Moodboard, vision board, inspiration board. You’ve probably heard one of these terms before, and perhaps also, that you “should” have one. In the context of branding, these terms all refer to the same thing.

So what the heck is a moodboard, why do you need one, and how exactly do you go about creating one?

In this post I’ll dive into all these questions to help you get started creating your brand moodboard.

Already have a brand identity? Check out this post on creating a moodboard for your new website. After a bit of back and forth, I decided the process was different enough to warrant two separate posts.

What is a Brand Moodboard?

In short, a moodboard helps to establish the style, and overall "mood" for your brand identity. Every brand project I work on begins with establishing your ideal client and creating a moodboard with them in mind.

A good moodboard contains things like images, textures, patterns, colors, typography (fonts), and other design elements that fit the look and feeling of your brand and appeal to your ideal client. Creating a moodboard isn’t just about creating something you love, but creating something that your ideal client or customer will be drawn to as well.

Your moodboard becomes a guide during the design phase and can continue to be a reference for how your brand elements come together in real world applications. 

Why You Should Create a Moodboard Before Designing Your Brand

A moodboard helps the brand owner and designer see “eye-to-eye” on the desired aesthetic, and align the look and feel with an ideal client.

Creating a moodboard before beginning the design process is a good idea because it sets the tone for the entire project. 

Without a moodboard, I could end up presenting designs to a client that completely miss the mark, because I thought I understood what they meant by “elegant” and “simple.” 

Having actual examples of what descriptive words mean to you is crucial to a designers ability to deliver visuals that are in line with the vision you have for your brand. If you plan to design your brand yourself, representing the style and mood visually is still an important step that will help you create a cohesive and consistent brand identity.

How to Create Your Brand Moodboard

There are numerous methods to creating a moodboard and they are all valid. I ask my clients to create a private Pinterest board and share it with me. If you prefer to work in another program or work with physical images and samples, I encourage you to follow your gut. Creating a moodboard should be a fun and creative process.

Here are the 5 Steps to Creating Your Brand Moodboard:

1 Research

The purpose of your brand is to attract your ideal clients and customers, so it makes sense that you would consider them first when creating the visuals that support it. Knowing who your ideal clients are, who they follow, what brands they buy from, and in general what appeals to them aesthetically will help you to create a moodboard that is relevant to them.

Assign 3-5 adjectives to guide the look and feel of your brand moodboard. These words should apply to your ideal client or target audience. Write these words down somewhere. Put them down on paper or in the description of your Pinterest board so you can refer to them when pulling your images together.

2 Gather

Whether you use Pinterest as the solo home for your moodboard or not, it is definitely a solid place to start. Create a new board devoted to pinning images, textures, typography, and other design elements that you like and that appeal to your ideal client or customer.

For each pin, edit the existing description or note text. Describe what aspect of the pinned image you like or don’t like, and why it fits the mood of your brand.

Avoid pinning logos and other brand moodboards. As tempting as this might be, it’s better not to pin another brand’s logo, or their moodboard. The reason being that it can lead to replication, leaving you with a new brand that looks just like someone else’s.

If you do decide to include logos, limit them to 3 examples and include a clear description of what you like or don’t like about them.

If you plan to have specific pieces of collateral, such as a business card, a menu, or a brochure, feel free to pin examples that you feel fit the mood of your brand. Just try not to overdo it. Just a few examples is plenty.

Don’t stop at only what comes up on Pinterest search. Virtually any image can be added to your moodboard, whether it lives on Pinterest, another digital platform, or physically. If keeping your entire moodboard in Pinterest is important to you, you can create a new pin from the board overview and either add a link to another site, or upload your own images. The add a new pin button should appear in the upper right corner of your board.

3 Remove

Now it is time to pair down to the essentials. Do you have 10 textures that look more or less the same? Eliminate 7-8 of them. Do you have 15 fonts that are all serif (the ones that have small lines at the ends of each character) or san-serif (the ones without those extra lines)? Go ahead and take out most of them and just leave your favorites, the ones that fit best with the other imagery on your moodboard.

When you are done removing items from your moodboard, step back, zoom out, scroll, whatever you need to do, and make sure there is a cohesiveness to what remains. If anything sticks out, or appears to be a different style than the rest, this could translate to a non-cohesive look in your finished brand identity.

Go through the process of pairing down as many times as needed until you reach a completed board that has a consistent look and feel.

4 Describe

If you haven’t already, go back through each item on your moodboard and make a few notes about it. Why did you include it? What do you like about it? Why might it appeal to your ideal client?

Perhaps not every single item on your moodboard has obvious characteristics linking it to the overall “mood” of your brand. This isn’t a problem as long as there is a realistic reason for including it. Maybe you pinned a business card that you like the format of, but doesn’t necessarily match the overall style of the board. Simply make a note of why you included it. This is helpful for you and your designer. There are so many tasks when it comes to designing a brand identity that the reason for including one image might be forgotten. Be sure to make notes when they are fresh in your mind.

5 Evaluate (Again)

Step back and get a big picture view of your moodboard. Take a look at the adjectives you started out with in step one and make sure that what you have fits those words.

If you are working with a designer, you’ll have the benefit of walking through the moodboard with them and clarifying anything if needed. For my clients I create an additional refined moodboard to serve as inspiration during the design process. I’ve included an example below.

If you will be designing, you’ll perhaps want to take it a step further and create one mash up image that you can continue to refer to for inspiration throughout the branding process. You’ll want to hone this board into something cohesive that inspires and motivates you, to ensure that your resulting brand identity is and does the same!

Have you created a moodboard for your brand? I’d love to see it and hear about your process. 

Need help branding your business? Reach out to schedule a free no-sales-pressure call or check out my Brand Identity packages and process.

Not ready for any of that quite yet? Check out my free ideal client profile workbook instead.