Creating a mood board is a great way to figure out the direction of your personal brand. It’s a collection of text, images, pictures, patterns and colors to determine the overall flow of a design project. So before you create a website, logo, or social media pages you should create a mood board to determine the direction you’d like to head in. Mood boards help your designer completely understand what you’re looking for, if you are designing pieces of your own it keeps you on track.
Picking your brand colors can be a very daunting task because these colors will be used across several social media platforms, your website, and logo. This is apart of creating your branding identity, when people see these colors they should think of you. Certain colors evoke certain emotions in potential clients and it’s important to convey the right message. Take blue for instance according to studies It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom,confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. That’s why a lot of healthcare companies use blues and greens in their branding. So if you’re thinking about starting a wellness company consider using blue as a part of your brand colors. Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love, dark orange can mean deceit and distrust, dull yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy, dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy. All colors trigger emotions in people, make sure that when you’re picking colors for your branding that you know who you’re trying to reach and what you’re trying to say.
Picking the right font is the difference between brand recognition and a PR nightmare. Consider the letter combinations and fonts that you choose and put them on your mood board because things in your mind might not look as good on paper. Certain types of fonts are synonymous with an industry. Tech companies tend to use geometric clean fonts in contrast the fashion industry likes to use more elegant modernized fonts. Try out different combinations and see what font works best for your brand. You can also commission a graphic designer to create a custom font for your brand if nothing really speaks to you.
Check out visual representations that can create a brand story. Look at photos that speak to you. Never ever plagiarized a brand but it is ok to look for inspiration. See what others in your industry are doing. Pinterest is a great resource for finding great visuals and inspiration. There are also resources like Pixbay, Canva, and Upsplash that offer free stock photos to use on your mood board. Use your mood board as a vision board for your business, put everything on there that tells the story that you want your brand to tell.
Lastly, create a logo! Logo’s help to create brand recognition. Lot’s of major brands have extremely recognizable logos. We all know that seeing “the golden arches” means McDonald’s and your brand need a logo to distinguish itself from other brands. There are several resources for creating a logo if you don’t have the skills to do it yourself. Hire a graphic designer, Wix has a logo maker, Fiverr is a low cost option for hiring a designer, and Canva is a user friendly do it yourself design option. Once you find a design that speaks to your brand add it to your mood board. Combine your color palette,text,visual inspiration and logo to create your brand story. Join me for part 2 of Creating a Personal Brand, we’ll be discussing websites.
