INSIGHTS

What is a moodboard?

It is a super fun visual tool that helps you review the visual direction, style and ideas at the start of a creative project, in our instance when developing a logo and brand identity. It’s nothing fancy, it’s basically a collection of images, colour palettes, textures, fonts, other marks or logos styles and sometimes descriptive words and typography that all show different routes for a style or mood you wish to reflect for your brand.

Why are moodboards important for your brand

They may seem frivolous fun (they are lots of fun) but are actually a really important part of the process when developing the right brand for your business.

It’s also the part of the process that both our clients and our team get really excited about because it isn’t a final deliverable like a logo or website, we can just go to town and have fun with the imagery, fonts and colours!

Here’s some reasons why its good to get into the mood:

💎 Great for creative ideation: This is the designer’s version of research, we can look at competitors, styles that reflect the new brand’s personality and play with a plethora of colours and tones… it’s our playground.

💎 Develops collaboration: Clients often struggle to put their ideas down on paper visually so the mood board is often the first time they see their vision and potential brand come to life. Its also when they can direct and tweak the visuals, working as a team creatively can be inspiring and really help to see the best route for the brand to be

💎 Gives direction: Even if we do a brand strategy and understand the brand positioning and personality the visual identity can still have different routes, different colours, marks and fonts. So mood boards help give everyone a direction before going to far down one route. It also helps expectations so there are no surprises!

💎  For reference: Moodboards can help keep things on track. It’s easy for designers AND clients to be distracted by something shiny and new, but adding new elements or changing direction can move you away from your goals and the brand’s positioning so it’s key to keep referring back to the board chosen to ensure the work is truly reflective.

It’s always good to have a professional designer work with you to develop your moodboards, or a few different ones to ensure you have reviewed all avenues and chosen a direction that relates to your audience and product/service, not just colours and images that you like personally. However, there is no reason you can’t start to collate your own moodboard to help you see where you envision your brand going in terms of positioning and personality.  There are so many tools out there for you to make your own – even just setting up a Pinterest board helps you to visualise the ideas in your head.  For simplicity and ease with photos and colours for different routes, Canva is also an excellent tool.

If you would like a little more direction to visualise your ideas and thoughts for your brand identity then drop me a line anytime for a chat.