Mood Board for a Brand, A Visual Journey
Ever wondered how successful brands create and then manage their visual identity so effortlessly? It often starts with a simple yet powerful tool – the mood board for a brand. What exactly is a brand mood board?
- It is a starting point to envision and shape your brand visuals.
- It is the basic template for building up your brand esthetics.
Branding is not just about picking pretty colors and images; it’s a strategic tool that sets the tone for your entire company.
Branding on a Budget
It is always best to work with a professional designer. But if your budget is tight I’ve got some tips to help you learn how to select images that resonate with your brand’s identity so you can at least make a start in your brand creation journey. Later in this post, I also list a couple of affordable, online sources of brand visuals.
So, let’s dive into the concept of creating a mood board – the first version of your future visual assets’ library: brand guidance kit.
The Basic Elements of a Branding Mood Board
Did you ever make a collage? Now you can use virtual scissors and glue to assemble a few elements on a screen. These will be the key components of your branding mood board. At the minimum, the board should contain:
- a carefully curated brand color palette,
- playful yet professional typography style,
- vibrant logo.
Placing all your initial choices on one board will allow you to explore how these elements can work together to convey a message and create harmony. Or not.
Where exactly to begin? Always with your brand mission and vision.
- List adjectives that would describe your brand,
- Define the target audience you create it for,
- Research the industry standards and expectations.
For more specifics visit my post: Colors for a Brand. In this post, you can even download a FREE PDF document listing the meaning of several popular colors.
Example: A Mood Board for a “Cozy Caffee”.
Their mission is to:
- “Create a friendly space where kindness meets deliciousness”
- “Arrange a comfy hub for the local community, supporting ideas and talent exchange”.
From there I created a list:
- Adjectives: cozy, relaxed, delicious, tasteful, elegant
- Audience: creative, inventive, peaceful, family-oriented
- Colors and shapes standards: natural, earthly, whimsical
What basic colors you can pick for these? How about:
- Brown: for earthliness, comfort, and COFFE!
- Green: for nature, growth, and harmony
- Orange: for enthusiasm, and creativity
- Pink: for sweetness, and romance
These are not final designs, just a talking point, something to help visualize the brand and choose direction. But if you’d like to use this simple template as your mood board maker, it is available in my Etsy Shop.
Good practice: Start your design by taking a few photos on the premises. Nature has a great way of harmonizing colors. Try to pick from the photos your initial color schemes.
2. Fonts Have Personality
Fonts can be classy or contemporary, elegant, or playful, bold, or subtle. Matching font characters with the personality of your brand is the best way to maintain brand consistency in the future. Fonts also need to appeal to your audience and most importantly: they must be EASY TO READ
Usually, you need 2, sometimes 3 sets of fonts:
- One that stands out – for your logo, titles, and headlines.
- One that is super easy to read – for the body copy of your content.
- For occasional highlights, accents, or your logo you could also use a unique special display font.
Beware: some fonts require a license to use them in a commercial setting. So, look for fonts on reliable platforms. One of my favorites is Creative Fabrica. They have many freebies and discounts. The subscription gives you access to many great fonts, graphics, and photos, and best of all: they come with a license required to use them. Creative Fabrica is a great resource for many DIY creators.
3. Logo Has to be Simple
There is a reason I did not start this project with the logo. It needs to represent the company like nothing else, so the mission, values, message, colors, shapes even fonts need to be specified before you start working on it.
Simplicity is the key to a good logo design. Your logo will show up on business cards, city billboards, and social media profiles. It must be easy to reproduce and maintain its integrity and clarity when scaled up or down. Also, it should remain impactful and recognizable in both color and black-and-white formats. That is why the two-color logos are the best. Think: Apple©, Nike©, or Target©.
Note: white is also a color.
You will need:
- Graphic Version of the Logo. A symbol that represents your brand visually. Keep it simple yet unique and memorable.
- Text Version of the Logo. It contains your brand name. Here the font can be unique and fancy, maybe even custom-designed, but at the same time easy to read across many different platforms and sizes.
Remember, your logo is the visual cornerstone of your brand identity. Invest time and effort into crafting a logo that effectively communicates your brand and resonates with your audience.
A final note for all elements: Don’t fall for a seasonal trend trap. A balance between innovation and timelessness will ensure the longevity of your design.
Useful Tools for the Mood Board Projects
Ready to roll up your sleeves? Check some mood board makers; the user-friendly online tools tailor-made for creating brand designs.
CANVA is one of the easy-to-use and popular online design platforms. I used it to quickly put together the mood board sample above.
If you like free CANVA, you may consider later the paid Canva Pro. It offers many additional features. The two of them important for company brand design are:
- Brand Kit: it allows users to create and save a Brand Kit storing and sharing the brand’s colors, fonts, and logos for consistent branding across all designs.
- Access to premium content: there is a library of premium photos, illustrations, and graphics, useful for many projects that are accessible only to paid subscribers.
I mentioned my shop on Etsy. There are thousands of other shops there offering templates and designs. So, you can also consider this platform as a good source for your project.
I also mentioned Creative Fabrica before. They are great! From fonts to graphics, they offer many files and styles to pick from. While on Etsy you shop for each item separately, on Creative Fabrica you can purchase a subscription that opens access to all they have. Most importantly: most designs come with a license to use it in commercial settings.
Note: this license feature is convenient, but since many people can take advantage of it, you may be selecting something that is already being used. With fonts – it won’t be a problem, but with your logo, you must be unique. Remedy: pick what you like, but then modify.
A more personalized service like the Logomaker is also worth trying. It can help you with the logo, and then apply it to several printable promotional products so that, you have a convenient one-stop shop for all.
A quick tip for the font you will select for your content body. It is a good idea to pick a font that is not only easy to read but also popular. This way it will conveniently already be installed on your word processor, printer, and website platform.
As for the colors, most of the design software and platforms come with a built-in color picker and a color palette creator. If you don’t use one try Color Space. Just enter your favorite hexadecimal color number and let the software do its magic!
The Mood Board Expansion: Brand Guidance Kit
With time you will add to the board more elements, style sheets, document layouts, and so on. They will form your Marketing Assets Library and the Brand Guidance Kit. These elements are called “assets” for a reason: like any other tangible component of your company, they add to its value.
Keep the Brand Guidance Kit updated and readily available. Use it. Share it with all marketing services working on your behalf, and make sure they follow religiously! This way, whenever your brand publishes something, not only time is saved, but also your brand’s consistency and authority are built up. Consistency in branding is king! It is the best way to be recognized and remembered. Without the Brand Guidance Kit, your brand design will soon be diluted by the ideas and aesthetics of every new person helping you.
Ready to write the story of your brand? Let the mood-boarding journey begin!