Mood Boards Explained: A Simple Brand Design Tool

Key Takeaways

A mood board is a tool that creatives use to visualize a project. It includes colors and imagery that captures the essence of your brand and helps guide the direction of your content. When I was a student in university, I created mood boards for my visual projects by cutting out pictures, words, and phrases from magazines. These cutouts helped me visualize the style and vibe of my projects. And now I can create a mood board directly in Adobe Express. In this video, I'm going to show you how to create a mood board so that you can visualize your brand and its entire story. Okay, so here I am in Adobe Express. In the search bar, I'm going to type mood board. Next, I'm going to select a template that I like, preferably one with a color palette, some text, and space for images. These templates make it easier to swap out assets for your own, and give you a more completed draft to work off of. Okay, now that I've selected a template I like, I'll add a color palette by changing the color of the shapes. To change the color of the shape, I'll select it. This opens the edit shape panel. When I hover over the color, I can then make a selection. I'm going to change it to one of my brand colors. And then repeat this for all of the shapes. All right. With my brand colors in place, I'm going to shift my attention to the text here. I want to add a few words that describe my brand. Now it's time to replace the photos. When you select a photo, the image panel will appear on the left. At the top, you can use the replace image button to change the placeholder ones. You can also upload your brand photos or use the stock image library from this menu. Because this mood board is for your brand, try to choose images that capture your brand's vibe. For example, this brand is a vintage candy and treats brand. So, let's find photos that represent that aesthetic. You can play around with the effects to customize the stock images to better fit your brand. Now, it's time to replace some of the additional graphics. You can use the elements panel to find different design assets. Before finalizing this project, I want to add my logo. There are two ways I can do this. If you've already set up your brand kit, you can grab one of your logos directly from the logos tab. The other option is to upload your logo manually by selecting the plus button in logos or even in photos. All right, that looks pretty great. You can stop here or you can add more design assets, shapes, and elements to add more style to your mood board. With a mood board in Adobe Express, you can visualize your brand in a whole new light. Your mood board is personal to your brand, but it's really important to share it with others and get feedback while your brand is in development. Share your mood board with friends and family. Or if you want more designer feedback, share it with us at Adobe by tagging Adobe Express and myself at Katrina He has.