What is a Mood Board?
What is a mood board and why do I need one for my branding session?
A mood board is a visual collage to represent and idea or feeling. Personally – I love using mood boards to flesh out an idea I have so I can start to get a full, cohesive picture of that idea.
The easiest way I’ve found to create mood boards is Pinterest. This is a great, free tool to start collecting images and ideas for your concept.
I just love going pin-crazy for allllllll the things surrounding my idea. Then, I go into the board, and narrow down my pins. I get rid of the ones that don’t fully articulate my final vision. Just to give you an idea of how versatile they are - I did a mood board when I wanted to rebrand my business, and also for the last time we hosted a Halloween party! They’re amazing for all kinds of situations!
But I really love creating mood boards with my clients. It’s a fun, easy, quick way to get a starting point – and end vision – for your brand photography session. Plus, if you have a team of people in your business, it’ll give a one-stop-spot where everyone can see the brand vision. This helps keep everyone on the same page before, during, and after the photoshoot. It’s a great resource for your team to have to ensure they stay on brand for all marketing materials in the future too.
When creating the mood board, we will collect images that represent your brand, and inspire us for your session. These can include:
Color palettes
Images that you’d like included on your shot list
Workspaces that you like
Who your ideal client is
Your hobbies
Tools of your trade
Basically, we want to create the VIBE of your brand in a mood board, so we know what kind of visual imagery you’re aiming for in your branding session.
Take a peek at the entire sample mood board here. This was designed as a mood board for a yoga instructor, wanting to get branding photos taken. As you can see, the images have the same overall aesthetic, the brand colors, poses they like, and “tools of the trade” like yoga mats.
Here’s the beautiful thing though – mood boards are unique to each business. Just like your brand! They help articulate what makes you stand out, and how we can represent that visually in your brand session. Take the examples above…. Both are example mood boards for a florist. But each one has a very different brand personality. The color palates are different, the mood of the images are different, and the overall brand aesthetic is unique. The mood board gives a clear goal as to the visual brand for each, individual business.
The mood board is just one piece of the deep dive we take into your brand before your branding session. It’s SUPER important to me to be crystal clear about your brand, and what visuals we want to create together. If you’d like to learn more about branding photography, click here, or shoot me an email!
I truly love connecting with other business owners, and learning about what you do. I can’t wait to chat with you, and am excited to start pinning your mood board together!
