Week 3 - Branding & Mood Boards

You made it to branding and everyone's doing a great job!

We now continue along the web design process and discover how brand and mood boards all play an important role in establishing the right brand voice and tone for your upcoming proposed site redesigns. Feel free to develop one mood board for the current site and one for the one you're redesigning based on your most primary audience(s) OR one board for one audience and one for another - many ways to do this so have fun with it.

Some examples on how to think about it:

1. One board for current site and one for future site

Lets say you're redesigning a museum site cause the current one is too busy, antiquated and doesn't prominently feature artwork on the home page...maybe one board articulating how busy and out of date the current site is and one that articulates clean, engaging, artwork-rich and text-light direction...maybe it feels aspirational and easy to scan.

OR

2. One board for one audience and a second one for the secondary or other primary audience (you can have 2 primary audiences)

Lets say you're doing an airline site...maybe one board that feels more "tool" or resource-centric...where business people can easily interact with scheduling, tickets and other airline services. The other board might be for tourists or non-business travelers...that board might feel more destination and lifestyle-centric...

These should be 20 X 30 inches...we'll project instead of printing...this is my gift to you...

So what should be on your mood boards? Anything that g­­ets your creative point across. This can include colors, typography, imagery, illustrations, white space (or lack thereof), and messaging. If you were working with a content strategist or copywriter, you might include taglines, slogans, brand attributes (adjectives), or a vision statement. This helps the client to not only visualize the proposed style, but to see how the verbiage can support the overall experience.

Mood boards can be extremely helpful when you’re searching for an overall tone or visual language, but they can also expedite the approval of a creative direction before heading into interface design. In the past, we have noticed that separating initial creative ideas from the mechanics of the site allows the client to make clear and concise design decisions without impacting time or budget.

There are a few things to keep in mind when creating mood boards.

▪ Choose an orientation that best fits the subject matter - usually portrait.

▪ Take into account the audience and how you’ll be presenting to them. Your mood boards can be digital or printed (or both) depending on whether your meeting is virtual or in person.

▪ And finally, have fun. Creating mood boards is not a rigidly define activity. Use whatever pieces you can to express your vision, whether it is cutting and pasting magazine bits to Gator Board or adding minute details and a custom polish to every serif. Do the research on mood boards...use a mixture of pictures, type, color, icons or non of those or all of those...the board as a whole should help articulate a vibe or mood for your intended direction....

Questions?


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Assignment 1:

Use stock photography/illustration, objects, colors, icons, type and/or anything else it takes to get your mood across and develop 2-mood boards (see different combinations of mood boards above) using pictures, brand attributes, color blocks, icons, etc. You can also use www.tonystone.com or www.gettyimages.com for other photo choices.

Guidelines:

- 20 x 30 format in illustrator (empty template provided)

- save as 2 separate JPGs for projection

- see syllabus for when assignment is due

Thx

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