How to organize references for a branding project

Branding projects generate more references than almost any other kind of work: typefaces, palettes, photography, packaging, tone of voice, the competition. Organized well, those references make the strategy visible. Organized badly, they make every meeting longer.

Set up one project with a board per pillar

Create a project for the client and a board for each part of the brand. A structure that works for most identity projects:

• Category — what competitors and the category look like today
• Typography — specimens and type in use
• Colour — palettes and pictures with the right colour
• Photography — lighting, casting, composition
• Graphic language — patterns, icons, layout
• Voice — headlines and captions that sound right

Spring campaign3 boards · 2 editors

• Casting14 cards
• Styling22 cards
• Locations9 cards

Start with the category board

Collect the category first: competitors’ packaging, websites, ads and social posts, side by side. Seeing them together shows the codes everyone follows — and where there’s room to be different. It’s often the most persuasive board in the presentation.

Let colour emerge

Don’t pick a palette too early. Save references for everything else and let the colours they share show up. A tool that reads each picture’s palette helps: search for a colour and see every reference that contains it.

Write a sentence on every choice

For each board, add a short note: what you’re taking from these references and why. Clients respond to reasons, and the notes become the rationale in your final presentation.

Share one link, keep it current

Share the project with the client as a view-only link. As you refine the boards, the link stays up to date — and nobody is looking at last week’s PDF.

After the project

Keep the project. Tagged and searchable, a finished brand project is a reference library for the next one.