So you’re either a small company, a small department or for some other reason can’t commit to a rebrand. Here’s a little something to help you get from where you are to something that a designer and writer can use to create a mood board and get you started on visual and verbal guidelines. And it involves something some of us do for fun.
Go through this list and then go on Pinterest to make a board that answers these questions. It goes like this:
Step 1: Answer these Questions
Make a Pinterest board and call it what you want. Make sure to only use it for your brand. Call it “mood board” or something. Then answer the following questions one-by-one.
Answer the following questions by choosing a pin. In other words, for each question about your brand, choose an image/pin to answer it. Then, in the description write why this is an answer to the question.
For example: What kind of car would your brand drive and why? Take the image of the car that you would drive and then fill the Pinterest description with why you would drive that car and make a board that is your brand personality traits.
Choose a pin that answers each of the following questions:
- Is your vacation a road trip in the United States or travel abroad?
- What kind of restaurant would you prefer to go to? How much would you spend at that restaurant?
- Are you blue collar or white collar?
- What kind of jeans would your brand wear? Or maybe they would wear slacks? How does your brand dress and why?
- How does your brand tell time? Is it a watch, a phone or a Fitbit? Choose one and talk about why it would be that one.
- What kind of building does your brand belong in? It doesn’t have to be where you are, just where you would be. What city would you be in? Explain why.
- Does your brand go out and party, or does it stay in and watch Netflix?
- Is your brand an early riser or a late riser and why?
- Is your brand a stoic, starkly keeping discipline, or does it like to enjoy the finer things in life?
Step 2: Coherence Test
In the end, make sure to go through all these and talk about how it fits your values, making sure none of your images contradict your values.
When you’re ready…
- External logic test. Once you’ve done this, send it to a writer who can ask questions about how your brand actually looks. Let that writer question your logic and your reasoning for things.
- Board design. Then send that board to a designer who will design your mood board. After that, talk to us about an implementation plan. How do you implement your brand, moving from mood board to logo, to verbal and visual guidelines, and then all the way to rolling it out for the world to see?
This should be a pretty fun exercise. Interested in more stuff like this? Sign up for our newsletter or one of our webinars.
