Re: Re: Mood Boards...

<Our Mood Boards, or Style Boards, Tonal/Research Boards usually follow
a strict process:
1) Identify current company tone/mood/look and flaws/benefits
2) Identify competition's look - to avoid creating something too similar
to them - so you 
are aware of what needs to be done to stand out from them.
3) Locate examples of possible styles that are relevant, including color
schemes, type 
treatments, styles of photography, designs with similar tone/audience.
4) group them into a series of choices...>

Is the goal of mood boards -- in your opinion -- to do the heavy lifting
for a company that hasn't articulated a brand? If you agree that the
brand promise is the essence of a company (whether or not they can
deliver on that promise is another matter), is it not plausible to
contend that a client should already have determined things like color
scheme/palette, type treatments, styles of photography, etc.?

I'll be the first to admit that all companies do not see the "value" in
paying an agency to develop brand guidelines but as mood boards are an
interim artifact towards a finished "design," shouldn't the decisions
that come out of mood board discussions feed into guidelines of some
sort so that this exercise is not conducted over and over by various
agencies dealing with different channels?

Scenario:
Agency B asks Client for brand guidelines. Client went through mood
board exercise with Agency A but didn't keep them once the "Web site"
was developed and the Client is looking to engage Agency B in offline
marketing materials. So Agency B conducts its own mood board exercise
(probably having its own name) to be relevant for offline. The results
of these differing exercises might be the same but most likely not.
While it is not the role of either Agency to nudge the Client towards
defining a brand, the Client inadvertently has to pay to conduct similar
exercises each time it engages a "new" Agency because the Agency has to
have some foundation from which to design from.

My question is this: for companies that have already gone through the
exercise of creating brand guidelines, is it your position that mood
boards still play a relevant role? And if so, how?

<example: Client is an art/poetry cafe
Board A: dark moody color, very moody and gothic photography of beatniks
drinking 
lattes, reciting poems, type is serify and textural.

Board B: brighter colors that emphasize a more lively group, photography
with odd angles 
and strong solid color backgrounds, type is playful and childlike.>

If the client in your example had a brand promise and had clearly
articulated their target audience(s), there would be no need to explore
Board A vs. Board B. As a creative (and I use this word broadly), you
(and team) would already know. Your goal would be to execute "designs"
within an already defined framework.

Real world example: 
FedEx has a defined style guide for Web site development that is based
on a grid layout. All sites -- more or less -- that tie back to
fedex.com looks -- more or less -- the same. The supporting style guide
is well over 100 pages and discusses usage of various technologies,
photography treatment, color palette, voice/tone, font usage, etc. While
we might feel a bit restricted in terms of design freedom, following
their guidelines ensures that their projected image is the same. There
is no need to discuss mood boards in this case as all of the branding
decisions have been made. They also have guidelines/standards for
in-store signage, voice/personality, e-mail marketing, identity
do's/don'ts, etc. In fact, they even have a Web site whose sole goal is
to ensure that everyone - internally and externally - using the FedEx
brand - regardless of channel - uses it the same way.


Kelvin Green 





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