A brand mood board is a collection of images, fonts, colors, patterns, textures, and other graphics that defines the "mood" of a brand.

It is a necessary step in the identity design process—bridging the gap between brand strategy and visual identity

In this article, I'll guide you through my process of creating effective mood boards.

Here are my 5 key steps for creating mood-boards:

How To Make A Brand Mood Board:

1. Define the Brand
2. Gather Inspiration
3. Create a Layout
4. Describe the Boards
5. Refine and Finalize

I will use Medihuanna as an example, which is one of my clients (see final work on my portfolio).

1. Define the Brand

First, you need to be clear on the brand strategy, which is usually determined during the workshop.

Know the brand's desired personality, tone of voice, other attributes, emotions, and associations you want to convey visually.

Developing a brand strategy serves as a foundation for shaping the visual direction you want to pursue.

Here you can simply just circle the keywords or phrases you want to convey visually.

For Example: For Medihuanna, a medical cannabis brand, we focused on keywords like 'credible', 'innovative', and 'natural', reflecting their ethos and audience.

Keep the brand definition top of mind when curating visuals for your mood boards in the next step—be creative, but don't go astray.

2. Gather Inspiration

Once you have clarity on your brand strategy, then start collecting visual elements that could capture the brand's essence and appeal to its audience.

For Example: To represent "credible", I curated a mood board with serif fonts, cool tones, and photos conveying trust and authority.

For "innovative", I pulled together graphics with clean lines, negative space, and bold colors to feel progressive.

To capture "natural", I collected earthy textures, green hues, hand-drawn elements and nature photos.

Sources for inspiration include:

• Behance
• Dribbble
• Pinterest
• Design blogs/magazines
• Competitor brands
• Nature, architecture, art, film, music

Look for things like:

• Relevant photos and illustrations
• Color palettes and fonts
• Textures, patterns, shapes
• Graphics, icons, logos
• Packaging, UX/UI, etc.

When designing a brand mood board, it's crucial to be selective; choose a few impactful elements over a cluttered array to ensure clarity and focus.

Remember that consistency is key—maintain a cohesive look by sticking to a unified color palette, consistent fonts, and a coherent style.

Sometimes I just use other designers' work, which saves me time during the process.

3. Create the Layout

Arrange the visual elements cohesively on a page or canvas—I usually create three mood-boards as the last part in the strategy brief.

You can utilize layouts like grids or bento boxes, or opt for a more free-form approach.

Aim for visual coherence, alignment with brand strategy, and clear communication of the intended mood.

Allow some space for the elements to breathe, but at the same time try to make it look clean and consistent—remove all unnecessary elements.

4. Add Descriptions

Add textual explanations to each mood board, clarifying how each element aligns with the brand strategy.

This will enable your client to understand your thinking behind each of the proposed solutions.

It should give them a clear 'taste' of what's coming in the next phase of brand identity design.

Your descriptions can be short and concise (like my examples below) or you can go in detail describing each element.

For example:

• Credible—An academic design style that conveys expertise and knowledge. Elegant colors, type and photos.‍
• Innovative—A minimalist design that takes its visual cues from healthcare industry and aims for clarity and legibility.‍
• Natural—An organic design style that use the colors of nature, hand drawings and classic, serif typography.

5. Refine and Finalize

You can just focus on developing one mood-board, but I like to give my clients more options.

Behind the scenes I may start with 5 or more ideas, but ultimately I narrow them down three distinct yet consistent directions.

Finally I present them to my client and then discuss each to get their feedback.

The goal is to have your client pick one direction to move forward with into the next phase—identity design.

Conclusion

The mood board creation phase is a necessary step in designing a brand identity.

It helps you align your vision as a designer with your client's expectations, all while keeping the brand strategy in mind.

With clear goals and inspiration, mood boards set the stage for an effective brand identity design.

It also help you stay focused and prevent your client from relying on their personal preferences.

After all, your goal as a designer is to create the right brand image, not necessarily the one that you or your client likes.

The next step in the process of creating a brand identity would be to sketch logo ideas and then develop logo concepts.

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