The Recipe for a Perfect Brand Mood Board

We believe that every good brand starts with a mood board, is built referencing the mood board, then continues to thrive with a mood board. To have a mood board that’s strong and keeps you grounded to your brand with every single decision you make, we believe there are 4 key elements to include.

1. Photo of Your Ideal Client:

The best mood boards include a photo of your dream client. And I don’t mean to literally go find your most recent client and steal their headshot for your board. Take a scroll through Pinterest, typing into the search bar things like “girlfriends on boardwalk” or “fashion” or “best friends” and scroll until you find the people who exactly fit the image of your dream client. This will help your mood board come to life.

2. Patterns & Textures:

Patterns can really distinguish a vibe, making it a perfect component for your mood board. As you hunt for patterns that fit your brand, start by simply searching for “patterns” and begin saving visuals that draw your eye. After you have a few collected, one or two will stand out as really representing the mood you plan to represent in your brand.

3. Font & Typography Inspiration:

There’s a lot of psychology that goes into font choice, and you’ll notice this as you begin searching for the types of typography you’re drawn to. Some will make you feel excited, while others will make you feel calm. Some will make you feel like you can go rule the world, and other will make you feel like you’re snuggling with your pup at home, herbal tea in hand. As you begin saving typography you’re drawn to, pay close attention to the way they make you feel, because chances are, they’ll make others feel the same.

4. Home Decor Inspiration:

So much of today’s trends are born within the interior design world – which makes it a perfect piece to include in your mood board. Search for things like “kitchen” or “outdoor patio” and save your favorite visuals while again, focusing hard on the way each space makes you feel. (Sensing a trend here?!) When working on a brand, we often use small details found in the home decor photos as inspiration when designing and styling certain features of the brand!

Once you’ve finished collecting all of your inspiration you’ll likely notice there is a common theme showing up. Now it’s time to pick out the visuals that are most representative of you, your personality, your dream client, and the values of your business. As you pull them together, you’ll see your brand come to life. We use Adobe InDesign to design our client’s mood boards, but Canva is another super simple tool to build out your mood board!

Whenever we develop mood boards and illustrate a brand’s direction as part of our branding experience, we’re super intentional about including these important components. Once the 6-9 images are in place, we use our “color selector” or “eye-dropper” tool to pull out the key colors that have emerged throughout the mood board. Your mood board is truly the start of your visual brand, and it will really make a difference when it comes time to move forward with the rest of your brand’s visuals and website design.

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