Last month I ordered some Moo Minicards, which I posted a review of here. I liked them so much that I’ve been trying to think of a reason to get some more – and last week I found that reason! I’ve just started working with a major new client on a very exciting project (under wraps at the moment, but watch this space) – and for the kickoff meeting which took place yesterday, they wanted to discuss design structure and direction. I’ve done some work with moodboards in the past, and it’s always been fairly rigid, boring, and non-reuseable. I wanted to create some dynamic materials that would be applicable to a lot of clients. I found the answer in Moo.

The Story

There isn’t a huge amount of information to cover here, so I won’t turn this into an unnecessarily long post. I decided to use some more Minicards as reference material for our initial meeting. I designed each card with a different screenshot of one of my favourite websites or pieces of digital artwork across a large range of difference styles and applications (this took a long time). The benefit of having them printed at a small size is that everyone at the table (including the designer) is forced not to focus on the details, but to get a general feel for the big-picture.

Did it Work?

You bet it did! We had a really great meeting, and out of 100 cards the clients were able to quickly and accurately describe exactly what they were looking for by referencing 8 specific cards which they really liked. As a web designer, this gives me a perfect starting point for the design, and as a business owner it gives me a really effective communication tool.

Another small detail to note is that since the last time I ordered from them, Moo have updated their packaging. The Minicard boxes now contain convenient organisational tabs, appropriately titled “Mine, Theirs, and Favourites”. These come in handy for taking the cards away from the meeting without forgetting who liked what.

The best part of course is that the cards are totally re-usable, and I think I’ll be bringing them to a lot more future client meetings!

What do You Think?

This was a bit of a revelation for me, but have you done anything else similar which has really helped establish the mood and direction of a design project?

Update: Due to popular demand below, I’ll be releasing the PSD file and JPG’s that I used to place my order with Moo. If you are interested in grabbing a copy so you can have your own client reference cards printed up then just leave me a comment below and I’ll update you via email when files are available for download. Of course you should also subscribe to the RSS feed so that you’re always up to date anyway!

Update2: These are now available here.

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