Design a personal Brand Mood Board

When you design a personal brand mood board you take the first step to branding your personal image or company in a effective and rewarding way. If you are lost and don’t know where to start,  It is a way to fuel that creative direction you have been waiting for. An easy way to dream up your vision while keeping it organized and consistent. Keeping your ideas clear and thought out, so your personal brand image portrays flawlessly and gains your potential consumers attention.

Brainstorm, Reflect, and Strategize

Start off by brainstorming the client you want to attract with your image, the themes you want, what you desire to look like, your competition, and study this so you can stand out. You can use mood boards to create your website, business cards, and promotional material for your brand so everything is cohesive. Customers would rather buy from a person than a corporation so having a brand image that intertwines with your whole business is essential. Branding your personal portraits to be cohesive with your website, business cards, will make you stand out as trustworthy and professional. Almost as if a brand agency did everything for you, but indeed you are the creative director and CEO of your brand!

A Photo Says a Thousand Words

Think about eras, colors, places, and people you want to emulate. Include a small color palette, textures, fonts, images, lighting effects on photos, anything that can portray an overall mood. You can mimic these colors and textures in clothing you wear for a shoot or in the props and background places. Grab an image you love or gather from an icon you adore like Elizabeth Taylor. Her color seemed to be Emerald so if you have green eyes an Emerald dress will sure to make them pop, with cute baguette diamond earrings you can pull off an Elizabeth Taylor look easily. You can even gather ideas from movies like Casablanca for your mood board. Filled with black and white stills and movie posters, you can come up with a black and white logo with beautiful stylized fonts. If you don’t know where to start check out mood boards online on Pinterest.

Where To Create Your Mood Board

Pinterest is an easy place to create a mood board. But there are many other sites for making mood boards listed here on Creative Bloq. A mood board can be made on a foam board in your house, if you want to do it more classically just pin or tape images to the board. Cut up photographs from Vogue, and fonts from Bon Appetite. Just make sure it has a flow, a similar color scheme of up to five colors to keep it simple. Keep the theme cohesive and be sure to look to other brands for easy inspiration. Martha Stewart is an example of a branded person whose image is her brand. Everything she does and sells has similar fonts and styles, you pick up a product of hers and you know. That’s what a mood board is supposed to help you do. Define the way you and your brand will look for everyone to understand and trust. Make sure you feel as if your mood board describes exactly where you need your image to go. If you have any questions or want feedback on your mood board check out our Facebook group Beautifully Branded Entrepreneurs.

Are you interested in producing an image that shows your best self and conveys your authentic brand?

Personal Branding Photography for Experts, Entrepreneurs, Authors, Coaches, Professionals, Influencers, and Thought Leaders.

Schedule a Consultation today to Book Your Session with Sandy Grigsby.

The post How to Design a Personal Brand Mood Board appeared first on Briofive - Self-Image & Personal Branding Photography.

Stand Out from the Competition

Leave the bullet points behind and begin thinking outside of the box when creating your brochure. One of the best ways to make your company stand out from the rest is through custom features and design elements. From variations such as die cuts, quality paper, foil stamping and metallic inks, adding a little something, something can be the difference between success and the garbage can.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Brochures

Have no fear. Brio Five is here! We’ve put together a helpful list of do’s and don’ts to help you through your brochure making creative process. The following are some simple tips that will help your brochure to be modern, sharp, refined and most importantly effective.

Please Do

Know your end goal

Before you dive into it, know why you’re creating a brochure and what your want to achieve. This step will help you clearly establish your message and decide which custom features are best to execute that message.

Make the cover engaging

The cover is the first attention grabber, and will determine whether or not your audience will bother to open it. Your brochure cover should be captivating, strong, and clean.

White space is your friend

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Let there be space to breathe around the page to navigate through with ease. Many people have a habit of wanting to cram as much info into a brochure as possible, but this can overwhelm your audience and end with your brochure in the trash.

Go beyond Helvetica

While Helvetica has its place in the history of default and commonly used typfaces, a little diversity never hurts. Try using creative typography that represents your business branding and grabs attention. Disclaimer; don’t go crazy here. Overdoing typography can come across unprofessional or amateur. Remember to keep it legible, unified and clear.

Have a transparent call to action

Don’t leave your audience in the dark. Make your call to action visible, concise and one that informs the reader of exactly what it is that they need to do.

Please Don’t

Show, don’t tell

Don’t bore your audience to death be brief. Throwing mass amounts of text across your brochure without any visual support is the quickest way to lose an audience. Bring life to the page with appropriate corresponding graphic elements, art and/or original photography.

Curb the stock photography

Relying solely on stock images can come across corny. Keep an edge over your competition and take your own high-quality photos. This will strengthen your branding message and grow a connection with your readers.

Don’t be conceited

While you may feel the need to explain your company and products thoroughly, most companies make the mistake of taking this a little too far. Instead of talking about yourself and all of the great things you do, think about your patrons. Center your brochure on the problems your customers have needed to be solved and how you have solved these problems. Your viewers are only interested in what you can do for them, not the product you do it with.

Get Creative and Colorful

Your brochures don’t have to be boring and flat. Use colors and shapes to draw your customers eye in to where you want them to go. Below is an example of how colors and illustrations can be used to separate sections of text, add contrast, and featured topics. It doesn’t matter what your content it, good organization and use of colors can make it more digestible and easier to read.

There is a reason that brochures are still alive and well in today’s digital world, they do have their advantages. When done correctly, brochures are one of the best ways to market your business. When you’re ready to create your amazing brochure Brio Five is here to help and to set you up with everything you will need to make your company a success! Check out our graphic design services. For information on brochure printing please visit Printing For Less.

Are you interested in producing an image that shows your best self and conveys your authentic brand?

Book a Session today with Professional Brand Photographer Sandy Grigsby.

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Meeting a Client In Person

As a freelancer, there are specific rules and tips that can help make meeting a client in person a successful one:

1. Meet on your own terms

Meeting with a client on their turf can be hectic and stressful. Running from one building to the next, hunting for parking, being on time. We, as designers, know this pain all too well. With this type of stress, the meeting often begins on the wrong foot and may leave you feeling uneasy and doubtful. Finding a comfortable place close to you, or inviting the clients to your office eliminates this issue. In a comfortable, familiar space, you will be more calm, focused and collected. Keep in mind, you don’t have to tell the client that the location you have selected is near you, for all they know you could have traveled great distances to meet with them!

2. Create an agenda

Particularly with new clients, creating a pre-determined plan of discussion can keep the meeting on track and focused. As a designer, you must wear multiple hats. Staying organized, controlling the floor, and executing your set topics will allow for a clear, productive and fluid meeting.

3. Be honest

With new or prospective clients, its safe to assume you are not the only designer they have consulted or worked with. Remember, it is not just your skill set that solidifies a client, its you. Staying honest about billing, hours, etc., gives your client a reason to trust and hire you. Half of our clients have either been burned or cheated by previous designers. Being honest will go along way with your clients and is the best way to get referrals.

4. Leave with a smile

Talking details and terms are important, but so is connecting with your clients. If appropriate, don’t be afraid to laugh or lighten the mood. Meetings can be stuffy, but the more you open up and connect with your client the more enjoyable and memorable it can be for both parties. Leaving with a smile can set the tone in a positive direction for the working relationship.

5. Bill for your time

Smart pricing practices dictate that you include travel and meeting time in your estimate and invoice. Make sure your client respects your time and yourself if not you may find yourself feeling overworked and under appreciated.

The simple reality is that meeting a client in person isn’t alway possible. With today’s technology you could easily have a client halfway around the world. Thankfully, with light modifications, these five tips can still be useful. However, when the opportunity arises, meeting in a client person will be more beneficial to you than any virtual option ever would. The human connection is irreplaceable so remember, lead with a handshake and leave with a smile! For more helpful tips on meeting a client in person, check out this article by Inc. Magazine.

Are you interested in producing an image that shows your best self and conveys your authentic brand?

Book a Session today with Professional Brand Photographer Sandy Grigsby.

The post FIVE TIPS FOR MEETING A CLIENT IN PERSON appeared first on Briofive - Self-Image & Personal Branding Photography.

Although certain colors do broadly align with specific traits, (i.e. pink with girly, red with warning, and purple with sophistication) nearly every academic study on color and branding will state that it is more important for a brand’s colors to support its desired personality instead of trying to align with a specific color association. Color is important in branding, but be sure to recognize that colors mainly come into play when they can be used to parallel a brand’s preferred personality.

Stanford’s Professor Jennifer Asker have found in her studies on Dimensions of Brand Personality, five core dimensions that play a role in a brand’s personality:

So, when selecting a color over another, one must decide which desired personality trait(s) embodies the brand. Then pick a color that is appropriate for that trait.

Color Appropriateness

Color appropriateness, more simply, is the perceived fit of a color with what is being sold. If Harley Davidson motorcycles were pink, the brand’s perceived personality of ruggedness would change. Colors influence how consumers view the personality of the brand in question. With all that said, when it comes to branding, one must also keep in mind their competition. If the competition all uses blue, you’ll stand out by using red. Studies have shown that our brains prefer recognizable brands, which makes color incredibly important in brand identity. Its important that new brands specifically target logo colors that ensure differentiation from their top competitors.

Gender Preferences

Gender studies have shown that blue is the most liked color of both genders and orange as the least liked. Men also dislike purple which is probably why we don’t have any purple power tools. The study also showed that men were more likely to select bright colors while women preferred softer colors. Also, shades are preferred over tints by men while women prefer vice versa. It is obvious that men and women have a disparity in color preferences. Thus, keep this in mind when choosing a brand’s primary color palette. Depending on your audience, it pays to appeal more to the gender that make up a larger percentage.

The Isolation Effect

The Isolation Effect states that an item that stands out like a sore thumb is more likely to be remembered. Research clearly shows that participants are able to recognize and recall an item far better when it blatantly sticks out from its surroundings. For instance, a red button on a blue background webpage will stand out more than an analogous blue color. The red hits you because of its sharp contrast and in turn coaches the viewer on which color means take action.

In reality, there isn’t an easy, precise set of guidelines for choosing your brand’s colors. However, if you keep in mind the brand’s personality, color appropriateness, your audience and and end goal then you can get a good start at it. Good luck and get designing!

Are you interested in producing an image that shows your best self and conveys your authentic brand?

Personal Branding Photography for Experts, Entrepreneurs, Authors, Coaches, Professionals, Influencers, and Thought Leaders.

Schedule a Consultation today to Book Your Session with Sandy Grigsby.

The post PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR: BRANDING & DESIGN appeared first on Briofive - Self-Image & Personal Branding Photography.