Defining a Brand Aesthetic

I’m often asked how I come up with color palettes for brands. Color palettes help begin to set the overall aesthetic for a brand, and thus serve as an important aspect of a brand project. While we usually recommend that someone hire a brand designer to help craft a brand, this is an activity that anyone can complete—even without design experience.

I ask all of my branding clients to complete a branding questionnaire that tells me more about the heart behind their businesses, but I also ask them to pull together a Pinterest board. The board can contain a few logos and other design elements, but in general I can learn so much more about a client when they pin interior design, outfits, wallpaper, accessories, invitations, wedding inspiration and artwork.

So if you’re thinking about branding but you’re feeling completely lost and overwhelmed, I recommend going through the following process:

Step 1

Create a new (secret) board in Pinterest. Go back through all of your past pins and add the ones that really feel like you to that new board. You can even add some of your own work to the board.

If you don’t have a lot of pins yet, or most of your pins are recipes, try searching for home inspiration, outfits, specific colors and even mood words like “romantic”, “classic” or “rustic”.

Step 2

Once you have that board together and refined to your favorite thirty or so pins, open up Photoshop and start adding your all time favorite pins to the document.

Download the Photoshop Mood Board Template

** download will only work on a desktop computer

Step 3

From there, use the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to sample the images and create a color palette. It might sound difficult, but if you’re choosing your favorite pins, themes and color palettes tend to emerge pretty naturally!

Step 4

Implement it! Use the mood board and color palette you just created to help change the colors on your website, to choose client gifts and even to help figure out what to share on Instagram!