One of the very first steps to defining your brand should be the vibe you want to give off. This sometimes is one of the most challenging steps to tackle, but your brand will thank you afterwards! Start with a list of words or even brands who you are going up against. What is your target audience? Who is your age group? Where in the world are you targeting? Many times clients don’t know what they want, which is okay! Recently, I’ve been creating moodboards to start off the branding package, and my what wonders it has done! A fun part of the design process is when I create 3 different looks and feels for my client. This is always the most exciting and fun part for both designer and client!

But let’s back it up a moment. What exactly is a moodboard? A moodboard is a montage of photos and images that represent your brand look and feel. It’s meant to spark an emotion within you whether it is feelings of calmness, happiness, or something else. Some things to take into consideration when designing moodboards are colors, patterns, textures and type, all of which help spark feelings. What’s great about moodboards is that it’s a quick and visual reference for the brand, which is good for the client and myself to have on-hand in order to review whenever needed. I prefer to have this open when designing newer collateral for clients so I can remain consistent throughout their pieces.

How does one start? It’s actually really simple! If you wanted, you could brand some magazines and start cutting away and gluing pieces together. Personally, I jump straight to Pinterest! This is my absolute favorite site to use since there are endless amounts of images at my fingertips. After collecting images from Pinterest, I’ll head over to my editing software (like Illustrator) to start adding my images together. But don’t worry if you don’t have the software, just add it to a word document. This is better than having nothing at all!

Although this might seem like extra unnecessary work to some people, it has proven to me and my clients that this has worked wonders. All my clients love getting their moodboards and I couldn’t start my branding process without them!