Let’s talk about a branding mood board. Is your business fun, bright, and friendly like a day on the beach? Or is it more upscale and classy like a perfectly worn pearl necklace? How do you bring this to life and reach out to your audience so that they can feel, see, and hear your “vibe”?
This does not just happen automatically and it is certainly more than just a beautiful strategic logo.
It all starts with your branding mood board.
When I start my process with my clients, I never actually start on the logo or the website design immediately. One of my first steps is getting my clients to go to Pinterest and pin images that they relate to, like the design, and the “feel”.
Branding mood boards are so important to ensure that I and the client are both really clear on their brand and vision. A mood board is a collection of curated (carefully) images that are arranged in a pattern that gives off the tone (i.e. mood) of your brand. It is a starting point and a foundation of your vision and will change and evolve over time.
It’s important to note that this is usually for internal purposes and not for public use. These images are many times not owned by yourself and so using them in marketing can be a copyright issue (unless you purchase stock images or take your own!). The reason we create a branding mood board is for anyone who plays a role in the branding process can look and immediately get the feel for the design.
The branding mood board is the tipping point of your branding process and determines the direction of your brand.
5 Reasons why you need a branding mood board:
1| A good branding mood board will help you set the foundation of your brand. Once it’s created, you and everyone else involved will be able to clearly see the colors you will include, possibly the fonts, and the logo vision.
2| Your brand/web designer will love it if you already have one created before your project begins. When you are clear on what you want, it is so much easier to get a design that you will love. Not to mention this will save valuable time and money (cha-ching!), so that you can get even more out of your branding such as icon elements and social media graphics.
3| Again, you will save so much time! With a branding mood board pre-designed. You will always have this to look back on as you evolve your identity and will be immediately able to get back on track if you somehow get lost on the way.
4| Having a branding mood board will make sure that you have all the 5C’s of your brand musts- Clarity, Compelling, Cohesive, Consistent, and Captivating.
5| Last, but certainly not least, it will be inspiring! You will feel so much better once you are looking at the big picture and it will bring amazing clarity to your vision.
