So you took the plunge and hired a brand media company to help you and your company surge forward successfully. Congratulations! Very nice move! You are about to embark on an exciting new endeavor. Part of this journey will be meeting with your creative team and giving them a “brain dump” all about you and your beloved business. This is a really fun part of the creative process as it allows you to get to know the team and for the team to learn about you, your goals, dreams, personality, and so much more. Sound a little overwhelming? Well don’t let it be. I’m going to give you a fun exercise that will help you break through that fear and get YOUR creative juices flowing.

I would like to introduce you to the concept of using an “Inspiration Board”. Many creatives in different aspects of the marketing, design, web, and PR world use these to help them wrap their heads around projects and, well, get inspired! Equally this concept can be very helpful for you, the client, help visually tell your marketing team who and what you are about. And the best thing about it is there is no wrong way to do it, and you might discover a little about yourself in the process.

So “how do I make one of these?” you ask. Never fear – you have options, and all of them can work together. The idea behind Inspiration Boards is to pull together images, words, adjectives, colors, design elements, collateral, and more, to create a visual representation of you and your business. You can use a cork board or sheet of paper to quite literally adhere things to them and create dimensional board, or go more digital and use applications like Pinterest or Canva to create a board(s). I warn you, you might just lose track of time, so you have been warned!

You can draw, cut out words or ads from magazines, print out/pin the home page of a website you really like, pin a picture of happy clients, print out a stock image of an emotion you want to convey, pin a swatch of material you like, post a picture of the day your grandfather opened his doors, tag a really cool brochure design you are drawn to, create color palates…the possibilities are endless. Create a board that is just about you, and then one about your business. Or create a board that displays the feeling you want to evoke upon your customers. The possibilities are endless, and the outcomes are really cool and helpful. Together these pieces will begin to tell a story about you, your clients, and your business.

So put on your creative cap and get started! Where will your creativity lead you?