When you have these insights on a brand it becomes easier to bring solid ideas to mood board creation and guide the design process. Who is their biggest competition? What is the primary audience? Getting peeks at their interior design and including samples from those choices on the mood board, can help point you towards a design-friendly mood board. Think about what the client may be looking for.
Without question, research can help create a solid foundation for a high-quality mood board – and guide your design choices before you ever sit down at your computer. If, on the other hand, you are to take the lead on the mood board creation, start with some preliminary research. The more information you can get, the better. If they are a retail business, suggest that they put some of their products or photos of retail spaces on the board as well. Ask them to include paint chips or colors, quotes or ideas that inspire them or their place of business. If they want to take the lead but they’re not sure where to start, you can guide a client’s mood board creation with suggestions of things that can help you be a more accurate designer. Others may wholly appreciate getting some help and creative input from you. Some clients strongly prefer gathering their ideas and inspiration themselves and keeping that private until they’re ready to reveal the mood board to you.
If they don’t already have a mood board – which they likely won’t – discuss who will take the lead on developing one. Make sure they gain a solid understanding of how important it will be in terms of creating the best possible brand identity for their brand – efficiently and amicably. Discuss with them the benefits of having a mood board. Agree on the Approach to Creating the Mood Boardīefore you even think about putting together a mood board or creating a logo design, it’s essential to agree with your client on an approach to developing one. Think of the mood board as a way of brainstorming visually. Once you both have the same idea of the right concept, you’ll be able to get work done with confidence you are on the right path toward designing exactly what your client is looking for. Using a mood board for inspiration gets the team on the same page quickly. Using a mood board together gives them an avenue to communicate that to you, and gives you a sound jumping-off point to help your creative discussion. Many clients, even if they don’t realize it, have a solid opinion of what they do and don’t like in design. Nothing is worse than spending hours of your time working on a logo or brand identity, only to give the client some of your options and hear “Sorry, that’s not really what we were thinking.”
It’s a crucial step.ĭon’t believe how important a mood board is? Here are the ways that a mood board can be a total game-changer and exactly how to go about creating and using one. Stop assuming what your client might want and get to work together to define the parameters of what they are looking for with a mood board – sometimes called a vision board. When you need a solution for a solid design right out of the gate, you need to have some idea of what is going to be a winner and what just won’t work.Īsking exploratory questions can be helpful but, when you want some truly inspirational visuals to ensure you’re on the same page as your client, the way to go is to work with them to create a mood board – sometimes known as a Stylescape. And simply throwing designs at the wall and hoping some “stick” is probably something you’re not eager to try, or waste your valuable time doing.Įvery web design firm will have different opinions on what they want their logo to look and feel like so there simply is no one-size-fits-all option when it comes to brand identity design. Without some specific guidance or any idea of what a client is looking for – or looking to specifically avoid – you could wind up wasting hours of design time without ever creating anything usable.