If you’re at all familiar with the branding process, you’ve likely heard the term “brand board” before. You may have even seen examples of it floating around Pinterest, Instagram, and here on my website. But what exactly are brand boards, and why are they important?
A brand board, also known as a brand style guide, is a visual reference for your brand identity. In other words, it provides an at-a-glance summary of the look and feel of your brand. A typical brand board includes the brand’s logos, color palette, fonts, and imagery, at minimum. I’ll share more details of what’s included, along with some examples, below.
How having a brand board helps your business
Having a brand board for your business is essential for a few key reasons. For one, it helps create consistency for your brand. When you or your team are creating content for your website, social media channels, and marketing materials, it’s important to use consistent colors, fonts, and styles. Otherwise, your brand might look like a jumbled mess and confuse your audience.
Another benefit of a brand style guide is that it helps your brand attract the right audience, if it was created strategically. By “right audience,” I’m of course referring to your dream clients and ideal customers. Understanding their pain points, interests, and values will help you to create a brand style, and overall brand identity, that truly resonates with them.
What to include in a brand board
As I mentioned above, most brand boards include the brand’s primary logo, logo variations, color palette (with hex codes), fonts, and image style. Some also include icons, patterns, illustrations, and even mockups. What you include in your style guide depends on how fleshed out you want your brand to be. You can always start with the basics and add on more elements later on as your brand grows and evolves.
Below is an example of a brand board I created when branding my course, Blog Money Magic. You can view many more beautiful examples over on my brand design board on Pinterest.
How to create a brand board
If you’re working with a professional designer to create your brand identity, your designer will more likely than not create a brand board for you. Some designers, myself included, also provide in-depth brand guidelines, which are multiple pages long and go into detail on how to actually apply your visual brand elements. But if you’re DIYing your brand, you can easily create a brand board using Canva, Photoshop, or InDesign (I personally use InDesign).
To start out, you’ll simply need to assemble all the visual elements of your brand. Then you can neatly arrange them in a one-page document. I recommend including hex codes for your colors, so you can easily copy and paste them when you need to. You could also include some filler text for your heading and body fonts so that you can really visualize how they’ll look when applied. If you’re starting completely from scratch, I recommend creating a mood board before diving into your other brand visuals–read this post to learn more about mood boards and how to create them.
Once you’re done creating your brand board, export the file as a PDF, and that’s it! You’re one step closer to creating an intentional brand that attracts your ideal clients.
Looking for a professional touch to help take your brand to the next level? Get in touch to schedule your free consultation.
