Mood Board Done, Now What?
It’s a familiar feeling. Finally finishing something. Cue the happy dance and pause to enjoy my accomplishment. My brain annoyingly chimes in, now what?
Vintage Ice Cream Mood Board
Not knowing the next steps and being totally lost can be frustrating. I’m here to point you in the right direction for the next steps after creating a killer mood board for your brand.
Don’t have a mood board yet? I’ve got a free workshop for you!
DIY Branding
If you’re low on cash and big on free time this is a great option for you.
Whether you’re a business newbie or launching your 10th brand- knowing how to DIY your branding is a great skill to have in your tool belt.
Create your own design assets, like a simple logo, in Canva and use free stock photo websites like Unsplash for your website and social media images.
Use a color palette generator site like The Color Palette Studio, guided by your mood board, and bam there’s your brand!
Using AI For Clarity
Clarifying your vision before creating your branding or handing it off to a designer is a great idea.
In a previous blog post, I showed you how to create mood boards and images using Midjourney. Along with prompts, this can help solidify the visual direction you want to go.
What I’m not going to recommend is, use AI to create all your design assets and then use them. There’s lots of reasons for this.
One of the most important ones is that even though AI can produce stunning images it usually isn’t great at creating something simple that can be scaled up or down like a logo, icons and other design elements.
Again, AI is great for creating a vision but then someone else needs to execute it. This can be you, if you’re on the DIY train, or a branding designer who you trust.
Launching Your Website
If you have your branding and copy ready to go another great next step is launching your website. I love Squarespace for this since it’s so easy to use and you don’t need to be a computer programmer to use it.
When you’re ready to make a small investment to save a lot of time pick up a Squarespace website template created by a web designer. Shameless plug, I have a Squarespace template shop if you’d like to learn more or see the demo sites in action.
Using a website template is the sweet spot between doing it all yourself, overwhelming and exhausting, and having a fully decked out, custom site, larger time commitment and investment. Just plug in your content, swap out the words and your site is ready to go!
Investing In A Brand Designer
Someone who works in branding recommending a brand designer. Shocking, right? :)
If you’ve tried the DIY route and are ready to hand off your mood board and vision to someone else then a branding designer can do the hard work for you.
If you approach a brand designer with a mood board, audience research, keywords and the reasons these work for your brand? You’re already the best kind of client.
Someone who isn’t afraid to do the work and be a collaborator. You’ve already done some of the hard work we need to create something awesome for you!
Got A Mood Board?
Don’t have a mood board yet? No problem! I’m hosting a free mood board workshop with Oinopo Studio in a few weeks where you can make one in an hour.
Your Brand on Mood Boards aka YBOMB is made to be interactive and fun unlike other workshops that bore you to tears.
Spots are limited so sign up and join us to create an awesome mood board for your brand.
