Queensland Government brand guidelines

Freedam's take

I like how the Queensland Government frames brand architecture as a solar system. Rather than burying government departments under bureaucratic hierarchy charts, they place websites on an alignment scale from Aligned to Independent, spanning Master brand, Sub-brand, Co-brand, Endorsed, and Stand alone. Seeing preview mockups alongside mandatory and recommended checklists makes the governance practical rather than intimidating. The templates area was largely marked coming soon when I visited, but they still give teams a clear forward look at planned layouts and links out to a Figma UI Kit.

At a glance

Sections

Brand requirements · Core styles · Components · Patterns · Templates · About

Tone

Structured, instructional government guidance focused on digital consistency and architecture tiers.

What I noticed

1. The Brand architecture page uses a 'Solar system' diagram to classify entities into Master brand, Sub-brand, Co-brand, Endorsed, and Standalone tiers along an Aligned to Independent scale.¹²
2. The Brand guidelines page organizes rules across brand tiers with preview mockups and lists requirements using Mandatory, Recommended, and Flexibility checklists.³⁴⁵
3. A callout panel on the Brand guidelines page details rules for Queensland Government Coat of Arms placement.⁶⁷
4. The Templates section features a 'Coming soon' notification for default pages while listing upcoming templates such as Home page, Category page, and Single page form.⁸⁹

Numbers refer to the screenshots above.

Ideas to borrow

1. Explain multi-brand architecture through a solar system metaphor with an accompanying decision flowchart titled 'How do I know what planet my website should be on?'.¹⁰¹¹¹