How do you effectively communicate your ideas to a designer?
I want it to pop! I want it to be playful! One problem though. There are different ways to represent these words. Let’s say you were looking for a criminal. Let’s call him Nagules (similar pronunciation to Hercules. Please don’t ask me why I gave the name). The only info you give the police is his first name. How in the world are they going to find Nagules? If you give them a picture of him or a very good description then their lives would be easier.
When it comes to design, words are not enough. People use words to describe things and sometimes they use the wrong words or they might not know what word to use. So, it’s important to make sure you and your designer have the same interpretations and the best way to do this is through a mood-board.
Some designers are good at asking questions others are not. The designers that ask good questions will be able to ask questions that will trigger a good description from you and the words you respond with will be used to design a mood-board. This could be done on a call or through a questionnaire. As for the designers that don’t have this ability, you would have to do the mood-board process yourself to make your life easier.
How to come up with a mood-board
You need keywords for this. They depend on how deep you want to go. A description of the look and feel you want for your brand is sufficient if you are just starting. On a deeper level, you would need to define your brand’s personality (this consists of your brand values, tone of voice, look and feel). You have to acknowledge what these words mean to you.
After identifying these keywords, it’s time to search for images. Let’s say you wanted something that feels playful, you could use Pinterest to search for images.
As you can see, there are different interpretations of what playful can mean visually.
If you are having issues finding images from a particular keyword then check what it means, and search for synonyms. This will help you find something. One thing to note is that not every word can be converted into an image.
