Get in the Mood

Remember back when Oprah had her daytime television show, and she was teaching everyone how to make their own vision board? The idea was to create a visual representation of your dreams, goals and aspirations. She said that by seeing that vision every day and focusing on those goals, you’d be better able to achieve them.

Oprah aside, the same idea applies when marketing your brand! Creative agencies like ours have come to see the value in creating mood boards for our clients. A mood board is a visual tool that helps establish a vision or approach to an advertising or marketing concept, campaign or redesign.

How to Build Your Vision from Scratch

Back in the day, mood boards used to be done primarily on foam board with spray glue and magazine clippings. In today’s digital age, there are a large number of digital mood board tools available, that allow for much more professional results and better collaboration. No matter what form your brand’s mood board takes, the goal is to bring together a host of visual elements that reflect the brand or project goal. A combination of some-or all these elements can be used to get the brand’s message across:

Headlines

Having headlines on your mood board establishes what the goal of the campaign is right away. Whether a brand is launching a new product or simply trying to convey a specific message, having a headline as the focal point of a mood board keeps the objective clear.

Typography and fonts

Playing around with different fonts and word styles can bring a lot of sustenance to a brand. Even without a lot of text, words that use bold and soft looking fonts can set the tone for the campaign or project, all while representing the brand’s signature look.

Color palettes

Colors really help put the “mood” in mood board! Whether you want your board to appear vibrant, sophisticated, edgy, or a combination of the three, experimenting with different colors will create something eye-catching and complementary.

Photography/illustrations

A picture is worth a thousand words! Using images and different graphic designs can help to complement the brand. The board can display a brand’s product or mascot, abstract art to draw in the eye, or even pictures of real people to add relatability to the brand’s message.

Layout examples

As you’re piecing together all the different aspects listed above, there needs to be some type of organizational aspect. This is where having a layout can help! You can arrange your wording, imagery, and colors into different layouts to see which ones work best for your team and look best to the client.

Along with these elements, make sure you’re open to new inspiration! Taking in client feedback and implementing those changes will help to further along the vision. Collaboration with other team members is also crucial to achieve what the client wants. Since each team member has their own separate set of skills, new, exciting ideas may arise along the way, and putting those on a mood board is a great way to see the progress come to life.

6 Reasons Your Brand Needs a Mood Board

1. It provides direction

You can think of it like directions on a map. To get to a destination, there are many ways to get there. With a mood board, you’re taking the quickest route. Putting together a mood board can create a clear sense of direction and vision for the bigger picture of a project. If the mood board is portraying an end goal or look for a client, having a visual layout can help a team keep their eyes on the prize, so that the goal is not lost in production.

2. It puts your team on the same page

On a similar note, no matter how big or small of a team you are working with, everyone needs to be able to understand where the project is heading. From content writers to designers, marketing specialists and everything in between, everyone plays their own unique role in the brand. Using a mood board gives all different types of talent a visual so that the message on where the brand is headed becomes clear.

3. It creates consistency

Since the mood board is being used as a visual for a project, it will most likely include photos, color palettes, and fonts. When working with branding, it’s crucial to keep the look consistent and true to the brand, so that it is recognizable by potential customers. By putting those visuals on a mood board, it allows everyone to work with the elements that set the brand apart from others.

4. It saves time

While there is often a temptation to jump right into the design phase of a project, it’s important to take your time. If too much is rushed, your team may have to continue redesigning the project from scratch, which results in a lot of lost time. By building a mood board first, you can decide on details like message, look, and design of the project before the bulk of the design work begins. This will save time and effort, while ensuring that the campaign achieves its end goals.

5. It gets clients involved from the get-go

While on the topic of collaboration, you can’t forget the most important group when creating a mood board- the clients! The clients have their own vision for what they want, and it’s imperative to be able to cater to that. Getting the clients involved with the project right away clears up any reservations or dislikes the client may have about the design ideas, and helps the project move forward quicker than it originally would.

6. It’s cost effective

 When it comes to clients, you know that time is money! Creating a mood board at the onset of a project can drastically help reduce those pesky project costs. With everyone being able to agree on the look and feel of a concept early on, the resources and time needed for continuous trial-and-error are cut down.

We See Your Vision

Here at Roger West, we create some stunning mood boards. Across all departments of our creative team, we collaborate and use our individual talents to help clients create the vision they want. Executing mood boards for campaigns and other projects allows our team to incorporate feedback from our clients, and ensure we come up with an end result that everyone is happy with.

Need help with your creative vision and branding? That’s just some of what we do. If you have other questions about how to build a better brand, let’s talk.