Brand Board

A brand board is a document that contains different brand elements like logo, icons, taglines, color palette, etc for the immediate glance of the clients. Brands ask designers to create such boards to showcase every element of the visual brand in one neat document to convey the values, personality, and attributes of the brand straight away.

What is Brand Board?

Brand Board is a document that provides a glimpse of all elements of a brand to the client. From logo, graphical elements, color palettes associated with a brand to the typography, all these elements are present on the brand board.

Created by graphic designers, the brand board can lead the designers and developers working on a brand. Brand Board is a  document representing a brand’s values, attributes, and visions to customers at a glance. Hence, you can use your brand board as a quick reference guide for the visuals of your brand. visuals. Some of the most important elements of a brand board are-

• Fonts, Colors, Web Design, and Brand Logo Design
• Alternative logos or watermarks
• Styled photography
• Signature patterns
• Graphic elements (icons, buttons, illustrations, etc.)
• Taglines

Why does a Brand need to create a Brand Board?

A Brand Board contains information on all the visual elements of a brand and how to put all those elements to use. Exactly, one needs it to maintain consistency across all the visuals used in brand board templates to have a synchronized look and feel.

Don’t confuse such boards with a style guide cause the brand board can keep the brand designers on track. Through brand boards, one can also deduce the attribute, values, and visions of a brand. They are also useful in highlighting visual signals and brand identity on the social media

Steps to Create Brand Boards

1. Set The Mood of Board

First of all, designers need to decide on questions like if they would like to keep the visuals bright and bold or simple and minimalistic, word or visuals representing the brand, and many more such questions.

Before designing, designers need to decide on the feel, i.e.,  light-hearted, girly, or adventurous, that they want to reflect through a brand board.

2. Finding The Right Logo

To come up with a logo that is best suited for one’s brand is not an easy job. A logo represents a brand and conveys the values of a brand; hence, designers need to decide, depending on the values of a brand,i.e. whether a particular brand’s logo would comprise graphics, texts, or symbols.

Using a horizontal or vertical version of the logo depends on how and where the logo is going to be used.

3. Add A Submark

A submark is nothing but a smaller alternative for brands with longer names. It is an element that is borrowed from the primary logo. A favicon or picture is used for the purpose, and it is used in a circular shape.

For watermarks, one cannot use long brand names, and thus submarkets are used as it fits perfectly to the corner of a photo because of its shape.

4. Select A Colour Palette

Brand Board constituents of a detailed color palette with assigned hex code according to which the colors for a Brand’s logo, business cards, and websites are set.3 to 4 primary colors are selected, for a brand which, is followed by 3-5 secondary colors.

5. Typograph

Using more than two fonts can make the feel of a brand board break and turn inconsistent. Out of those two fonts, one is called the primary font and is used for flyers or posters. At the same time, the other one is called secondary font used for writing the next part.

Fonts can either contribute to the overall feel of a brand board or can disrupt the whole mood. For example, for feminine brands, the font Script is used, Sans Serif font is used for modern brands.

6. Use Supporting Icons, Patterns, and Other Graphical Elements

Using patterns, icons, or other graphical elements in the background can add to the overall feel of the brand board. Patterns, icons, or graphical elements complement one’s brand logo and adds to the brand story.

Patterns, icons, or graphical elements are popularly called styled imagery. By adding these styled imageries in the background, one can establish a mood or ambiance that complements the brand.

7. Place Them On A Brand Board

Once designers are through all the steps mentioned above to create the elements, it is time to arrange them on a Brand Board. The logo needs to be placed on a featured spot, and a grid is provided; other elements are to be decorated accordingly inside that grid.

Tools to Create Your Brand Boards

Some of the free brand board tools that you can use are

1. Pinterest

Opt for this tool to do brainstorming and create the right visual appeal. Use it to create a secret board and pin that will aptly resonate with keywords associated with your brand as per the preferences of your clients. It can help you get the best-suited ideas for your brand design as well as the main logo that optimize your social media presence and branding.

2. Canva

It is considered quite effective for small businesses. It will let you create all your graphics without needing any designer. It will help you gather all your ideas to create the best-suited brand board for your brand. Canva is one of the best apps for creating for making graphics, images, logo, and their variations to make a cohesive appeal in all the visual elements of your brands. From website to logo to photos, this tool will be highly useful for you. It also has icons and patterns that you can use as part of your designs.

3. Coolors

With the help of this color scheme generator, you will be able to create the perfect palette or get inspired by thousands of beautiful color schemes. You can use it to upload your brand mood board for the right color suggestions. After liking the color or color combination, you should lock that and continue your quest of finding some other colors.

4. Creative market

Again a top-notch tool for adding colors to your branding to optimize patterns, illustrations, textures, or icons. All its features are categorized in design packages and accordingly, packages are priced differently.

5. Fontjoy

Opt for this tool to generate font combinations with deep learning. It will let your fonts need to represent your business appealingly. It lets you make your headings a bit fancier with the font as per your customer’s needs. It alleviates the task to combine serif fonts (those with the ‘flicks’ at the ends) with non-serif fonts (those with no flicks). Fontjoy will let you generate font combinations as per your custom needs and when you will find the perfect one, you may lock that down and continue to generate the others fonts. It will for sure be one of the best tools for you that will make font pairing simple for you.

Wrap Up!

From maintaining consistency of the brand’s visual to reflecting the brand’s values, the brand board covers different purposes. Brand Board may not be a styling guide, but designers refer to the brand board to stay on track from time to time.

Brand Board is necessary for a brand since it breathes life into the logo, fonts, and style of a brand. Through graphics and texts on a brand board, a brand reflects the purposes and visions.