One of the first steps to take when you start the branding process is to begin defining your brand. It’s also probably one of the more difficult tasks and involves a lot of time spent thinking about your business and target audience. What appeals to them? What do they like? What magazines do they read? Where do they shop? You get the picture. As a visual person, obviously the easiest way for me to do this is…you guessed it, VISUALLY.

So over the past few months I’ve started collaborating with clients on a mood board to kick off their branding package and it has blown my mind! It has turned out to be such a valuable part of the branding process and (I think) super fun for both the client and me. So, today I'm sharing why a mood board can be so important and how to go about creating one to start defining your brand.

There are about one bazillion things you need to think about when you decide to start a new business, and none of them seem to be any less important than the others. But the one thing can that separate you from your competitors is how you present your brand to the world.

Your business’s image is a vital part of your identity that can set you steps above the others. Creating a cohesive brand for your business can even help build trust with potential clients by projecting a professional image. Tell the world that you have your stuff together and that you demand to be taken seriously!

Here is my list of the 3 branding items you absolutely must have for your new business.

If there's one thing I get super excited about, it's creating brand patterns for clients. It happens to be one of this pattern-obsessed designer’s favorite parts of a branding project. A brand pattern is a distinctive, repeating design that's used as part of a brand's visual identity. It helps to create a cohesive look and feel across different materials and platforms, making a brand more recognizable and memorable. The pattern can be abstract or representational, simple or complex, and I’ll sometimes pull elements from a client’s logo design to make it even more ingrained in the overall brand foundations. It's a versatile tool to inject your business's personality into just about anything and strengthen your brand's appeal and consistency.

So, let’s roll out the patterned carpet! I’m sharing some nifty ways to sprinkle a little more you into your universe with 35 ways to use your brand pattern:

Believe it or not, colors are tied with a psychological and emotional response for us humans. When you put on a bold red lip for the day, you’re telling the world to watch out for your confidence. When you choose the bank with the blue logo, it makes you feel like your money will be well taken care of. When you look at the bright yellow flowers sprouting in your neighbors yard, you feel a sense of warmth and happiness because spring has arrived. Those are all examples of how color can say something without actually saying anything. So you can see how important it is to know exactly what the colors your choose for your business are saying about your brand.

A logo design is the single most important design element that you can have because you will use it the most and it's the first thing people see of your business. Which is why it is SO IMPORTANT that you have a designer create your logo to make sure you’re giving the right first impression to anyone who sees it. But once you have your professionally designed logo and have all the files you need to start using it, what the heck do you do with it?

Well, you’re in luck! Here are 35 ideas for what you can do with your newly designed logo:

“Your prices gave me a bit of sticker shock, to be honest.“

“I can’t justify spending thousands and not walking away with physical items.“

“Well I can find someone else to do the exact same thing cheaper.“

These are all things I’ve heard from people during consult calls for my branding services. I think tact sometimes goes out the window when it comes to talking about money, but I get it. My services are expensive. Not as expensive as some, but more expense than others. And I’m not planning to lower them anytime soon because I know exactly what goes into those services. Creating a strategic, intentional brand from scratch is one of the hardest parts of building your marketing toolkit. It’s so much harder than throwing together 264 different looking graphics just because the templates are available on Canva. So let me break down some of the maybe unseen value that you’re getting when you book a brand package with an experienced designer (like me!).

I recently had a conversation with a friend about who my favorite people to work with are and I realized that one thing all my favorite clients have in common is that they’re brimming with personality. Not only do they have loads of personality, but they’ve let me inject it into their brand to make a one-of-a-kind identity for them. By doing this with their brand, they are already building a relationship with their target audience.