In the design world the term mood board is used quite often and it is the first step in the design process as it helps set the visual direction for the project at hand. In today's article we will cover what a mood board is, the benefits of creating a mood board and common places and tools used by designers to take elements for the mood board and arrange them respectively.
Mood board in brand identity design refers to a collage primarily made up of typography, photography, illustrations, colours, textures and descriptive words. It is used to convey the visual direction by highlighting the desired mood and style suitable for the brand based on the brand strategy.
Mood boards are used by designers working in various design and creative fields such as graphic, fashion, interior, industrial, writing, and photography. They can be created either digitally or physically. From a brand identity perspective designers usually opt for a digital version as it is easier to present to their clients and also helps in collaboration. Plus a digital version helps when a team of designers are working on the project making it easier to share and collaborate.
In the brand identity design process after understanding the brand strategy the next step is the creation of a mood board. They help set the foundational visual direction and act as a reference point to come back to during the design process. Many times while designing it is easy for us to deviate from the initial goal and vision and in such a case a mood board acts as a good reminder of our initial goal and vision.
If the project involves a team of designers working on it then the mood board helps ensure that the team is on the same page at any given point during the project timeline.
Mood boards are also helpful with regard to involving the client early on in the design process. Given they are a visual representation they help communicate the visual direction proposed for the brand to your clients easily when compared to doing so verbally and also help check if we are on the same page. It also helps communicate to your clients as to what they can expect with regard to the final design. After designing if there are any discrepancy you can always refer to the moodboard that was agreed upon.
While creating mood boards designers generally start by collecting a set of graphic elements such as type, colours, photography and illustrations that they feel suits the project. During this initial selection don’t limit yourself and feel free to save elements that you feel resonates with the brand strategy. Once the initial selection is done go through them and drag and drop the elements one by one into your preferred tool of choice that you feel are more suitable for the brand you are designing for. As you are in this process you will automatically start refining and arranging the mood board with elements that suit the visual direction you have in mind for the given brand clearly communicating the intended mood and style.
During the elements selection process feel free to take elements from brands not directly related in terms of category to the brand you are designing for. For example, if you are designing for a tea brand feel free to take elements from related beverage brands such as soda, coffee, juice to name a few. Also feel free to explore brands completely not related to tea or beverage or food industry such as sports or say a clothing brand as they can have a typography or a pattern similar to what you are looking for.
Ensure you search across a wide range of brand categories for elements to add to your mood board and select the ones you feel will suit your brand. The reason why I am stressing this is due to the fact that it is important to include elements that represent the brand's personality. Having a generalised brand identity won’t help a brand stand out as you want to create an identity specific to the brand you are designing for so that it stands out and cuts through the competition. Hence creating a mood board specific to the visual direction suitable for the brand is key.
While selecting elements to add to the mood board keep in mind the various brand collaterals as it is important that the mood board clearly conveys how the proposed design direction will suit the collaterals.
In order to help understand the brand's personality it is important to understand the brand's strategy. While brand strategy is a topic in itself and there are specialists in the field I truly believe as designers we cannot ignore it. Hence always take the time out to understand the brand strategy before proceeding to the design phase to ensure your design and the brand’s goals and vision align.
A common place where brand identity designers look for elements to add to their mood board is pinterest. Stock imagery sites like shutterstock, unsplash, pexels, pixabay and istock are also a good option. A few more places to look for inspiration include instagram, behance, dribble and design websites that curate other designers' work for showcase. You can also take pictures from real life as and when you come across something interesting and inspiring which can be put to use when suitable projects come your way.
Tools used by brand identity designers to create mood boards include but are not limited to are adobe creative suite, canva, figma, and milanote.
I hope this article gave you a clear idea of what a mood board is and its importance along with giving you some ideas from where you can look out for inspiration with regard to collecting elements to add to the mood board of your next project.
