How to create a personal brand inspiration board

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Your Marketing BFF Inspiration BoardToday I want you to go on a photo safari…a journey where you’ll be collecting and/or capturing photos that you like, are naturally drawn to, and reflect your personal style.

In last week’s post ‘How To Determine Your Personal Brand Style’ we started a personal exploration inside our closets, around our home, and/or around our ‘someday’ world.

When I was creating my personal brand inspiration board for the redesign of this site, I did my own photo safari via:

– Combing through my favorite magazines (Vogue, W, Grace Ormonde, Dwell) and clipping out photos.

– Scouting my Pinterest boards for images that I was drawn to.

– Collecting a few real life ‘samples’ such as a pillow, samples of fabric, products and/or product packagings, etc.

– Taking photos (a sign, a billboard, displays, textures, architecture) with my camera and/or iPhone.

During your photo safari, I want you to capture images that you are naturally drawn to.

Here’s a list of items to look for during your photo safari:

1.       Fashion Inspiration

Not only what you wear, but what you’d like to wear. Accessories are also great to add too.

Fashion Inspiration

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2.       Patterns & Textures

Look for graphic patterns, fabric textures, or organic surfaces that you like and that represent your style.

Pattern and Texture Inspiration

(1, 2, 3, 4)

3.       Typography

Find logo examples, typography, and fonts that match your look and feel. Think about what typefaces best represent your brand?

Typography Inspiration

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4.       Furniture and/or Architecture

Find furniture or architecture that depicts the same style vibe you want to portray. Don’t forget the color, fabric, and elements used as well.

Furniture and Architecture Inspiration

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5.       Color Scheme

Look and think about the color(s) – are they shades of a particular color, do you tend to gravitate towards light or dark colors, is there a certain color hue that has the mood you’re going for.

Color Inspiration

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6.       Layout

Explore a favorite brand’s marketing materials, their website, their layout of text and images. Does it fit with your brand?

Layout Inspiration

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7.       Graphic elements or icons

Find any graphics, icons, buttons that might help describe your brand or style.

Graphic Elements and Icon Inspiration

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 8.       Other

Book covers, music album cover images, movie posters, magazine spreads, product packagings, marketing materials…are all great resources for brand inspiration.

Other Inspiration

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Once you’ve collected photos that you love you can glue them to a board or in a book, tape them to a space on your wall, or you can digitally create a board on your computer. Your inspiration board is what you give to a professional designer (-er like me) so they can help you define and create the ideal brand for you and your business!

Please share your personal inspiration boards with us on Facebook – I can’t wait to see them!

4 Comments

  1. I hit a wall tonight, doubtful and wondering what the hell am I doing. I’m going to work on these assignments given in your blog posts. This is good.

    1. A great way to do this is to create a SECRET Pinterest board…and pin images that ‘speak’ to you. Don’t question it, just pin.

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