{"id":190,"date":"2025-10-08T19:20:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/?p=190"},"modified":"2025-10-08T19:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:20:18","slug":"sharepoints-of-interest-brand-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/2025\/10\/08\/sharepoints-of-interest-brand-center\/","title":{"rendered":"SharePoints of Interest: Brand Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

SharePoint has many different options to apply (custom) theme colours. But have you ever wondered: just what is the difference between applying these colours via Site branding and the actual Brand Center? <\/strong>
\nIn my line of work, I often get that question, mostly nicely paired with its partner in crime: \u201cWhy can\u2019t I apply font themes, it is greyed out!\u201d. So, here\u2019s a preface to my little blog, where I\u2019m gonna do my best to explain these differences along with a few nice examples and pretty pictues. Cause, images say more than a thousand words.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Site branding can be accessed from the settings menu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First of: Site branding is the one that most site owners find and use, cause, well\u2026it\u2019s there isn\u2019t it. Right there at the top right corner under \u201csettings\u201d. It is called \u201cSite Branding\u201d, quite similar to \u201cBrand Center\u201d or at least, similar enough that I get why this causes some confusion. For\u2026 it is not the Brand Center<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Site branding is the local theme customization. It\u2019s scope is, just like with the familiar theme colours, only to an individual SharePoint site. You can access it easy peasy directly from the site settings under \u201cChange the look\u201d or \u201cSite branding\u201d and it allows you to choose from some preset themes, or let you create a custom theme using colour pickers. Changing things here will affect your site\u2019s header, navigation and background options, along with some accents options in your sections.
\nIdeal for a site owner who wants to do some personalization without affecting other sites.
\nNote that, if you use the hub-spoke structure, you can\u2019t change the look or branding of the spoke-site. Alterations in the hub, will be implemented to the spokes as well.<\/p>\n

However\u2026there is more, so much more! For if you really want to tie things together, or are brave enough to venture into the world of custom Fonts, you might notice that from the site branding, the tab \u201cFont packages\u201d\u00a0 is greyed out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Font packages is greyed out from Site branding in this example. You might encounter that as well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is super logical to think \u201cWell if my organization hasn\u2019t added any fonts yet, all I have to do is just click that +New font package button right?\u201d Right? That mysterious description below is deceptive, don\u2019t be fooled! You can smash that + button all you want, no new font packages will be added. Unfortunalety, those packages are in another castle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s shift our gaze from the Site branding, to the Brand Center.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Admins gather around and move to the M365 admin center! Hit that Settings button with all your might and move to the Org settings.<\/p>\n

This trick only works for GLOBAL ADMINS
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the list of \u201cServices\u201d you might notice the little painters palette with \u201cBrand center\u201d next to it. Smash it with a mouse click! This is where you want to be.
\nYou\u2019ll probably notice two nice little fields. Maybe they\u2019re default, maybe they\u2019re prefilled. A factor that plays a role here is whether or not you\u2019ve configured your organizational asset library prior to entering the Brand center or not. If you\u2019ve never PowerShelled your way towards the org. asset. lib the default name will be something along the lines of yourtenant.sharepoint.com\/sites\/brandguide (no I do not know why they prenamed it brand guide instead of brand center). If you did bring a organizational asset library alive through PowerShell, congratulations it probably pops up as the prefilled site in your Brand center.
\nThe two boxes aren\u2019t much different, the first one is for end-user to reach and use, the other for admins to weave their magic.
\nIf you haven\u2019t already, now is the time to call in some of those Marketing or Communication people cause unfortunately we admins most of the time aren\u2019t allowed to use our own preferred colours on the company SharePoint sites which, in some cases, might be a good thing. Yes, you know who you are hahaha\u2026.<\/p>\n

So, after configuring this little part, let\u2019s copy-paste that second Brand center link and BAM, welcome to the brightly coloured Brand center. You\u2019ll notice the chosen site\u2019s URL in the top, don\u2019t worry about any other site just yet.
\nMore importantly, did you notice that there is a nice, not-greyed-out \u201cAdd fonts-box\u201d over here? Sweet! Let\u2019s hit it! And ain\u2019t that sweet! It looks just like a document library. You don\u2019t need me to tell you what to do, just upload your font packages in here. Wonderfull!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now adding colours is just about the same as from the \u201cSite branding\u201d part. You have your colour picker, you can enter some Hex or RGB, give it a title and toggle off or on whether you want your theme to appear.
\nUp until now, I\u2019ve really just managed my exemplary site with just one colour (#305A4C named Pine) but yeah, I\u2019m just gonna add that one again, but in the Brand Center (Pine2) another, brighter one I\u2019ve dubbed FreshLeaf. I can however, recommend you use names that kinda stick to your organization\u2019s brand book instead of these etherial smelly candle names. But I don\u2019t take myself too seriously so and maybe need some away time from my screen, so I\u2019m gonna stick with these two.<\/p>\n

Now here comes the kicker<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We did all this. Can you guess what happens once you scroll a bit down in your Brand center and go to the header \u201cApply your brand\u201d and then click \u201cSharePoint\u201d? Just smash that button and let\u2019s see for yourself.<\/p>\n

Spoilers: Themes allows you to pick from the preset colours we\u2019ve just created and even lets you create a new one. Once you\u2019ve picked a starting colour, the combination and example screens pops up and you can go crazy with you new theme customizations. Pay attention to any Low contrast warnings, Next enter a name, save.
\nSame goes for Font, which brings you to your font library to pick one. Just like you did with the colours, it allows you to choose fonts for headers, buttons, normal text etc. It also allows you to choose the type settings for each font section, like bold, medium, italic, light etc.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nNow\u2026not much has changed or so it seems\u2026For you did some exemplary work unlocking all those colours and fonts to use across your SharePoint sites.<\/p>\n

And last but not least, let\u2019s remember that it is now easy to copy Themes and Fonts from other sites from \u201cSite branding\u201d with just a few hits with the mouse button. Note that some fonts don’t work too well with certain font types, but eh, play around, have some fun and go nuts. Whatever you do, make sure to always let at least a few users across your organization try every button, every navigation link and ask what info they might be missing or find hard to reach. And don’t forget to maybe inform and train some people about using these options. With great colours comes great responsibilities. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SharePoint has many different options to apply (custom) theme colours. But have you ever wondered: just what is the difference between applying these colours via Site branding and the actual Brand Center? In my line of work, I often get that question, mostly nicely paired with its partner in crime: \u201cWhy can\u2019t I apply font…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}