How to take your Mood Boards from “meh” to “ah-ma-zing”
Visual ideas. Mood boards. Creative direction. It is undoubtedly one of the most important processes when it comes to building your Brand. Whatever name you want to give it. Why? Because it sets the tone for every future creative decision that you make and can be the difference between a scroll-stopping project and one that ‘will do’.
Moodboards' primary objective is to glue you and everyone working along with you to understand and stay grounded in your Brand.
Now probably you are reading this blog because either you are not satisfied with the moodboard you have, or you are in the process of creating a Moodboard that is going to be Amazing, to say the least!
It is likely that your mood board process consists of pasting a few images into an Illustrator document, coming up with a colour scheme, and sending it to someone as a single jpeg or pdf file. In fact, dear reader, we did this until we realised that the "WOW" factor should come much earlier, at the concept stage, rather than at the brand presentation.
Simply put, the first step in improving your process is to develop a concise, informative presentation that leaves you and your team feeling wildly enthusiastic about the direction of your brand.
Without making it repetitive and too much information, follow these three things in your Visual representation.
Beginning your presentation with a brief, clear summary of the project gives you, the designer, something to refer to if you find yourself getting lost in a sea of fonts and layouts. It also aids in reminding you of your Brand’s overall goal. AKA, you can refer back to this page to refresh your memory of the main goals of the brand identity if you experience a little bit of creative block.
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If you are someone who is also participating in the brand strategy process, you can further clarify the objectives by choosing a set of qualities to include in the visuals. By doing this, the feedback that is "off message" or doesn't relate to the strategic research can be eliminated.
For instance, "Timeless* to ensure that the brand doesn't blend into the trendy companies and designs that we repeatedly see overused in the industry."
*In the mood board, you can then demonstrate how the brand will be "timeless."
Providing explanations for why you chose certain images/colours and how you plan to use them within the identity can help the team to feel more confident in their choice and give them reasonable expectations. Additionally, they can stop themselves and customers from enlarging certain pictures that don't seem to fit their brand (ie. you can explain why there is a picture of interior design on a mood board for a jewellery company)
Moodboard is one of the most important elements of the Brand. And as a brand even if you have skipped the most essential part, i.e Brand Building - at least go back and create a moodboard for yourself. No matter whether you are selling online or offline, whether it be your packaging, social media creatives or anything else. Moodboards play a very important role when it comes to customer engagement.
If you are someone who is struggling to get the right mood board for your brand, you can always reach out to us for a personalised mood board for your brand that aligns well with your brand goals. To know more, book a consultation call today! Visit www.thegossipsocials.com