Spring Cleaning For Your Brand

Ah, spring. The season of growth, renewal, and new beginnings. There’s no better time to lean into the energy of the season to wrangle in your brand and ensure it’s reflecting your business in all the ways you want it to. Here are some of my best branding tips for keeping your image cohesive.

Create or reevaluate your 5 keywords.

What descriptive words best reflect the mood you want your brand to convey? These words don’t reflect what you do, but how you hope to make your audience feel. An example of keywords I’ve helped create for past clients:

A wedding and elopement photographer: Soft, Natural, Boho, Modern, Adventurous

A produce farm: Fresh, Nature-Inspired, Local, Organic, Raw

A wedding florist: Cheerful, Classic, Bright, Bold, Vivid

These words are meant to be the anchor of your brand. Whenever you’re building the elements for your identity and find yourself confused, always come back to your keywords!

As your brand grows, revisit your keywords at least once a year and refine as necessary.

Create a mood board.

Mood boards are a wonderful visual tool that will help bring your 5 keywords to life. Start by compiling images that match your brand and support your keywords. I recommend beginning with a color palette, then adding photos to match. There is no limit to what kinds of images should be included in your mood board, as long as each element feels visually consistent, evokes a similar feeling, and is relevant to your brand.

Ideas for your board: color palette, landscapes, architecture, graphics, textures, materials.

Keep the building of your mood board as simple or as complex as your ability allows. Drag and drop photos in Powerpoint, Canva, Photoshop, or any other platform that gives you ease of use. For size, I recommend 8.5×11 so you can print it out.

The goal is for your mood board to inspire your brand image. When communicating with your brand photographer, web designer, or even adding to your own instagram feed, use it as a tool to ensure your brand identity has a smooth and consistent feel.

Be sure to revisit and refine your mood board at least once a year!

Create a Pinterest Board

You may be thinking, I literally just created a mood board. Isn’t this the same thing, but on Pinterest? It’s highly likely that your Pinterest board and mood board will share the same images. The goal with your Pinterest board is to keep exploring your brand. As a brand designer, I spend once a week pinning to my ‘Vision Board’ on Pinterest to keep me inspired and to help me stay on brand. If your schedule doesn’t allow for a weekly dedicated time of pinning, I recommend no less than once a month. As your Pinterest board evolves, you’ll find yourself tweaking your mood board.

Put a dedicated time on your calendar each month to explore and you’ll develop a deeper, more meaningful connection with your brand and its presence!

Closing Thoughts

Your brand has a voice and it’s worth the effort to maintain it. The more time you spend developing your brand, the more confident you’ll become in your presence online and in-person with your customers! Leave your keywords on your desk, tack your mood board up on the wall, and stay inspired.

I hope you enjoyed these branding tips to help you maintain your brand. If you’re still stumped, check out my low-cost brand auditing service here.

Sincerely, Vicky

For more branding tips, check out more posts on the blog.