How to Create a Brand Identity - Research & Mood Board

Summary

This video tutorial offers a comprehensive guide on creating a brand identity from scratch, focusing on conducting thorough brand research and crafting mood boards. The host takes viewers through the process of designing for a fictional urban garden brand, 'Rootful,' exploring competitors, audience preferences, and industry trends. The session includes practical steps like using Milanote for research collection, analyzing competitors' messaging, and leveraging Google Scholar for insights. The goal is to present diverse mood boards to clients, ensuring the brand direction resonates with their vision and preferences.

Takeaways

• 📚 Conduct thorough brand research before starting a project to understand the market and competitors.
• 🔎 Use tools like Milanote to collect and organize research materials, including screenshots and images.
• 🌟 Analyze competitors' design, messaging, and tone to identify industry norms and opportunities for differentiation.
• 📈 Consider the audience's needs and preferences, and how they align with the brand's vision and goals.
• 📝 Document key findings and insights in a report to serve as a foundation for the design concepts.
• 📈 Look into trends and opportunities in the industry to inform brand strategy and design direction.
• 👥 Understand the target audience's lifestyle and interests to tailor the brand's appeal effectively.
• 🌱 Explore different platforms and sources for research, including Google Scholar, to gain a comprehensive view.
• 🎨 Create mood boards to visually represent potential brand directions and gather inspiration.
• 💬 Present research findings and mood boards to clients to facilitate discussion and refine the brand's direction.
• 🔑 Ask 'why' to understand clients' preferences and dislikes to guide the creation of unique brand concepts.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video series?

The main focus of the video series is to guide creatives on how to create a brand identity from scratch, including conducting brand research and creating mood boards.

What is the name of the fictional brand the video uses as an example?

The fictional brand used in the video is called 'Rootful', an urban garden aimed at fostering community and promoting local and sustainable food production.

What are the key goals of Rootful as described in the video?

Rootful's goals are to provide a space for city dwellers to meet and build community, to encourage the consumption of locally produced vegetables, and to educate people about sustainable food production.

What is the first step in conducting brand research as outlined in the video?

The first step in conducting brand research is to look into similar companies, both competitors and potential competitors, to understand how they use design to convey information and what messaging they use.

How does the video suggest collecting and organizing brand research?

The video suggests using Milanote to collect and organize brand research, including screenshots of competitors' logos, designs, and messaging.

What is the importance of analyzing competitors' messaging in brand research?

Analyzing competitors' messaging helps to understand what information they believe their customers care about and how they prefer to be spoken to, which can inform the tone and approach of the brand being created.

Why is it suggested to look at social media during brand research?

Looking at social media during brand research helps to understand the platforms that the client plans to use and how they can best fit the audience's preferences, as well as to gather insights into competitors' social media strategies.

What is the role of scientific papers in the brand research process as described in the video?

Scientific papers can provide valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences, such as reasons people support urban farms, which can inform the brand's design and messaging strategies.

How does the video suggest using Google Scholar for brand research?

The video suggests using Google Scholar to search for trends and studies related to the industry, such as urban farming, to find relevant and recent research that can inform brand strategy.

What is the purpose of creating mood boards in the brand identity creation process?

Creating mood boards helps to visually explore and present different design directions and concepts for the brand, allowing for a better understanding of the brand's visual identity and facilitating discussions with clients.

How does the video recommend presenting the research findings and mood boards to clients?

The video recommends compiling the research findings and mood boards into a presentation, discussing key takeaways, and exploring the client's preferences and reasons for their likes or dislikes to guide the brand concept creation.

Outlines

00:00

🌿 Brand Identity Creation Process

This paragraph introduces a series on creating a brand identity from scratch, focusing on conducting brand research and creating mood boards. The speaker discusses the importance of understanding the project's prerequisites and conducting effective brand discovery meetings. A fictional brand, 'Rootful,' an urban garden aiming to build a community around local food production and sustainability, is used as a case study. The speaker outlines the steps of brand research, including examining competitors' design and messaging, and emphasizes the need to analyze industry trends and opportunities.

05:01

🔎 Deep Dive into Competitor Analysis and Market Research

The speaker details the process of conducting competitor analysis by visiting their websites and social media platforms, focusing on design elements, messaging, and tone. The aim is to understand what competitors are doing well and identify potential opportunities for differentiation. The importance of considering industry norms and the possibility of disrupting them is highlighted. The speaker also discusses the significance of researching brands that appeal to the same audience but are in different industries, using 'Rootful' as an example to explore relevant audience preferences and behaviors.

10:04

📈 Analyzing Trends and Design Styles in the Industry

This section delves into researching industry trends and design styles, like a journalist following multiple sources. The speaker uses Google Scholar to find scientific papers on urban farms, highlighting the importance of sample size and recency of studies. Key findings from a paper on urban farm support are discussed, including the significance of confidence and pleasantness in consumer decisions. The speaker also mentions using Google and Pinterest trends to understand consumer interests and aesthetic preferences, which inform the brand's design and messaging strategy.

15:06

🎨 Crafting Mood Boards and Presenting Research Findings

The speaker describes the process of creating mood boards to explore different visual directions for the brand. They emphasize the importance of collecting a wide range of inspiration from various sources and using tools like Milanote for organization. Three distinct mood boards are presented, each representing a different approach to the brand's visual identity. The speaker also discusses the importance of presenting research findings and mood boards to the client, using Keynote and PDF formats, to ensure the client's preferences and ideas are incorporated into the final brand concept.

Keywords

💡Brand Identity

Brand identity refers to the visual and textual elements that form a brand's image and personality. It is central to the video's theme, as the series aims to guide viewers on how to create a brand identity from scratch. The script discusses various aspects of brand identity development, including research, mood boards, and client presentations.

💡Brand Research

Brand research is the process of gathering information about competitors, market trends, and target audiences to inform brand strategy. In the script, brand research is a key step in the brand identity creation process, where the creator examines competitors' design and messaging to identify opportunities and trends.

💡Mood Boards

Mood boards are visual collages that capture the essence of a brand's desired aesthetic. They are used in the script to present different visual directions to the client, helping to explore various design styles and themes for the urban garden brand 'rootful'.

💡Urban Garden

An urban garden is a garden located within a city that serves various functions, such as community building and local food production. The script uses 'rootful' as an example of an urban garden brand, emphasizing the importance of community and sustainability in its brand identity.

💡Community

Community, in the context of the video, refers to the social group that the brand aims to serve or engage. The script highlights the role of community in attracting Millennials to urban gardens, suggesting that the brand should foster a sense of belonging and togetherness.

💡Sustainability

Sustainability is the ability to maintain processes or conditions without depleting resources or causing harm to the environment. The script mentions sustainability as a core value of the 'rootful' brand, aiming to educate people about local food production and eco-friendly practices.

💡Millennials

Millennials are the demographic cohort following Generation X, typically associated with technology use and social media engagement. The script identifies Millennials as the target audience for 'rootful', noting their potential interest in urban gardens as a break from city life.

💡Trends

Trends refer to the prevailing tendencies or directions in a particular field or activity. The script discusses researching trends in urban farming and design styles to understand what appeals to the target audience and to identify opportunities for the brand.

💡Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis involves evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of other businesses in the same market. In the script, the creator conducts competitor analysis by visiting websites and social media to understand how similar companies convey their brand and engage with customers.

💡Presentation

Presentation in the script refers to the act of showcasing the research findings and mood boards to the client. It is a crucial step in the brand identity creation process, allowing the client to understand the proposed directions and provide feedback.

💡Visual Direction

Visual direction is the overall aesthetic or stylistic approach taken in the design of a brand. The script discusses establishing a clear visual direction for each mood board to ensure that the brand's design elements are cohesive and consistent.

Highlights

Introduction to a series on creating a brand identity from scratch.

Emphasis on conducting thorough brand discovery meetings as a prerequisite for the project.

Explanation of the process to conduct brand research and create mood boards.

Designing for a fictional urban garden brand called 'rootful', focusing on community and sustainability.

Importance of understanding the client's customers, vision, and inspirations from other brands.

Conducting brand research by analyzing competitors' design, messaging, and customer engagement strategies.

Utilizing Milanote for collecting and organizing research materials and screenshots.

Analyzing competitors' messaging to understand their tone and customer communication approach.

Examining social media strategies of competitors to gauge audience engagement and platform fit.

Incorporating findings into a research report using a template for consistency.

Researching brands that appeal to the same audience but are in different industries.

Exploring industry trends and design styles through various research methods.

Using Google Scholar to find scientific papers on urban farming and consumer behavior.

Identifying key factors such as 'confidence' and 'pleasantness' from research for brand strategy.

Conducting a basic Google search for urban farming trends and their relevance to the brand.

Using Pinterest Trends and Google Trends to understand search terms and consumer interests.

Drawing conclusions from research to guide brand design and messaging.

Collecting inspiration for mood boards from various sources to explore different design directions.

Creating multiple mood boards to represent different brand directions and concepts.

Using tools like Milanote and Adobe Illustrator to organize and refine mood boards.

Presenting mood boards and key research findings to the client for feedback and direction.

Importance of understanding client preferences and the rationale behind their likes and dislikes.

Finalizing the research report and presenting the findings and mood boards to the client.

Transcripts

hi creatives and welcome back to the

series on how to create a brand identity

from scratch if you missed part one and

two where we looked at everything that

happens before you start a project and

also how to conduct really good brand

discovery meetings I'll make sure to add

those in the descriptions you can go

check them out first if you like today

I'm going to take you through how to

conduct really good brand research and

create mood boards so we're gonna take

it from how to find the information that

we need put together research reports

create mood boards and then how to

present all of this to our clients to

make it a little bit easier to follow

along I thought we would design this for

a fictional brand so I decided that

we're going to create this for an urban

Garden called rootful their goal is to

have a space for people who live in a

city to come and meet and build

community to have a way for them to eat

more locally produced vegetables but

also to learn about our food production

and how to be more sustainable overall

we're actually as a family right now

trying to grow all of our own vegetables

ourselves so this would be a really fun

exercise for me as well and a way to

learn a little bit more about Urban

Gardens last time in the discovery

meeting we talked to our clients about

their customers their vision and other

brands that they feel inspired by today

our job is to look at Trends and

opportunities in this market and see

what we can use when we create the brand

ourselves the first step is to conduct

the brand research and I'd like to break

this up into a couple different steps

first I like to look into similar

companies both competitors that my

clients have mentioned but also

companies that I think could be a

competitor that maybe they missed first

I visit their website and I look for a

few different things I like to see how

they use design to convey information

like for example what Photography they

use how they use layout and colors and

maybe if they use illustrations or

infographics for example

I also look at their logo I take

screenshots of everything and I add them

to milanote so I have a place to collect

all of my research you can also use the

Mila note extension to grab the images

directly and put them into a board the

next thing I look for on the website is

messaging how do they pitch their

business how is the tone is it friendly

and casual or formal and to the point

for example this tells us both what

information that they think their

customers care about but also how they

like to be spoken to if a lot of

competitors are using the same approach

we need to ask ourselves if it's because

it's really working or maybe because

people are a little bit worried to step

away from the norm so in some cases it

could be an industry where you can

disrupt and you can come up with a

completely different approach and that

can work great but in some Industries

let's say for example you're a lawyer

you might not want to have a super happy

fun go lucky tone or if you're an ice

cream shop you might not want to be

super duper serious so sometimes these

tones work because they are for a

specific industry with an audience who

is expecting something but try to look

into it and analyze if what competitors

are doing is the smart choice or

something that could be disrupted next

up I do the same thing on social media I

focus on the social media platforms that

my client has decided to use and also

that seems like the best fit for the

audience in the case of rootful I think

Tech talk and YouTube might be the best

platforms since we're trying to reach

people who want growing tips probably in

video formats and also who want quick

updates about what's actually happening

in this Urban Garden so they can come

visit and take part

now that we know a little bit more about

the competitors and we have these images

and screenshots to draw from I like to

start adding them to my report as I go

so I add in the images from the

different competitors and I make little

notes of takeaways and things we can

learn so for example things I think they

did really well or things I think could

be opportunities that we could use for

our own brand this report uses a

template that I've created so the

sections are always more or less the

same after the research meeting with my

client I send them this report and that

way they can always look back and see

what we came up with but it also works

as the foundation for the concepts that

we will Design next up is brands that

appeal to the same audience so they're

not in the same industry but they share

the same audience as the brand we're

designing for I do the exact same thing

of visiting their website and social

media and I write down things that I

observe for rootful the audience is

Millennials who live in the city and

want a break from their busy day-to-day

lives it can either be someone who works

really long hours and want a hobby or a

place to visit that is really relaxing

or it could be families with young kids

for example that want a place for them

to play and spend time together maybe

with other parents as well so keeping

this in mind I think brands with a

similar audience might be things like

really kid-friendly cafes yoga places

libraries other places where these

people would spend their time that would

be more of what we call the third space

so not home or work but the third space

where people are willing to meet in

their free time next up we want to look

at Trends and design styles that are

happening in this industry and I would

say that this part of the research is

probably the least straightforward there

are lots of different ways to do this

and you have to spend some time trying

to find different answers digging around

a little bit following a couple

different paths and see what you come up

with think of it a bit like if you were

a journalist and you were following

different sources to see the whole

picture in the story so let's give it a

try on Google Scholar I might search for

trends for Urban farms for example and

see if we can find something okay so

here's a really interesting paper that

looks at what those living in cities

care about when they decide for or

against supporting an urban farm

scientific papers they can seem a little

bit intimidating but there's a couple

different things you can look out for to

make sure that you find a good

scientific study the first one is the

sample size so if you have very few

people or very few different

organizations to took part that means

that the sample size was really small

and it's harder to make any kind of

deductions from it so the more people

who participated the more data you have

to actually make conclusions from it can

also be a good idea to see when it was

published so you actually have different

filters in Google Scholar where you can

make sure that you're finding something

that is from the last couple years and

maybe not a study on Urban Farms from

the 80s for example because that might

not be as relevant right now start with

the abstract and see if there's any

information that might be interesting in

this particular study right away I can

see that we mentioned a couple different

reasons that people want to support

Urban Farms like having more food

security when we see stronger effects

from global warming and higher food

prices and this is super interesting and

something that we can point out when we

suggest designs and messaging for the

brand I want to learn a bit more so I'll

go down to the results and discussion

section this is where they talk about

what they found and what that means

first off we can see that a big part of

the audience is a similar age to our

customers so that's really good and we

can also see there are two factors that

are key for adopting Urban farms and

those are confidence and pleasantness it

might just be me but I want to

understand what those things mean

because I think they can have a lot of

different meanings so I'm just going to

click command F and write confidence to

read their definition because most

scientific papers always Define all of

the different terms that they use and

then I do the same for pleasantness it

seems like confidence is how confident

you feel that you can take part both

financially and from a Time perspective

so when we think about how we can apply

this to the brand we might want the

brand assets to show how easy it is to

be involved offering ways to get

involved that are casual and not a

continuous commitment for example

for pleasantness it's more about how

nice the environment is to be around so

something we can put in our research

report could be that we need to showcase

the really pretty parts of the garden

how well adapted the garden is for

smaller kids for example I add all this

to my report and I make sure to add the

source so you can do this in a couple

different ways you could either link it

directly in the text or you could have a

reference list at the end of the

document this is what I tend to do and

then I just add a quick reference to the

author's name and the year it was

published in the actual main text and

then at the end of the document I had a

reference list I used the Harvard method

so there's different methods of citing

and a really quick way to do this is

just to use a tool called cite this for

me here you just add in the website link

or a book ISBN or the article DOI number

for example and then it creates both the

text and full reference for you so that

is super quick next I just do a basic

Google search for Trends in urban and

farming and see what different paths we

can find that we could go down I'm

looking for articles or even Trend

reports that will tell me why people

want to join an urban garden and this is

also a great place to find images for my

mood boards I can see that Hydroponics

are becoming much more popular for urban

Farms but it's not exactly what we're

after because rootful doesn't really

have hydroponic systems as part of their

Garden I can see a couple Farms that

seem a bit more similar to rootful so

I'll visit those websites and see what

they think yeah okay so we can see that

these are both very focused on community

and creating this Garden together to see

how this fits in with our Millennial

audience we can see if we can find

articles or reports that talk about the

role of community for Millennials we're

looking for articles that feel like they

come from very credible sources and I

also like to check out a couple

different ones before I form a kind of

conclusion about what I think this is

why it's really important to have time

to do the research and not feel like you

have to quickly rush to find something

but make sure you have the time to

browse and really take your time with it

I can see that online communities are

important to Millennials but I can't see

articles that directly talk about

in-person communities

I do see that Millennials are much more

likely to live alone than older

Generations so perhaps there's more of a

need for community and to find out I see

if I can find articles that talk about

loneliness and see what they say about

Millennials okay so Millennials are

reporting that they're likely to have

only a few friends or no close friends

and a lot more people live by themselves

so this could be a great opportunity to

show how the Urban Garden can be a place

where you belong and I think we need to

be careful not to make it seem like you

have to be a really expert Gardener to

partake if you want to look for Trends

in Search terms a few great places to

look are Pinterest Trends and Google

Trends this will show you what terms

people use to find different Urban

Gardens or home growing and it can give

us some idea of how the messaging can

work for example we can see that Urban

Green Space has gone up with 150 percent

in search in the last 12 months we can

also see on Pinterest trends that

Cottage Garden meaning these cute

Gardens with lots of flowers and garden

Aesthetics are both up in search a lot

this could tell us that people really

care about having a space that's really

cozy to spend time in and kind of

reinforces this pleasantness factor that

we saw from the scientific paper so now

that we've done a bit of research we can

draw three different conclusions I think

first off people want an urban Garden

that looks really nice and that they

enjoy spending time in two is that

Community is a great way to draw in

Millennials who want to feel part of

something and don't want to feel lonely

and three it should feel really easy to

get involved you shouldn't feel like

there's a monthly commitment or a weekly

commitment or like you have to be an

expert to be involved you should be able

to just drop by and enjoy the garden

with this in mind I want to collect a

bunch of inspiration that I can use for

my mood boards so I look on Pinterest

unsplash dribble be hands and in books

that I have in my library for a typical

project I like to spend about two days

collecting information so this is

obviously a super shortened version but

I hope that I can give you a good idea

of how to approach the brand research

stage I already have an idea in mind

that we would want one mood board to

feel a bit more like a charity and

focused on community one that is more

focused on the kind of cottage core cozy

aesthetic and one that is perhaps a bit

more like Botanical and focuses on

bringing in illustrations of plants but

I don't want to get more specific than

that before I've had a look at some

designs and see where my mind goes when

I look for images I try to find a nice

mix of different applications so in this

case I know they will need a logo a

website social media templates and

signage in the actual Garden so I want

to find examples for all of these if I

can I also think photography is such an

important part so I want to find at

least one or two images that can guide

each mood board as I find things I just

use the Milano extension to add the

images to My overall mood board and then

I'll sort and put it all together later

I want the stage to be really free and

just creative and the space for us to

just look for inspiration without

feeling like you have to be creating

already okay great so now we have lots

of different inspiration images that we

can use now I want to go into Mila note

and divide them up to the three separate

mood boards so I can make sure that I

have enough images to work with once we

start designing you could definitely do

just one mood board but I find that it's

quite nice to have three different mood

boards or at least more than one so that

you can explore some different

directions at this super early stage

when the stakes are a lot lower so I

like to have either a safe a medium and

maybe a slightly more adventurous mood

board or three different directions that

I think could all be interesting but

that are super different so that we can

look together with our client and see

actually surprisingly this direction

works really well let's explore that so

this stage is supposed to be really

playful and we really want to be

exploring different options you could

definitely make the mode board straight

in Mira note but I like to use the pen

tool and add text and other details to

make the mood boards feel a little bit

more like the images are all from the

same brand so I personally like to make

them in illustrator

I make the mood boards the same size as

my keynote Pages because I'll put all of

my key research findings and the mood

boards all into one presentation that I

can share with my client during the

meeting I usually try to start with the

colors for each mood board and this way

there's a clear kind of visual Direction

and I can see how they differ from each

other I also want to make sure that the

typography has Clear Directions so if I

really like one of the images but the

typography is really different from the

other ones in the same mood board I

might block out that area and add text

myself the goal is for each mood board

to have a really distinct Direction so

we want to make sure that everything

matches and feels like it could fit into

the same brand another good idea at the

mood board stage can be to look into

stock illustrations or Graphics that you

can use because this means that you

don't need to spend all this time making

something just for the mood board but

you can still get that feeling that

you're after

so now I think we're at a point where

I'm gonna actually say that I'm done

with these mood boards I feel like you

can always keep going and find new

things you want to tweak but I'm gonna

be happy with this so for the first one

we've gone for a much more modern Vibe

and the idea here is to make it feel

like a place for young people to come

people who wanted to be kind of like

inspired by museums and cool cafes so I

wanted to have that direction in there

in case that's something my client wants

to pursue the second one is a lot more

around Botanicals a much softer Vibe

where we have illustrations and it feels

like layering and almost a little bit

like kind of scrapbooking where it feels

like the garden is more natural and

grows a little bit at its own pace and

so here we really want to create this

calm feeling of a place that you can

come to when you need a bit of time for

the third one I wanted to be a bit more

of this college core feeling and here I

wanted it to be lots of flowers colors

like you'd have fun picnics and lots of

really fun events where you can bring

your kids and there's always a lot of

energy and movement I've used these more

playful illustrations here here and this

little dotted line to kind of create

more of a DIY feel to make it feel a

little bit less intimidating once I feel

comfortable with my three mood boards I

add them into my keynote here I also add

the key takeaways for my research the

client will get the full research report

after the meeting but I just want to

discuss a few key takeaways that we can

incorporate into the brand so the

presentation could look something like

this we cover what the competitors look

like opportunities for their own brand

visual Trends Trends and psychology for

Their audience and lastly the mood

boards I also like to show that how

might be questions that we came up with

in the discovery and make suggestions

for how we can solve them for example if

one of the how might be questions for

rootful was how might we create a brand

that encourages new people to visit the

garden my response could be to focus on

how easy it is to join in and using

really aesthetic images to show how

lovely the garden is how much

information you put really is down to

the scope of the project if let's say

your creating a website and social media

templates then you might want to include

examples from competitors or from their

own current brand where you point out

opportunities for example during the

meeting with my client I take them

through each slide of the presentation

one by one and discuss what we found I

make a note of any preferences that they

have and any other findings that maybe

they have to add that we can then put

into the research report or look into

further when I present them with boards

to my client I make sure that they

understand that all of these are curated

directions specifically made for them we

have not designed anything uniquely this

is all a collection of things that

already exist in the market and this is

just for us to make sure that we're

understanding the visual direction that

they are interested in taking because

although these are all curated we still

want to make sure they feel really

excited about their own brand so

personal taste and preference does come

in a little bit they can like one of the

mood words really strongly or they can

like different bits and pieces from them

so that we can create a really Dynamic

concept that will take an into

consideration the different things that

they're interested in a really key thing

here is to always ask why so if your

client for example really likes a logo

you can say really good perfect that's

helpful to know why do you like that

logo is it the color is it the

typography is it the lockup is it like

that it feels really playful or really

Dynamic try to get to the bottom of why

because if you end up with just a

collection of things that they like but

you're not quite sure why it's really

really difficult to use that as a guide

when you're creating your own Concepts

we also want to let them know that

dislikes are just as helpful as likes so

we don't want them to tiptoe around

anything just to make sure they're not

hurting our feelings because we want to

know everything all what they like and

all what they don't like after the

meeting I added any last information to

the research report and I export the

keynote to a PDF and then I add both of

these documents to the client portal I

hope this was helpful in the next

episode we're gonna actually create the

brand concepts for root fall which feels

super exciting so if you want to join in

make sure that you're subscribed and you

hit the notification Bell so you can see

when that video comes out thank you so

much for watching good luck with your

projects and see you next time