colour grading and composition. Say who appears and how. Base this on your audience research and the project brief: for example, how modestly people are dressed, whether they are recognisably local where the setting is local, and whether they are shown in real Saudi settings rather than obviously imported stock photos. For illustration, define line weight, colour use and how people are drawn. Include both good examples and examples of what you reject, with a short reason for each.

7. Tone of voice in Arabic and English

The English voice and the Arabic voice should express the same personality, but they are written, not translated. The key decision is register. Modern Standard Arabic suits contracts, official announcements and most website copy. A light Saudi (often Najdi or Hejazi) touch can work in social posts and ads if the audience expects it. Say which channels allow dialect and how much. Give examples of each and a short word list of preferred and banned terms in both languages, such as how to address the customer (أنت versus أنتم) and whether to use gendered forms.

8. Applications and templates

This is the part people actually use, so give them files as well as rules:

• Social media: templates for posts, carousels, stories and reels covers in both languages, with safe areas and a maximum amount of text.
• Stationery: business cards (often one side Arabic, one side English), letterhead, invoices and email signatures.
• Signage: shopfront, wayfinding and vehicle graphics, including how the Arabic and English names sit together. Check requirements with your municipality before fabrication, as local rules can set how commercial signs present names.
• Digital and UI: buttons, form fields, icons and states in both directions, preferably as a shared component library.
• Co-branding: how your logo sits next to partners' logos, including matching visual size, separators and whose logo leads.

9. Do and don't

10. Keeping the guide alive

An unmaintained guide goes stale fast. Name an owner, usually someone in marketing, who approves exceptions and updates. Give every edition a version number and date, and keep a short change log at the front. Publish it where people can find it, such as a shared drive or a simple web page, alongside a download pack with logos in vector (SVG, AI or EPS) and raster (PNG) formats, colour profiles, font licences and editable templates. Review it at least once a year and whenever you launch a new channel or product line.

If you are building or rebuilding a bilingual identity, Eclipse offers branding and identity design, and you can contact us to discuss your guide.

Sources: saip.gov.sa · uqn.gov.sa