As you know, your brand personality is one of your biggest assets when it comes to standing out from the crowd.  You want your brand to represent you, your mission, and your unique positioning in the marketplace.  It’s important to have a clear vision, and a brand mood board is one of the best ways to organize all your ideas to help visualize your brand story.  

Whether you are working with a brand designer or DIYing your brand design, a mood board will help to focus your efforts in a particular direction.  It provides a starting point and guidance throughout the branding process.  Plus, your brand mood board can save time.  Without it, it may take longer to develop a design that truly reflects your business.  

What is a Mood Board?  

A brand mood board is a collection of visual assets that represents who you are as a brand and what message you want to convey with the world.  It’s an assortment of ideas, patterns, textures, fonts, and images that you feel accurately reflects your brand’s personality, style, and message. Your brand mood board helps to establish the creative direction for your brand design and serves as a valuable tool for:

• Inspiration:  Brings brand attributes, vision, identity, and personality into focus.  
• Affirmation:  Helps translate culture and values into something tangible.
• Guidance:  Provides focus when creating your brand identity, website, and marketing materials.
• Communication:  Ensures your designer and partners understand your brand vision right from the beginning.  

What to include in your Brand Mood Board

You can include pretty much anything in your brand mood board that helps communicate your vision for your brand.  I recommend using Pinterest as a way to collect the images that are a good fit for your brand and the message you want to convey to your audience.  

When creating a Pinterest board to share with your designer or business partner, you might want to include:

• Colors:  Include swatches of colors that send a clear message of who you are as a brand.  
• Textures & Patterns:  Look for different textures that speak to your brand and the vibe you are trying to create. Include patterns that can give insight into your brand.
• Visuals, Photography, & Imagery:  Search for photography and visuals that capture your preferred aesthetic.  This could be lifestyle shots, product photography, or even pictures of your family and friends.  Anything that helps tell your brand story.
• Fonts & Typography: Look for font combinations and individual fonts that you love and feel represent your brand’s personality and style.  Include words and quotes that give voice to your brand message.  
• Graphics & Illustrations:  Pin examples of your style preferences for stickers, icons, etc.  
• Anything Else: Logos you love, packaging and mock-ups, printed materials, and anything that fits the vibe you’re going for in your brand design.  

Steps to Create a Brand Mood Board

Step 1: Define Your Audience

Obviously, it’s important to identify your personality as a brand, but you also need to make sure that it resonates with your ideal client.  Ultimately, you want your brand identity to attract your ideal clients.  So before you start building your brand mood board, think about who you’re speaking to and use that audience to drive your decisions about what to include.  Afterall, your audience will determine the success of your brand.  

Step 2: Define the Vibe You are Trying to Create

It’s likely when you think of your brand, certain words come to mind. This is part of your brand personality.  Think about the values and feelings you are trying to convey with your brand story.  Brainstorm at least 3-5 words that truly reflect your brand.  

Step 3: Start Pinning 

Create a new board labeled “Your Brand Project” Ideas.  If you don’t want just anyone to see your board, make it private.  Now think back to those 3-5 keywords you just picked and locate images that reflect those words. There are no rules as to how many images you should curate, but I would suggest going for 30-50 images.. Just remember, to include color swatches, textures (refine, rough, etc.), patterns (organic, stripes, polka dots, etc.) as well. 

Tips for Creating Your Brand Pinterest Board

• Keep your pinning purposeful.  Remember to look through the eyes of your brand and ideal client.
• Add the word, aesthetic, after your search term to help find visuals rather than products.
• Take a look at the “related pins” to find additional images to support your brand.
• Use the “more pins” tab to discover more suggestions.  As you add images to your board, Pinterest will have a better idea of what you’re looking for and make better suggestions.  

Step 4: Refine and Edit

After you’ve chosen at least 50 images, it’s time for the hard part.  Go back over the images you’ve collected and pick the ones that best reflect your brand and what will connect with your ideal client. See which ones really jump out at you and clearly express the feel of your brand.  Delete any pins that no longer resonate with your brand and audience.

Next Steps

Your next steps depend on whether you are working with a brand designer or DIYing your brand.  

Working with a Brand Designer

If you’re working with a designer, you can share your Pinterest Board with them as a way to communicate your vision.  Don’t worry if your Pinterest board isn’t perfect.  They will use the images you shared to create the brand mood board that will drive the brand design process. Your designer will be able to take those ideas and develop a brand identity that captures your essence and works for your design strategy.  

DIY Brand Design

If you are DIYing your brand, you want to use your Pinterest board as a starting point to refine and create your guiding brand mood board.  Use the images and color swatches to choose 3-4 colors, plus 1-2 neutrals, to make up your color palette.  Use the images and color palette to create your brand mood board using Adobe Photoshop or Canva. Use your brand mood board to create your brand identity essentials and your brand style guide.  

You can check out Canva’s mood board templates here.

Whether you are creating a brand identity for your own business or you’re about to work with a designer, a mood board will help you build a solid foundation for your brand.