Inspirational mood boards and color palettes are everywhere on Pinterest and Instagram. You might think, “These are so pretty. I want one for my business!” In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about why you need a moodboard for your business, the resources I use to create moodboards and color palettes, and how to leverage one as a tool for your business to continue to brand yourself.
The good, the bad and the woo-woo
The Good: My plant obsession has taken off and I’m starting to garden! So far, I’ve planted tomatoes, peppers, basil, cilantro, and lavender. It’s been really fun and I’m seeing progress!
The Bad: Everything has been pretty good. No obstacles or challenges lately.
The Woo-Woo: I’m halfway through a 30 day challenge of daily meditation and red light therapy that has been going really well! Another experiment I’m trying is manifesting new clients using spirituality and more “woo-woo” practices. I made a lot of sales last month and want to keep the momentum going. I’m curious to see if trying spiritual practices makes an impact.
Why you need a moodboard
A moodboard establishes your brand aesthetic and captures the vibe of your brand. It’s a foundational element that’s the first thing that we create for our clients. It helps establish our relationship and also sets the tone and direction for the brand vision.
Resources I use to create a moodboard and color palette
I kick off my process by telling clients to explore Pinterest and create a board that represents colors, textures, fonts, and patterns that resonate with them. Anything that captures the essence of their brand visually.
See the links at the bottom of this post for tools I use to curate stock photos, colors, and inspiration.
How to create a moodboard
We start out by asking our clients to fill out a detailed brand discovery questionnaire that digs into everything: from who their competitors are, to words they use frequently, and how they want their ideal client to feel when they come into contact with their brand. Imagine the person who is checking out your Instagram feed or downloading a free resource from your website. How do you want them to feel?
Maybe you want them to see your brand as confident, authentic, positive, witty, bright, serious, or playful. Dream up 5-10 words that you want your ideal client to feel when they come into contact with your brand. Then, capture 5 words that describe your business.
If you are a life coach and want people to feel less stressed, you might embody feelings of positivity, happiness, and playfulness in your branding.
Next, brain dump 30-50 photos that catch your attention and feel representative of your brand and where you want to go. Don’t overthink the process. Save any fonts, colors, textures, and aesthetics that resonate with you. If you have a hunch that the image will connect with your ideal client, all the more reason to save it!
Be intentional, but don’t overthink it!
I create all of my moodboards in Illustrator, but if you’re DIY-ing this process, Canva is a great alternative.
When I’m ready to create the final product, I combine lifestyle pictures, textures, fonts, and then patterns, separating each section, and from there I create the moodboard. I do a 3×3 grid with 9 pictures.
It takes me about 2-3 hours from start to finish.
How to create a color palette
I promise, this part will come super naturally to you if you take the time to establish the traits of your ideal client and put a moodboard together.
Using the moodboard as your base, grab 3-4 colors that capture the vibe. Or, go on Pinterest and type in some keywords, like “bright color palette”, or “dark and moody color palette”.
I can’t say enough how awesome Adobe Color is though for exploring color palettes. It’s fun, too!
2-3 colors is perfect for your brand. One will function as a primary color, while the remainder will be accent colors.
How to use your moodboard and color palette
Use your moodboard and color palette as a source of inspiration going forward! Use it as a foundation to curate the vibe of your Instagram feed, marketing collateral, or your brand photos if you’re working with a photographer.
If you ever feel like you’re out of touch with your brand, reconnect with your roots and come back to your moodboard. It’ll bring you back to why you’re doing what you do, who your ideal client is, and how you’ll connect to them.
I hope you have a blast creating your moodboard and color palette!
Notable quote
“Establishing your ideal client is the first step in creating a successful brand and business.”
Links/resources mentioned
Free Stock Photos from Unsplash
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