what is a mood board presentation

The ultimate guide to mood boards

When you’re beginning to work on a big project, it can be difficult to imagine what it will look like or how to get started. Setting the tone with an array of imagery, graphics, and ideas can help stimulate creativity and get you in the mood to pursue your project. Enter mood boards.

It’s said that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and that’s partly why mood boards remain popular and effective tools for creatives. In this guide, you’ll learn all about mood boards, including the tools and tips you’ll need to create your own mood board with some expert guidance from content creator and influencer Allison Bickerstaff.

Summary/Overview

What is a mood board.

A mood board is a collection of imagery, text, and other elements that evoke emotions, drive concepts, and help create themes visually. Individuals and teams can use them to gather inspiration for decorating a space, planning an event, sparking ideas for a logo, and much more.

Mood boards are an excellent starting point for the creative process as they are not yet a full commitment to an idea. While they started as paper creations, people can now create mood boards digitally to cut down on costs, share easily with others, and even integrate interactivity, leaving behind the days of stagnant posters and allowing for more engaging, immersive designs.

Mood boards help form brand identity and personality before diving into the design process. As a collection of concepts and thoughts, this collage can inspire your whole team to come forward with ideas and inspiration. Creating a visually appealing collage of goals and dreams can pave the way for inspiration and the next steps to achieve your goals.

Mood boards emerged decades ago as actual boards and are still relevant today because they encourage a visual, tactile connection at a time when many people — especially younger generations — are seeking more physical spaces and experiences in a hyper-digital world. Mood boards can function as fun, interactive, useful first drafts of a project. They can often scratch our aspirational itch and allow us to dive into something despite our perfectionist tendencies.

How do I make a mood board?

Making the magic happen in your personal and professional endeavors doesn’t occur overnight — through the trial-and-error process of creation and collaboration, plenty of ideas will come and go. A mood board can help you nail down basic concepts that bring your project to life.

Your mood board is a great way to focus on current goals and address goals you may have pushed to the side. The following basic steps will walk you through the initial process of mood board creation — no paper or glue required.

Start with a solid foundation

Once you have the green light for project kickoff, your mood board sets the, well, mood for your project. You may even want to create multiple mood boards for more complex projects to highlight different stages or elements of the project.

Create a crystal clear vision

A mood board is a collection of various ideas that encourages exploration, but it should also make clear what the end goal of the project will look like. If you or anyone else working on a project feels lost, you can always refer back to the mood board to remind yourself and others of the original intent of the project.

Make space for collaboration

Putting your ideas into words is an important part of the creative process, but some concepts are difficult to describe. Visually conveying ideas is an inclusive form of project collaboration that provides fewer limitations than writing down or verbalizing them.

Involve everyone in the ideation process

Whether working with clients or on your own, sharing the project layout early on can keep everyone on the same page. Creating one or a few different mood board options can prevent you from redoing work later on because you had a different idea of what the client’s intentions were for a project.

Source: Adobe Express

10 tips to make an effective mood board

It’s one thing to know how to make a mood board , but it’s another to strategize what will be most effective for you. And, if you’re working with others, think about what imagery they can understand and relate to so they can execute the project using any imagery available.

Allison Bickerstaff is a content creator and influencer who shares her daily errands, DIY crafts, baking creations, travel vlogs, and digital templates in sunny videos that brighten her followers’ social media feeds. She started off her content creation career at The Walt Disney Company and later became a lifestyle YouTuber and content creator, showcasing her everyday life for her hundreds of thousands of fans. Bickerstaff is constantly trying new things, sharing fresh ideas, and reminding others to find joy in the little things. She loves creating mood boards for the parties she hosts, places she travels, and lifestyle she wants to share.

Bickerstaff has been making mood boards for as long as she can remember. She recalls creating them with her mom in school on large poster boards. The classic poster mood board has evolved over the years, but the goal of collecting photos, visions, and dreams has remained the same.

Today, Bickerstaff’s mood boards focus less on specific goals and instead highlight overall lifestyle, habits, and rituals.

“This year [I’m] focusing on staying rooted in inspiration and just establishing a really healthy life in all aspects,” she says. “So of course, with physical health, but also mental health and just creating a pace of life that is joy-filled and slower paced, not go, go, go frantic, just very peaceful.”

The following tips can help you make the most of the mood board ideation process.

1. Work ahead

Rather than relying on other people’s designs, you can set the pace and save yourself some work down the road by using your own original designs and color palettes. While outside inspiration can be helpful, it may not be necessary for your current project.

Maybe you’re creating new branding materials for yourself or a client. You can create a mood board using different elements you have designed yourself to showcase the overall style and theme of the branding without having to rush to make the final product because you will already have some of the materials completed.

2. Make multiple mood boards

Creating a few mood boards can be helpful for larger projects that have multiple elements with different aesthetics. For example, if you’re creating a business with a restaurant connected to a speakeasy, perhaps the speakeasy has an entirely different aesthetic than the restaurant. While they’re owned by the same company and share similar elements, the two will provide different experiences.

It’s also a good idea to create more than one mood board if you’re not certain what the client’s expectations are, giving them plenty of options that increase the likelihood of finding something they like.

Bickerstaff creates a variety of mood boards, including a general one for the whole year, boards for different events, and some for travel adventures. Having the visual aspect of the mood board helps her to think about what she wants the feeling of the event to be — for example, is this vacation going to be more adventure-focused or laid back?

3. Assemble the aesthetic based on attributes

Mood boards aren’t limited to graphics and illustrations of things that will actually be included in the final project. Use them as a chance to consider certain words, phrases, or colors that come to mind when thinking of a brand. A mood board lets you think of qualities a brand has — Bickerstaff’s personal brand, for example, is calming, peaceful, soft, and warm.

“Something I pretty much always have on my mood board is some sort of ocean or beach scene,” Bickerstaff says. “To me that just automatically calms me and represents peace, which I feel like is always something I’m reaching for.”

4. Seek the source

Looking at original pieces that come from the place, time period, and aesthetic you’re trying to create with a project are the best sources of inspiration for creating a relevant, accurate, and consistent design. Say you’re in the process of creating a Y2K-nostalgic clothing and accessory brand. Bringing in butterfly hair clips, old university photos, and glossy, metallic materials can help you stay true to the trends of the generation while creating a cohesive brand.

Bickerstaff’s first mood boards used old-school magazine cutouts, and she will still use clippings from fun catalogs, postcards from her travels, or other souvenirs she picks up along the way. But she also likes to make large digital collections of inspiration, and Pinterest and Tumblr are her go-to platforms.

“Pinterest is our best friend, right?” Allison says. “It’s just so helpful to have that resource with thousands and thousands of images, and you have that searchability aspect, so it makes it seamless and efficient.”

5. Ignite your imagination

The elements in your mood board don’t have to relate to the project at hand. Their inspirational approach lets you pull from a variety of resources — from monumental mountain ranges to marvelous makeup brands. The visionary elements you choose can steer the direction of your design without remaining in the same category.

Mood boards are evolving designs that will likely change throughout the project process. Inspiration may strike when you least expect it, so be sure to have a quick method for yourself and your team to easily add ideas whenever and wherever they happen.

As a visual person, Bickerstaff gravitates toward imagery to gather inspiration and finds that looking on picture-heavy social media platforms like Pinterest is more “life-giving.”

6. Organize the chaos

Once you have all the pieces in one place, it’s time to tinker. You can arrange your mood board ideas into a hierarchy that shows the importance of each item, play with the shapes and sizes of the imagery you’ve used, or overlap items as you see fit. Take your time to experiment with different arrangements to create a mood board that clearly states your artistic vision.

7. Take notes

While your mood board is a collage of visual arrangements, your presentation of the mood board shouldn’t be lost for words. If you’re presenting the mood board to others, you may want to include some notes about the thought process behind the different elements in your board.

8. Collaborate with colleagues

Sharing your ideas and gathering other perspectives from friends or colleagues can help bring ideas to the table that you may not have come up with otherwise. Digital mood boards are especially great for multi-person collaboration as they’re easy to share across devices, locations, and time zones. Having multiple sets of eyes and ears for your project gives you a better shot at impressing your co-workers and clients with a consistent, cohesive collage of ideas.

To keep the ideas and projects growing, say yes to constructive criticism. Remaining open to suggestions will ensure an end product that meets your client’s or your own expectations. It’s better to have help catching an issue early on than scrambling to fix the final product.

A project’s needs can change, or maybe your vision doesn’t line up with that of a colleague or client. When a pivot is required, Bickerstaff recommends doing everything you can on your end to adjust goals as needed, let go of aspects out of your control, and be flexible in the process.

9. Ask questions and pause for reflection

For Bickerstaff, mood boards have given her an opportunity to reflect on her goals and plans. In looking at past and present mood boards, she can think about what she wants her future to look like.

“You’re just able to take that moment to pause and really ask yourself, What am I working towards? What am I hoping for?” Bickerstaff says. “In our society and day-to-day life, it’s so easy to just live each day — do the same old, same old.”

Bickstaff suggests considering questions like “Why do I have these goals?” and “Is there anything that I could improve or work on that I want to incorporate in my life?” Asking these simple questions and exploring the answers — whether on a personal or professional level — is crucial to developing a great mood board.

Mood boards can spark lively, engaging conversations between colleagues and invite valuable perspectives. At the same time, Bickerstaff feels that not every element in a mood board needs to be deeply discussed or examined.

“It doesn’t have to be letting out your heart’s desire, you know — [it can] be more surface level, too,” Bickerstaff says. “I think it’s just freeing for someone entering into the space, even if they’re not sure how deep they want to go.”

10. Keep your goals in sight

Keeping your mood board in a place where you can easily access it will serve as a constant reminder of your goals. Bickerstaff suggests keeping your mood board in a location where you will see it often, as it’s easy to get distracted and lost in day-to-day activities. If it’s a digital mood board, you could set it as your desktop wallpaper.

Bickerstaff gathered with friends for a Dream Planning Party at the beginning of 2024 to set goals for the year, and they created mood boards in the form of paper bookmarks. Each morning, when she has her journal time, she can easily refer back to them and reflect on her 2024 intentions.

Mood boards then and now

Mood boards were first popularized by fashion designers like Coco Chanel and Dorothy Draper, who publicized the interior design mood board in the 20th century. These designers, like their predecessors, used a variety of elements to showcase their artistic vision. Now, designers, advertisers, business owners, and other creators implement mood board production as part of their ideation process.

From immobile to immersive

While physical mood boards are still alive and well, digital boards provide an easy, efficient option for individuals and teams to present ideas. And, with the rise of AI technology, a simple prompt can spark a spur of concepts that leads to endless possibilities for creativity.

With a smarter and more useful toolset available than ever before, what once was a paper collage glued together can now be ideas brought to life in an immersive digital experience, quickly turning a little idea into a large reality.

Say you’re a business owner trying to come up with ideas for how to paint your walls and what decorations and furniture to add to your retro-themed clothing store. A quick search for “retro-themed colorful wall with a retro couch in front” in Adobe Firefly could give you an idea of the patterns and colors you may want to consider.

No longer limited to magazine cutouts, fabrics, and a glue stick, the virtual world is at your fingertips, and the elements you imagined are able to quickly become a reality.

Opportunities for meaningful collaboration

Collaboration has always been an essential part of project advancement, but in a largely digital age, many of the spaces for groups to share ideas have changed. For Gen Z and Generation Alpha specifically, some of these collaborative opportunities are becoming less common.

Even with digital convenience becoming the norm, younger generations are still frequently choosing in-person experiences over digital ones. One survey found that 70% of respondents preferred a hybrid work model over being fully remote. Younger generations are looking for mentorship and collaboration opportunities to learn and grow, and mood boards can satisfy the need for teamwork and relationship building.

Humans survive and thrive in communities, making social connection essential for our well-being. Research shows that social connection remains necessary for positive cognitive, mental, and physical health outcomes. A mood board brings together people and ideas, whether digitally or in person. It satisfies our biological need for community and connectivity and leaves room for people of different ages and stages of life to contribute.

Mood board magic with Adobe Express

In Bickerstaff’s mind, trying to make a mood board “realistic” is counterintuitive because the exercise of creating one should move you out of your comfort zone to “reach for the stars.” Even if you fall short, it’s a chance to learn and grow.

“I think that’s just a byproduct of life and the human experience,” Bickerstaff says. “Of course, you can have all the dreams in the world, but life has curveballs.”

Similarly, even with great ideas and expert tips, your mood board won’t be flawless or final at first. And with the best digital tools, it doesn’t have to be. You can create, re-create, iterate, and improve as much as you want — until you’ve got a collage of creativity that’s unique to you and perfect for your project.

Finding a platform that can provide the backdrop for inspiration and functionality makes the process of mood boarding much easier and more enjoyable. With a wide selection of templates, fonts, and imagery, Adobe Express makes your first steps simple. Express offers a free mood board maker with all the tools and templates you and your team need to create a polished, professional, and personalized place for ideas. It even includes generative AI features that can amplify your search for designs and images, change text effects, and more.

You can also enter a prompt on the Adobe Firefly website and gather inspiration from high-quality images, text, and color palettes. Simply type an idea using more than 100 available languages to generate images, transform text, add or remove objects, and more. Firefly offers multiple variations of the prompt you use, giving you plenty of inspiration to add to your mood board.

From small concepts to big ideas, the mood board you had in mind can become a beautiful reality in minutes when you harness the power of Firefly generative AI. Go from stagnant to stunning in just a few clicks. Explore all that you can do with the Express free mood board maker tool and Firefly today.

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Sep 22, 2020 • 15 minutes read

11 inspiring mood board examples for your next design project

Starting a new design project? Let these mood board examples inspire your work.

Ray Slater Berry

For all of the typing, talking, and hand signals someone can do when expressing an idea, it's so hard to convey instantly. Communicating an entire brand, vision, or feeling often comes easier visually.

People process images 60,000x faster than words —here's a visual to help you digest that information quicker.

Mood boards have been around for a while. They are a vital tool for UX designers, product designers, web designers, graphic designers (the list goes on) for ideating and communicating ideas rapidly and effectively.

In this article, we'll explore the science behind a mood board, how to create one, and share eleven mood board examples to inspire your next design project. Whether you're "mood boarding"—yes, it's a verb—for personal or professional projects, a mood board is an incredibly useful tool to inspire and jump-start the design process.

Let this article be your mood board, of sorts, to kick-off mood boarding. Enjoy!

What is a mood board?

In short, a mood board is a collection of content to translate an idea or thought visually.

A mood board sets a specific tone for anything. Whether you're building a new product, a campaign, or a brand, a mood board can communicate ideas using shared design references.

A mood board is used for a team or an individual's work process and benefits both. Also known as an inspiration board, they are the first step between an idea and the first rendition of work. They help to get minds collectively, visually organized and inspired for what's to come.

It saves time in the early stages of a design process by getting a team on the same page and eradicating lengthy meetings trying to explain how something should feel. Research shows, mood boards allow designers the creative freedom they need while remaining coordinated and organized. Win, win.

What is a mood board used for?

Mood boards serve three primary purposes:

• Define an idea or project: By turning your idea or concept into a series of images, colors, and designs, it becomes tangible. Mood boards help translate the feel of your ideas into real, visual assets and inspiration, which helps support your project and ensure everyone’s on the same page.
• Inspire new angles or creative routes: Especially useful if you’re still in the process of discovering your project (e.g. a brand identity, new product design), mood boards are invaluable for bringing together the vision, identity, and impact you want your project to convey.
• Direct in times of uncertainty throughout a project: In one glance, a mood board can tell people much more about your project than you can in ten minutes. Not only can mood boards become a source of truth when designing, they can act as a guiding star for brand identity and project goals; somewhere for people to come back to and remind themselves what you’re working on, and what that looks like.

What to include in a mood board?

The truth is, anything goes if it helps you achieve your goal. Mood boards are not only great for ideation and generating new ideas, but they can also aid the production process. They can do this by being a reference point for inspiration or research if a product team is ever feeling lost.

Most people turn to images as their base for a mood board. However, don't shy away from blocks of color, textures, fonts & typography, and other visual formats.

The content a mood board will include often depends on the type of project and goal. If you’re creating a mood board for a UI or UX project, you’re more likely to have website or app mockups that inspire ideas and development.

Whereas, if you’re creating a mood board for the interior design of an office, you’re likely to have texture samples, furniture designs, and color palettes. Look for the content that suits your goal best.

Picking a theme for your mood board will help you decide on the type of content you want. Your theme doesn’t have to line up directly with your product, but it’s there to unify the mood board.

For example, an app that tells surfers what the tide is like in their area could have a beach themed mood board. This doesn’t mean every image needs shells and beach towels, but it could direct the color scheme to corals, and include natural textures.

Think about what you want to feel when looking at the mood board; each item should evoke that feeling or serve a particular purpose based around it. If it doesn't serve its purpose on its own, then get rid of it.

If you like a piece of content because of its UX appeal, don't disown it because the color, for example, doesn't fit your mood board's aesthetic. Likewise, don’t disregard a product with a design you love, simply because the product is not the same type of product as yours—consider everything. Sometimes the best ideas come from translating inspiration to a different platform.

Should I create a physical or digital mood board?

This question comes up a lot: there's no right or wrong answer. Both online and offline mood boards have their advantages and disadvantages. The type of mood board that works best for you will depend on your project, resources, and the goal of your board.

Offline mood boards

The great thing about offline mood boards is they're tactile, impactful, and can appeal to more senses— smell, touch, taste. They're also collaborative when you're in the same space. Offline mood boards can be great for client pitches, small same-space teams, and designers looking to immerse themselves in the process.

A physical mood board example from Jen Liu

However, offline mood boards are limited to precisely that, offline. It means for all the work you put into them, only those in the same room can utilize them. A photo or even a video of a physical mood board will never do it justice, resulting in temporary work and a missed opportunity to grow your ideas as your project does.

Online mood boards

Although limited on the tactile front, the amount of digital tools and resources available at a few clicks is massive. You're also able to find styles, images, and thought pieces that are more likely to evoke the feelings of what you want, rather than relying on your handy skills to create them.

A digital mood board example from Canva

Of course, a massive bonus with online mood boards is their shareability. If using a mood board tool or platform, like Milanote, Pinterest, or Adobe Spark, online collaboration opportunities are endless.

This is especially useful after 2020’s shift into remote work. With more companies taking the remote leap and staying there than ever before, our processes need to be as readily remote as we are.

Plus, online mood boards don't need to be removed because someone wants the whiteboard. They can be a work in progress throughout the entire design process—a digital canvas never runs out of paper.

Tools we’d recommend for mood boarding include: Miro , Pinterest , Canva & Milanote

How to create a mood board

For this article, we'll focus on creating a digital mood board. There are a few things to keep in mind when designing your mood board.

1: Start early

Start a mood board before a project officially launches, to enter the process with a clear idea of its tone and feel. This will help you organize ideas and kick the project off with everyone on the same page, or board in this case.

2. Include different design elements

Consider every possible piece of content to include, from quotes to GIFs to specific images. Whatever helps you get your theme across. This might be:

Imagery, art & graphics Imagery is possibly one of the most powerful mood boarding tools, so use it. The imagery you include can portray so much, from colors schemes and emotions, to design style and target audience. Don’t just think about the colors or literal images though, consider the feel of them. Use visual metaphors (a fast car for speed, lightning for power, the ocean for tranquility) and mix it up with a variety of photography, illustration styles, even classical art.

Colors The right color can convey everything from emotion to brand identity. If you have a distinct color palette in mind, now’s the time to lay them out together and introduce other design elements (graphics, patterns, fonts) in to bring it to life. If you’re still brainstorming, use this time to play around this different color schemes and combinations until you hit one that conveys what you want.

Tip 🎨 If you’re brainstorming color palette ideas, use a helpful tool like ColorSpace to generate infinite color palettes fitting different criteria

Words & phrases In our everyday life, words are infinitely impactful. The swap of one word to another can change the whole tone of a sentence. Even a simple piece of punctuation can complete change something’s meaning. Use words and phrases to your advantage, whether it’s a single word that encapsulates the energy of your project, or a quote that envisions what you aspire to create.

Typography Different styles of font send different messages with them. A serif font feels professional, organized. While a sans serif font is more relaxed. Cursive, script typography feels extravagant or creative, and block capitals show a sense of authority. Think about what tone you want to get across—how do fonts play into that?

Textures Textures are powerful. Marble feels sleek, simple, elegant. Smooth concrete is strong, modern. A bumpy piece of fabric feels disruptive, tiles on a wall feel orderly. Use photos of textures on a digital board, or real materials on a physical mood board to bring this emotion and messaging to life. Play with fabric, paper, tiles, buttons, sand, leaves.

Patterns & shapes Consider the patterns and shapes you see each day—how do they make you feel? Designers have a great understanding of how different patterns and shapes convey emotions or concepts, so look to existing mood boards or product UI you like for inspiration. Use organic shapes, like those found in nature (the soft curve of a wave, the gentle bumps of a tree) to show calm, while busier patterns reflect energy and movement. Repeated patterns can convey order, or mania.

It's worth noting here that looking on Google should not be your go-to option if you want to find great media, consider more design-focused platforms like Behance or Dribbble—a sort of social media platform for design—to curate your own mood board.

3. Think of your audience

It's important to consider who you're mood boarding for and the type of person they are. Is it for yourself? A product team? A client? An entire business? Don’t limit this to only the audience of your design concept, consider the audience of your project as well. By fine-tuning your audience, it will inform your work.

4. Let it support briefs

A good mood board can come hand-in-hand with a design brief. For example, you can share a brand board with a designer alongside a UX design brief of a new product. It will help team members understand how you want the task to look and feel.

5. Find a layout that works

As you'll see with the mood board examples below, they come in different layouts, some are regimented and present content in the same dimensions, while others come with different content in various sizes.

All creative processes are different and you need to find the layout that works best for you and your project. For example, if you’re working on a mood board for UX purposes you may want to consider a layout that reflects the interaction of your product.

The layout will also depend on the design ideas you want to convey and the platform you're using. For example, Canva or Adobe Spark grants a lot more flexibility than Pinterest.

Whereas, if you’re working on a mood board for interior design purposes, different shapes and sized content can help add the same amount of depth and result you’d like to see with your interior design.

6. Keep in mind brand guidelines

It can be easy to stray away from a brand as you dive deep into mood boarding. Try to stay on-brand or as close to it as you can with the graphic design of your work.

7. Keep it up to date

Dependent on what you're mood boarding for and why, it might be a good idea to keep the mood board updated regularly. When you’re building a mood board for a product, then it should evolve just ahead of your product. Let your process inform your mood board and use it as a constant reference point if ever lost for inspiration.

8. There's never too much

When you're mood boarding, don't get in your head about using too many examples. You can always remove some later, but it's harder to get back into the mood board mindset and add more if you're falling short. Overdo it and then analyze each piece of content and ask whether it enhances the mood board by being there.

Plus, concepts, or comps— comprehensive layouts— rarely come as one rendition. Don't be afraid of creating two or even three mood boards that take your idea down different visual paths, then lock down the one you think works best for the goal at hand.

To lock down a mood board you want to run with, share it with your team and get feedback, and align it with your brand mission and vision. What feels right for everyone?

9. Make it an available reference point

To keep your mood board as a reference point, you need to make it accessible. Also, consider collaborating on the mood board with key stakeholders. When used as an idea generation tool, everyone involved in the project should contribute to the mood board.

11 Mood board examples to inspire you

Looking for mood board inspiration? Look no further. We’ve scoured Behance (Adobe’s social media platform for showcasing creative work) for the greatest uses of mood boards, and collected 11 styles to inspire your next design project.

Hint: If you're looking for more design inspiration, check out these 17 graphic design books to change your approach to design.

1. Typography mood board example

Mood board by Alina Medvedeva | Click to view

A typography mood board is an opportunity to narrow down the style of font and text you’d like to use. Consider how you feel about serif, cursive, all caps? Seeing all your options together is a great way to see which reads best, and you can make an additional mood board with final elements to see how well your chosen typography ties in.

2. 3D design mood board example

Mood board by Adam Tomajko | Click to view

We love some 3D design at Maze, so this is a popular mood board in our design teams. Using 3D designs can create more depth to your ideas, and carry more weight as a result.

3. Logos mood board example

Mood board by Ryan Paul | Click to view

Who hasn’t thought about their favorite—and least favorite—logos? Whether it’s your local sports team or an indie tech company, logos are vast and varied. Collate some of your favorites together for some inspiration.

4. Color palette mood board example

Mood board by Natalie Gonzalez Lazo | Click to view

Selecting a color palette is a big task. Putting all your options in one place makes it easier to compare the variations, from bold, contrasting schemes to minor hue differences.

5. Illustrations mood board example

Mood board by Siow Jun | Click to view

Determining your illustration style—or if you want illustration at all—can be overwhelming. From simple line-work to detailed realism or cartoon-style graphics, there’s a lot of options. Collate your favorites on one mood board, or make a series to compare the individual styles.

6. UI mood board example

Mood board by 김 혜빈 | Click to view

Mood boards are an ideal way to start brainstorming your UI. Consider what colors draw attention, which typography works best for the home page, where should the logo sit?

7. UX design mood board example

Mood board by Aditi Sisodiya | Click to view

Just as with UI, mood boards are a great way to present different UX elements and decide which you want, and how to lay them out. Use a mood board to collect your favorite examples of innovative, inspiring, or effective UX design.

8. Mobile app design mood board example

Mood board by Vaishu Patel | Click to view

Designing a mobile app has many complex steps, but this can be made easier with a mood board. Gather inspiration from your favorite apps to use, from the app layout to illustration style and color palette. Putting these options all in one place will help clearly show what direction you want to set off in.

9. Posters mood board example

Mood board by Iya Briones | Click to view

Working on a poster? Whether it’s digital or print, getting the design right is crucial. You need to be aware of space, color, font, images… the list goes on. A mood board can help narrow down each of these elements until you’re left with a definitive picture of what you want energy you want your poster to give off.

10. Product design mood board example

Mood board by 李 一鸿 | Click to view

Using a mood board for product design can really help streamline your conceptualizing. If you have a definitive product style in mind, put together a set of products that exemplify this style. If you’re still narrowing down what design you want, then use a mood board to display product designs you find inspiring or intriguing. Which work well, and which don’t?

11. Website design mood board example

Mood board by Galih A. P. | Click to view

There's a lot to consider with a new website, whether you're designing from scratch, using a template, or just creating a new page. Use a mood board to consider your favorite websites to use and look at. What elements work, and what don't?

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The Complete Guide to Mood Boards: Unleash Creativity and Inspiration

Discover the power of mood boards in design projects. From brand identity to interior design, these visual collages convey the desired look and feel. Learn how to create mood boards step by step, ensuring alignment with your creative vision. Whether for home redesign or new projects, explore this essential tool for organizing ideas and inspiration.

Table of contents

Main takeaways, the purpose and benefits of mood boards, defining the creative vision, exploring concepts and ideas, sparking the creative mind , fostering innovation and originality , presenting design concepts, aligning stakeholders and clients, how to use a mood board template to create a moodboard that captures the emotional impact and user connection of your brand, how to make a mood board that boosts collaboration and creativity, benefits of digital mood boards, popular digital tools for creating mood boards, the role of mood boards in fashion design, creating a visual narrative for fashion collections, mood boards in personal style exploration, the benefits of creating a mood board for your design project.

• Mood Boards as Creative Blueprints: Mood boards are more than visual collages; they're your project's creative compass, defining and refining ideas into tangible visual narratives.
• Emotional Impact and User Connection: Understand the psychology behind mood boards to evoke emotions, build trust, and shape engaging user experiences in various fields.
• Collaboration Amplified: Leverage mood boards as powerful collaboration tools, facilitating effective communication, team alignment, and streamlined decision-making.
• Digital Evolution: Embrace the digital frontier with online tools like Canva and Figma, offering dynamic, eco-friendly, and collaborative spaces for crafting mood boards.
• Fashioning Identity with Style Mood Boards: In fashion and personal style exploration, mood boards become mirrors reflecting personal aesthetics, transforming style into an artistic journey.

Now that we've demystified the "what," let's delve into the "why." Why bother with a mood board in the first place? Think of it as the magic wand that sparks inspiration and cohesion. The primary purpose? To crystallize ideas, concepts, and emotions into a tangible visual form. This not only provides a roadmap for creators but also fosters a shared vision among stakeholders.

The benefits extend beyond the visual allure. Mood boards streamline communication, ensuring everyone involved is on the same page. They're not just pretty collages; they're strategic tools that align creativity with purpose. By distilling the core elements of your project, mood boards become the bridge between imagination and reality.

In essence, a well-crafted mood board serves as a compass, steering your project away from the wilderness of ambiguity towards the destination of cohesive, visually stunning outcomes.

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How to Create a Mood Board for Your Brand and Design Concept

Picture this: You're standing at the crossroads of imagination and realization. How do you bridge the gap? Enter the mood board, your compass in this uncharted territory. It helps you define and refine your creative vision, providing a tangible representation of the ethereal concepts swirling in your mind. It's not just about choosing colors and images; it's about distilling the very essence of what you aim to achieve.

Ever felt like your ideas were slipping through your fingers like sand? Fear not – the mood board is your creativity catcher. Dive deep into the process of exploring concepts and ideas. It's not merely about sticking images onto a board; it's about curating a narrative. What story do you want your project to tell? By weaving together diverse elements on your mood board, you're not just brainstorming; you're crafting a visual story that captivates and inspires.

Creativity isn't a switch you can flip on and off. It's more like a spark waiting to ignite. Mood boards are the tinder that kindles that spark into a blazing trail of creativity. By immersing yourself in a sea of visuals, you awaken dormant ideas and breathe life into your creative mind. It's the difference between a blank canvas and a canvas bursting with potential.

In a world saturated with information, standing out is an art form. Mood boards are your palette for originality. They encourage you to think outside the predefined lines and forge a unique path. Don't settle for the expected; let your mood board be the catalyst for innovation, pushing boundaries and crafting a narrative that leaves an indelible mark.

Your project is more than a mere idea – it's a visual symphony waiting to be conducted. The mood board is your sheet music, laying out the harmonies and melodies of your design concepts. It transforms abstract thoughts into tangible visuals, offering a sneak peek into the visual feast you're cooking up.

In the collaborative dance of creativity, ensuring everyone is in step is crucial. Enter the mood board as your choreographer, aligning stakeholders and clients with your vision. It bridges the gap between your creative language and theirs, fostering a shared understanding that is essential for a successful project.

Now that we've explored the intricacies of crafting a mood board, let's delve into the fascinating realm of psychology. Mood boards aren't just visual collages; they're powerful influencers shaping perceptions and behaviors.

Influencing Perception and Mood:  Picture this: a serene blue evoking calmness, vibrant reds igniting passion – colors on your mood board aren't just aesthetic choices. They wield the power to influence perception and mood. Understanding this psychological dance allows you to curate visuals that resonate on a deeper level, creating an emotional connection with your audience.

Motivating Action and Decision-Making: Mood boards are not passive bystanders; they're active catalysts for action. By strategically incorporating elements that trigger specific emotions, you can guide your audience towards decisive actions. The decisions your audience makes can be influenced by the carefully curated emotions on your mood board, making it a silent but potent motivator.

Building Trust and Authenticity: Trust is the cornerstone of any meaningful relationship, be it personal or professional. Your mood board, when crafted with authenticity, becomes a beacon of trust. By expressing the genuine essence of your brand or project, you not only captivate but also establish a foundation of trust. In a world cluttered with messages, authenticity is the key that unlocks lasting connections.

Enhancing Usability and Functionality:  User experience isn't just about looks; it's about functionality. Your mood board influences the usability of a product or space by guiding design decisions. It's not merely about what looks good; it's about what works seamlessly. From intuitive layouts to user-friendly features, the cues embedded in your mood board shape a user experience that goes beyond surface appeal.

Now, let's explore how mood boards become the glue that binds collaborative efforts, fostering effective communication and alignment within teams.

Facilitating Effective Communication

Communication is the heartbeat of collaboration, and a well-crafted mood board acts as the universal language. It bridges the gap between verbal ideas and visual understanding. Team members, whether designers or stakeholders, can interpret and discuss concepts more efficiently with the visual aid of a mood board. It's not just about what you say; it's about what your mood board shows.

Fostering Team Alignment

In the collaborative dance of creativity, alignment is the key to a harmonious performance. Mood boards serve as the choreographer, ensuring that every team member is moving in sync. From designers to decision-makers, the visual clarity of a mood board creates a shared vision. It's the thread that weaves individual contributions into a cohesive masterpiece.

Streamlining Decision Making

Decisions can be the stumbling blocks in any creative process. Here, the mood board steps in as the decision-making compass. By presenting a visual representation of ideas, it streamlines the decision-making process. Stakeholders can see, feel, and understand the proposed direction, making choices more intuitive and aligned with the overarching vision.

The Benefits of Creating a Mood Board for Your Digital Evolution Strategy

In the digital age, where creativity is encapsulated in pixels, understanding the design process and the benefits of virtual mood boards is crucial. A mood board can also serve as a dynamic platform, where visual elements and graphic design converge to form a cohesive vision. It may include a myriad of different ideas, allowing designers to experiment with various concepts before finalizing their creations. Virtual mood boards are not just about aesthetics; they are a testament to how technology enhances the creative process in the realm of digital artistry.

Say goodbye to glue sticks and scissors – digital mood boards bring a myriad of advantages. They are not just eco-friendly; they are dynamic, editable, and easily shareable. Digital platforms provide a collaborative space where team members can contribute in real-time, breaking down the barriers of physical distance. Accessibility is no longer an issue; your mood board is just a click away.

Now, let's dive into the digital toolbox. Numerous platforms cater specifically to crafting captivating mood boards. From user-friendly interfaces to a plethora of customization options, these tools empower designers and teams to bring their visions to life. Let's explore some noteworthy players, their features, and how they streamline the mood board creation process.

• Canva: Design Made Easy: Canva is a versatile design tool that simplifies the mood board creation process. With drag-and-drop functionality and an extensive library of images, it's a go-to platform for both beginners and seasoned designers.
• Milanote: Collaborate Seamlessly: Milanote is designed with collaboration in mind. It allows team members to contribute ideas, make comments, and collectively shape the mood board. Its flexible canvas accommodates various creative elements.
• Moodboard - iOS Creativity: Tailored for Apple users, Moodboard is an iOS app that turns the iPad into a digital canvas. It offers a tactile experience, allowing designers to arrange images with a touch, making the creative process more hands-on.
• Figma - Real-time Collaboration: Figma goes beyond mood boards, offering a comprehensive design platform. Its real-time collaboration feature makes it an ideal choice for teams working simultaneously on a project, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Digital tools not only revolutionize the creation process but also enhance collaboration, making mood boards more accessible and dynamic than ever before.

How to Use Mood Boards to Bring Your Fashion Ideas to Life

As we stride onto the fashion runway, let’s delve into the transformative role of mood boards in shaping the design process of fashion and style. A mood board is a collage that not only reflects different ideas but also helps to solidify a design concept. It’s an essential tool for graphic designers, UX designers, and stylists working on creative projects.

Fashion design is an intricate dance of fabrics, colors, and shapes, and at the heart of this creative choreography lies the fashion mood board. It serves as the designer's visual manifesto, a canvas where concepts take shape. From selecting textiles to defining silhouettes, the mood board is the compass guiding designers through the complex terrain of fashion creation.

A fashion collection isn't just a compilation of garments; it's a narrative, a story told through stitches and seams. Mood boards play a pivotal role in crafting this visual tale. By bringing together elements that evoke the desired theme and emotion, designers transform abstract ideas into tangible collections that resonate with fashion enthusiasts.

Fashion extends beyond the runway; it's a personal expression of identity. Enter the personal style mood board, a tool for individuals to explore, define, and refine their unique fashion identity. Whether curating a wardrobe or planning outfits, the mood board becomes a mirror reflecting personal aesthetics and preferences, making style exploration an artistic and enjoyable journey.

In conclusion, the art of creating a mood board is a pivotal element in the design process. It’s not merely a tool; it’s a catalyst that sparks inspiration, visualizes emotions, and fosters collaboration. Whether you’re an interior designer, a marketer, a filmmaker, or a fashion enthusiast, mood boards offer a universal language that transcends industries and elevates ideas.

A mood board may start as a simple collage of images, but it evolves into a stunning visual representation of your design concepts and ideas. It helps to maintain everyone on the same page throughout the creative journey, ensuring that the actual design aligns with the vision for the project. As you work on your project, remember that creating a mood board can be a free mood enhancer that also can be used to explore different visuals and design elements .

Let’s say you want to create one; it’s a great way to communicate and keep your ideas organized, whether for Interior Design, UX design, website design, or any other creative endeavor. With Tanic Design by your side, you’re equipped to unleash your creativity, tell your story, and transform your ideas into unforgettable experiences. So, embark on this mood boarding adventure with confidence, knowing there’s no right or wrong way to express your creative vision.

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How to Make a Mood Board in 5 Easy Steps Plus Examples

Mood boards are a superb example of how visual storytelling is shaping the next decade .

For a start, mood boards are extensively used by designers and those from the creative fields to communicate ideas with clients.

These beautifully presented collages of concepts and inspiration allow clients to understand a designer’s creative vision.

Have you been meaning to make a mood board but are unsure how and where to get started?

This step-by-step guide will cover the basic steps on how to make a mood board, plus great tips and examples from various industries to inspire you in your next design project.

• What is a mood board
• Benefits of having a mood board
• What to include in your mood board
• 5 steps to making your first mood board

Mood board examples for your next creative projects

• Make your first mood board with Piktochart

What is a mood board?

A mood board typically includes a combination of images, texts, photographs, and textures to explore and present an idea in a way that words alone cannot.

However, these design elements are not standalone features on a board. Instead, these components combine to tell a cohesive story about a vision. This story has to be clear or the purpose of the mood board is lost.

Mood boards are a creative project often used in client presentations but are equally important to tracking and feeding the designer’s vision and visual directions. 

Benefits of creating mood boards

Here’s why you should consider creating a mood board before presenting your next big idea.

1. Record and organize ideas

Starting a new project can be messy. No matter if it’s creating a website from scratch or drafting the blueprint for an interior design project, there are many details that’s easy to lose track of.

That’s where mood boards come in.

A mood board lets you collect and organize your ideas in one place. Seeing all your inspirations and thoughts together helps you build clear messaging around a central theme. As a result, this keeps you focused.

In addition, the flow of creativity is mostly unpredictable. Creatives are notorious for getting a hundred ideas a day on some days and then drawing a complete blank on others.

By recording your ideas as and when they appear, you avoid losing them. Recording all your ideas on a mood board also lets you see them all in the context of the focal theme.

For example, you’re building a mood board for a webinar promotion project. You may have included certain images and font references that you felt would complement your campaign design.

After seeing the visual references around the central theme, you may remove certain elements because they don’t fit well.

2. Flexibility of format

Mood boards come in either physical or digital formats. This allows you to choose how you want to access and share them.

Editing and adjusting photo and text samples are easier with a digital mood board. You can even include short branding video clips. Digital mood boards can be shared remotely, and this helps save time.

On the other hand, physical mood boards benefit from the element of ‘texture’ that digital can’t provide.

For example, if you’re an upholstery company sharing your mood board of office décor with a client. Having your clients feel a sample of the velvet curtain you want to use will be much more effective than explaining its texture.

You can choose either of these formats based on how you want to present and share your creative ideas.

What should I include in my mood board?

The short answer is anything! You can use multiple visual elements while designing your mood board.

Your brand and your industry will naturally guide your choices. Common elements to include in mood boards are:

1. Photographs

Free photo galleries like Unsplash let you download millions of stock photos that you can use for your mood board.  When you create your mood board using Piktochart, you can access over 3000+ high-quality photographs. Try Piktochart for free .

2. Typography

It’s important to find the right type of font for your brand. This is particularly true if you’re presenting a design idea. Choose one or two sample fonts and include them in your mood board to see how it matches the rest of the style.

While visual representation like brand colors is important, you can use short text captions to explain a point. This could be a relevant statistic, a famous quote, or just a short summary of an idea.

4. Textures

As mentioned above, textures are great for adding to a physical mood board. Textures include paper, fabric, and more.

5-step method for creating your mood board to communicate your creative idea more effectively

Now that we’ve found out the benefits of having a mood board let’s look at the steps to creating a mood board of your own:

1. Define your idea.

The ultimate aim of a mood board is to communicate your creative ideas. To do this you first need to define what that idea is.

For example, your company services small business phone lines. You need to make a list of target keywords that come to mind in relation to your brand and niche. These could include small businesses, phone lines, business phone systems , budget phones, and remote sales communications .

You can then research these keywords and find relevant inspiration in the form of illustrations, typography, colors, and more to be used when you create mood boards.

This way, you’ll have a streamlined approach to shaping your concept and filtering out distractions. When you pursue the right leads, you’ll have more success in finding the right ideas.

2. Curate your mood board.

A mood board, while being a visual record of your creative ideas, is not a scrapbook. You’re trying to communicate your ideas with this board, so using it merely as a dumping ground for random image and text inspirations defeats the purpose.

Your mood board is what your client will see to understand your concept about the brand. The board has to tell a story.

Take time to curate your mood board so that the different elements on it can relate logically and organically to each other. Your board shouldn’t seem like an unconnected sequence of isolated words and images.

For example, you’re an estate agent hosting a virtual open house . The elements in your presentation will include a video tour of the house, a focus on its USP like a period fireplace, and a breakdown of the floor plan and specifications. You wouldn’t include pictures of other apartments you have sold because that’s irrelevant to the presentation.

Similarly, each element you include has to be carefully curated for mood boards, so it makes sense when put together as part of the bigger picture.

3. Focus on your key image.

A good rule of thumb while creating a mood board is to focus on one key image and structure all other elements around it.

The key image should be bigger than the other elements to immediately draw the audience’s attention.

For example, your key image should be of the decors if you’re trying to sell Christmas decors. This central image should be bigger and surrounded by images and words related to Christmas.

It’s natural to be drawn in by the big picture in a collage and then start linking the surrounding elements to this feature image. This is another reason why you should use visual storytelling in sales . A picture is worth a thousand words.

4. Use real-life photos.

While stock photos are wonderful, real-life photos provide a more authentic feel to your mood board.

You don’t need fancy gadgets to take these photos. Your phone camera can take perfectly good shots. From interesting street-side graffiti to the flowers in your garden – everything can provide potential inspiration for an idea.

For example, the color of a rose in your garden may be exactly the shade you want for your product packaging. Don’t worry about taking the perfect photo. What matters is the connection it has with your product.

Real-life photos and elements are great for evoking emotional responses. This pays when you’re presenting to a client.

5. Don’t make assumptions.

The number one rule when creating a mood board is to imagine that you’re presenting it to people who have no idea about your brand or product.

Avoid starting with the assumption that people know what you’re trying to convey.

Use more references if needed, but make sure your mood board template is designed to be easy to understand and mostly self-explanatory.

Now that we’ve discussed the top tips for creating a mood board, let’s look at a few examples of using them:

1. Fashion mood board

The fashion industry is one of the best places to use mood boards. Design, style, and catalog presentations are best communicated via mood boards as a strongly visual medium. 

2. Interior design mood board

Like fashion, interior design is another largely visual industry. So all design ideas and inspirations, including fabric texture and color references to interior design quotes , are best communicated through mood boards.

3. Logos mood board

One of the most important aspects of branding is getting the right logo for your business. Logo design often comes from pooling together ideas and inspirations from various sources, including other logos, signs, and insignia.

Aside from having well-defined brand guidelines , having a visual reference where all these ideas are collated helps communicate your vision for the logo.

4. Typography mood board

Sometimes you need a mood board that is dedicated exclusively to the typography you want to use. Again, this inspiration can come from various sources, so a mood board helps effectively present these references. 

5. Color palette mood board

Like typography, you can also have a mood board that is dedicated specifically to your color palette references.

For example, if you were presenting a new design vision, your mood board could include the color references you want to use. This can include images, real photographs, and more. 

Ready to make your mood board?

In this article, we’ve discussed the merits of mood boards and how they can help organize your ideas. We also looked at their core elements when you create a mood board: photographs, textures, color schemes, color palettes, typography , and descriptive words. You also learned the basic steps to start making your own.

Mood boards are a reflection of your creativity. It is a very visual representation of your brain piecing together ideas and bringing them together to tell a singular, engaging story.

In summary, mood boards are a great visual reference for your creative vision and often act as a bridge between designers and their clients. What designers can visualize, mood boards can successfully portray.

No matter how simple or complex the idea is, a beautiful moodboard or multiple moodboards let you explain it better. Create your free Piktochart account to get started with your first digital moodboard today.

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Mood boards

Table of Contents

What is a mood board.

A mood board is a visual representation of concepts and ideas created using an arrangement of images, text, and other design materials. The intention behind creating a mood board is to evoke or represent the particular style or tone of a project. Some people think of a mood board as a collage of smaller ideas contributing to a larger concept. Each addition to the mood board, whether an image or a text, represents different segments of the larger project. When combined in one space, the elements come together to evoke particular feelings or abstract ideas. Mood boards can be either physical, using pieces of paper, or digital on an online whiteboard. Many scenarios and industries use mood boards as an effective method of presentation to clients, team members, and stakeholders.

Benefits of creating a mood board

Here are some of the many advantages of using mood boards to communicate and document your ideas.

Provide direction to designers

Design teams often need direction before starting a new project. A mood board helps conceptualize ideas, provide direction, while allowing for creative autonomy within a team of designers.

Visualize abstract ideas

An abstract idea can often be more effectively conveyed through a mood board rather than words. Visual media, like images and other creative design materials, are a great way to express goals and concepts. Mood boards can provide inspiration when designs are hard to articulate, or if you’re struggling to get started putting a project into action.

See the bigger picture

Mood boarding allows you to think ahead and to create a vision for the future of a project. They also act as an origination point which you can refer back to, if needed. This aspect helps team members stay on track and stay focused on the project’s original plan and concept.

Collect and consolidate different ideas

The goal of a mood board is to create a simple, yet effective, visual representation of a long-term goal. A mood board allows creators and contributors to brainstorm and consolidate their different ideas and aesthetics into a shared vision of the future state.

Inspire new ideas

A mood board allows you to plant a general idea and watch it grow. By combining different ideas and concepts in one consolidated space, your team is challenged to think of new aesthetics and designs and to build on the contributions of others.

Help maintain brand and identity consistency

A mood board is a reference tool for various teams to ensure they stay on brand. Creating a mood board can also help you create a visual representation of your company’s identity. While the design team may be responsible for creating a mood board, it should also be shared with sales and marketing to ensure everyone embraces the company’s brand strategy .

How to make a mood board

When making an online mood board, you can either start from a blank slate, or get a little inspiration from a mood board template . No matter which way you get started, there are three main steps to follow in order to create a mood board that inspires:

1. Brainstorm

Before you start creating a mood board, you and your team must be on the same page regarding a general theme and direction. This is where brainstorming comes in handy. During the brainstorming session, your design team needs to discuss ideas, keywords, and design aesthetics so that you can all contribute ideas that will add to the overall goal.

2. Collect elements and materials

Once you’ve agreed on the general direction of the mood board, you can start collecting elements that represent your mood board ideas. Use the aesthetic your team settled on as inspiration for the materials you’ll collect. At this point, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and add elements only loosely connected. Doing this may lead to ideas and designs your team hasn’t thought of or developed yet.

3. Curate and review

Once your team has collected their contribution of materials, it’s time to start piecing the puzzle together. The best collaborators take turns adding materials and connecting the elements toward the larger, overarching goal. Try and add as many materials as you can. Once the mood board is complete, start removing elements that might not fit as well as others. This step is key. Curation allows the mood board to be both creative and focused.

Examples of when to use a mood board

Mood boards are useful in almost any industry, but they’re especially helpful in creative fields. Here are three use cases where a mood board canvas is helpful.

Mood boards are extremely popular with UX designers who need to create a unified vision of what a user interface may look like. With a mood board, UX teams can present their visual ideas around an app or website design to stakeholders and other departments. A UX design mood board should be focused on meeting user needs and deciding on what graphic elements will make the user experience as pleasant as possible. These elements include fonts, colors, images, features, icons, and interactions.

When building a brand, you need to catch the eye of your customers but also remain consistent across every medium promoting your products. A branding mood board allows you to collect a variety of visual assets and elements to guide your brand creation process. It provides inspiration and encourages you to consider the elements helping other brands succeed. Creating a mood board around your branding is also a helpful step in establishing brand guidelines .

Website design

Creating a mood board for a website design allows your team to effectively communicate the artistic direction you want a website to take. Alternatively, clients or stakeholders may create a mood board to explain their goals, design choices, and website aspirations through images. This makes it easier for a team of designers to understand the end product and ensure clients’ needs are being met. Mood boards also provide a point of reference for a design team struggling to find a plan. Together with a website wireframe , a mood board keeps the entire website development team on the same page.

Interior design

Interior design is about understanding specific aesthetics and then recreating that aesthetic practically inside a home or business. A mood board is a great tool for interior designers to fulfill this objective during the initial project planning phase. Interior design teams can decide on a modern, post-modern, or retro style, collect a handful of visual elements, and add them to the panels on a mood board. This will guide their layout, color schemes, and furnishings.

Things to include in your mood board

A mood board is a collage of elements all contributing to an overarching idea or concept. What these elements are and what you decide to add is completely up to you. Allow creativity to guide your mood board. Popular elements often added to mood boards include:

These are one of the strongest tools for building your mood board. Whether the images are photographic or drawn by artists, they’re always a good addition. All of the images you select should be different, but they should all be underpinned by the design objective you’re trying to curate.

Color palette

Whether designing a website, an app, or an interior design project, you should settle on one consistent color palette. This decision should be among the first added to the mood board. Once identified, you can then hunt out images and other aesthetics playing with those same colors. A unified color palette helps your mood board stay focused and consistent.

Fonts and typography

If creating an app, you’ll want a consistent set of fonts throughout. Add a few different options to your mood board and combine them with different images and color palettes to diversify your options.

Descriptive words

Not everything on your mood board must be visual. Descriptive words and phrases may also aid conceptualization. These words should be used to guide your design decisions.

Your values

Including a company mission and guiding values in your mood board can also be helpful. These help you stay consistent and focused throughout your project.

Mood boarding tips and best practices

Keep these helpful tips in mind to both invigorate your mood board and to get the most out of the process.

Combine it with storyboarding

A mood board is a great tool to combine with a storyboard . A storyboard is a sequence of illustrations depicting a customer’s experience. While the mood board represents an idea or concept visually, the storyboard tells the same story verbally, through text. When combined, these two tools can help align your team and inspire new ideas to satisfy your customer’s needs.

Keep a digital mood board

Some people prefer to work with tangible materials and elements. Unfortunately, a physical mood board may not survive the day-to-day life of a project. Furthermore, remote or hybrid teams also make collaborating on a physical mood board virtually impossible. A digital mood board maker allows for remote collaboration within design teams separated geographically. It also allows each team member to access the mood board whenever they need inspiration or have an idea to add, making the whole process streamlined and more collaborative.

Combine variety with unity

A mood board should encompass a variety of ideas to ensure creative freedom from all team members. However, this diversity and assortment of ideas must still come together to create a unified theme or concept. All elements should be chosen and added with an underlying or guiding principle in mind. No element should stray too far from this guiding principle as it can cause the overall concept to feel messy and unfocused.

Encourage the free flow of ideas

The brainstorming step of mood board creation is paramount. Everyone on the design team must be allowed to contribute their ideas freely and without criticism. The entire point of a mood board is to encourage creativity and create a visual representation of a concept.

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How to create mood boards that inspire: 20 pro tips

Expert advice on how to create mood boards to convey your design ideas, win pitches and get an early sign off.

Learning how to create mood boards can transform your experience of pitching design ideas to clients. At the start of a new project, a mood board helps to communicate your vision as a designer. To impress the client, it should offer a visually stunning summary of your ideas, full of textures and images that paint a picture in ways that words alone could not achieve. In a way, it allows the client to get inside your creative mind, while also helping you to organise your own ideas. 

This means it's vital to make sure that your mood board is more than a confusing collage of disparate ideas. It should be a cohesive, visually attractive expression that makes your vision clear. But how do you create a mood board that achieves this? Below, we offer a series of tips that should allow you to effectively convey your creative ideas to a client. 

If you think your design portfolio also needs some work in order to accompany your next pitch, make sure you also see our tips to create a stunning portfolio website and our top portfolio examples for inspiration. Meanwhile, read on to see how to create mood boards to communicate your ideas.

How to create mood boards: 20 pro tips

01. look beyond the digital world.

When you begin working on a mood board, it's easy (and very tempting) only to use images that you find online. But even if you're working on a digital product, that doesn't mean you need to stick to digital inspiration (and chances are you may also be breaking copyright laws by using online images). 

It's worth stepping away from the computer and looking at other sources of inspiration too. When it worked working on the ITV news website, digital product design company Made by Many turned to copies of the classic Picture Post magazine to explore how powerful and effective an image plus caption can be when it comes to telling a news story. Real-world inspiration like this can be a very powerful 'convincer' when putting together a board for a client.

02. Take pictures for your mood boards

Real-world inspiration is all around us, and we have the means to capture it in our pockets. Use the camera on your phone to take pictures of everything you see that inspires you, whether it's a bird in flight, great use of typography on a sign in the street, or even brickwork on a building. It might even be a little corner of your own house. You don't need to capture great photos in the traditional sense – it's more about communicating thoughts, impressions, themes and feelings.

03. Curate the content on your mood boards

Have you ever been to a gallery exhibition and just not felt 'touched' by the exhibition or 'moved' by what was on show? It's very easy to shove a load of stuff together and call it an exhibition, but it takes real talent to curate threads and synergies between works to make an exhibition that holds together.

Mood boards work in a similar way. When putting together your mood boards, think of yourself as a curator rather than a collector, and try to introduce meaning and threads that connect the images. This can make it much easier for a client to interpret your ideas.

04. Choose the right format

Aim to establish how your mood board is going to be presented from the outset because this will determine how you go about creating it and how much or little detail to include.

An 'offline' mood board will generally be looser in style and could still be presented online, with some explanation, while a completely online mood board should be tighter and will generally need to work harder to convey a theme or style. Think about how a person viewing your mood board solely via email would view it, and make sure that they will be able to follow its flow.

05. Build things up around a large image

Whether your mood board is electronic or physical, the layout should give more prominence to key thematic images. You can then surround these with smaller supporting images that serve to enhance the theme.

This is something of a subliminal trick. When someone sees a large image on your board, they'll immediately have questions about it and they'll quickly scan the rest of the board to find answers to those questions. If you place smaller supporting images around the larger image, they can answer these questions by clarifying the message conveyed in the larger one.

06. Get tactile

When it comes to making a physical mood board, don't be afraid to get, well, physical. Traditionally, mood boards were made from foam board. Although cutting this stuff up with a scalpel and spray mounting cut-out images onto it can be a hassle (especially if you're not dexterous with a blade), it can also be extremely effective as a presentation tool.

It may seem like an old-fashioned thing to do, but perception-wise it's a real ace up your sleeve as a designer. The tactile nature of cut-out images glued onto boards enhances the emotiveness of what's being communicated. Just be careful with your fingers on that blade!

07. Incorporate your mood board into your pitch

Mood boards are generally considered to be separate from a pitch or presentation. They stand alone to provide guidance on mood and tone. That's the standard practice, but you can also consider making them part of your pitch or presentation.

Remember, you're trying to use subliminal visual tricks to help a client to 'get it'. Mixing mood board elements in with a presentation rather than bolting them on at the end can be an effective way of communicating concepts to the client.

08. Don't reveal everything too early

It's important to make sure that a well-meaning project manager doesn't email an offline mood board ahead of a presentation giving the client a preview of what you're going to present.

For an offline mood board, it's far better to let it all sink into the client's mind as and you showcase it rather than to let the client form an opinion before you've had a chance to explain your vision, otherwise you can expect the client to come armed with a lots of questions before you even start.

09. Present your own mood board 

In a similar vein, if your mood board is being presented to the client, try to be involved in the presentation yourself. It can be counterproductive to leave something that originated in your head to be communicated by someone else, which can lead to meaning becoming muddled in a Chinese whispers-type mess.

10. Keep things loose

Locking down an idea or style in a mood board can be detrimental because the client will often feel shoehorned into going with a particular aesthetic. Keep everything a little loose so that nothing looks too final.

If you're using imagery from image libraries as previews, don't worry about the watermarking on them. It can help to emphasise a 'these are only ideas; we can still change this' feel to the board.

11. Watch the audience

When you're presenting a mood board, watch the faces of those you're showing it to. Ignore any verbal 'oohs and ahhs' and instead watch your audience's facial and emotive reactions as they look around the board. This will give you a much more honest take on whether the board is doing its job, and if they're reacting well or badly to what you're showing them.

12. Hone your mood board skills

It's good to practise your skills in creating and presenting mood boards, even if it's not for a client. Employees at branding agency Landor Associates use a form of mood board to showcase themselves to other members of the team. Individuals put together nine images in a 3 x 3 grid to give their work colleagues an insight into what they're like; their interests, passions, cares and worries.

13. Text it up

Don't ignore the power of isolated words on a mood board. A few well-chosen words can be fantastic show-stoppers that can give the viewer pause for thought because they have to mentally read what's in front of them. Big, bold words juxtaposed together work very well at creating drama, tone and meaning for any project.

14. Make the theme of your mood board clear

Obscure references can be fun, but try to have a number of relatable items or 'touchpoints' in your mood board to make sure that the theme is clear. You want to let others in, so being deliberately obtuse will earn you no points at all. It's easy to fill out a board with a pile of incomprehensible references; it often takes more thought to be clear and use imagery that can be easily interpreted to sell your vision.

15. Aim to spark an emotional response

Having said that, it also pays to think a little left of centre when you're presenting a mood board to a client. Ask yourself what would give them a genuine emotive response. Real-world objects are good for this. If you were inspired by the beach, bring in a shell. If your eureka moment happened on the train, bring in the ticket. This type of thing can create intrigue, which triggers that all-important emotive reaction.

16. Don't make presumptions

Expecting too much of your audience can make the difference between a successful mood board and one that's dismissed as being too cerebral – or downright confusing. There's a great danger in assuming that people will "know what you mean". The chances are they won't. Even if it takes a few more references, images or textures to really clarify what's inside your head, it's worth adding them in.

17. Test your mood board

That leads us on to our next tip for how to create mood boards. It can really help to show your mood board to someone not involved in the project to check how it goes down before you share it with the client. Remember, it's not a game of Pictionary: if your test audience has to ask too many times what an image means or why it's there, then you should probably make changes.

18. Have fun with your mood board

It's a lot of work, but the whole process of creating mood boards should be fun – and a refreshing break from the often tedious tasks of the jobbing designer. If you're not having fun, that's a sure sign you're going about things the wrong way.

19. Use mood boards to brief designers

Mood boards are a good way to brief a creative. Don't be afraid to go into detail here. The mood board above was compiled for animator Tom Baker as a mood and style guide for a celebration of the Avengers TV series in 2011. Instead of relying on one example of a character, several types are shown in many different poses, which gave Baker a clear take on the style and direction of the piece.

20. Speed up client sign-off

Mood boards aren't only for pitches. Consider preparing mood boards throughout projects before creating polished visuals. 'I'll know it when I see it' is a phrase that most of us are familiar with, and hearing this feedback when finished artwork comes back from a client can be gutting, meaning it's back to the drawing board. Using mood boards at different stages of the process can help you avoid this from happening by allowing you to get feedback along the way.

Related articles: 

• Top-quality WordPress portfolio themes
• 10 tips for building a killer portfolio website
• 7 tips for pitching perfectly

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Make beautiful, shareable moodboards in minutes with Milanote

Follow this easy step-by-step guide to learn the modern process of creating a moodboard in Milanote, a free tool used by top creatives.

How to make a moodboard in 10 easy steps

A moodboard is a collection of visual materials that evoke a particular theme, style or concept. Designers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers and all types of creative professionals create moodboards to communicate their vision for a project. They can be a powerful starting point in any creative process that captures the essence of something before committing to the final design.

Whether you're designing a logo, planning an event, or shooting a film, moodboards can be a valuable asset when starting the creative process. Moodboards and vision boards are also great ways for teams to give them focus or help spark new ideas.

Moodboards have come a long way since the days of attaching printouts to physical boards or creating static PDFs. Digital moodboards can include videos, animations and bring together remote teams—unlocking a new world of creative possibilities.

In this guide, you'll learn the modern approach to creating a moodboard using Milanote. Remember, the creative process is non-linear, so you may move back and forth between the steps as you go.

Find moodboards to suit any creative project in our moodboards collection .

1. Set the direction of your project

Moodboards are a collage of images, videos, fonts and colors. They're used to communicate a visual direction, reflect a style or convey a mood. A lot of creative industries use them to communicate various things including:

• Conceptualization: Visualize and explore creative ideas.
• Inspiration: Provide a source of inspiration, sparking new ideas and fresh approaches.
• Communication: Communicate visual concepts and design directions to clients, stakeholders, or teams.
• Branding & Identity: Conveying personality, style and brand values.
• Interior Design: Present color schemes, furniture styles, and textures.
• Fashion Design: Develop collections, and select fabrics, colors, and silhouettes.
• Event Planning: Visualizing decorations, themes, and overall ambiance.
• Web and Graphic Design: Explore layout and visualize digital elements.
• Advertising and Marketing Campaigns: Present creative ideas and themes for marketing campaigns.
• Film and Video Production: Convey the visual style, tone and guide set design decisions.

Remember, a moodboard is all about exploration, but it helps to define the purpose and goal of your moodboard clearly. Understanding both of those things will guide what you put on your board.

Once you've decided on a direction, give your moodboard a name and write down some initial ideas in a text note before you start to collect inspiration.

Create a new board for each moodboard direction.

Create a new board

Drag a board out from the toolbar. Give it a name, then double click to open it.

Save time with a moodboard template.

Choose a template

Each new board gives you the option to start with a beautiful template.

Creativity often responds well to some constraints or limitations. Picking a single keyword, theme, color or style can be a great way to give some direction to your moodboard.

2. Collect existing material

Now that you've established the direction for your moodboard, add any written content you have. This might include brand values, positioning statements, words in the form of adjectives, tag lines or any other parts of the brief that will inspire you and keep you on track.

Next, add in any existing visuals you may have collected. These can be images and logos, existing expressions of the brand, or design elements a client has given you. Use these as the foundation to set your board's mood. These might not remain in the final composition, but they serve as great inspiration.

Drag files from your computer.

Upload a file or document

Click the "Upload" button or just drag a file onto your board. You can add images, logos, documents, videos, audio and much more.

3. Add inspiring imagery

Collecting images is the most fundamental step in the mood board creation process. Select a mix of images, textures, and other visual elements that resonate with your concept and mood. Choose visuals that evoke the emotions and feelings you want to convey. The style of imagery you choose to include in your moodboard is what will have the greatest impact, so refer back to the existing material and use that to guide your selection.

If you're the type of person who keeps a collection of images in an inspiration library , now's the time to look through it to see if you've already got something that could work. Or you can start by searching for visual inspiration on websites like Pinterest , Behance and Designspiration .

Don't worry about organizing the images just yet; that step will come later.

Use the built-in image library.

Use the built-in image library

Search over 3 million beautiful, free photos then drag images straight onto your board. Powered by Pexels.

Install the Milanote Web Clipper

Save images from other websites straight to your board.

Save content from the web

With the Web Clipper installed, roll over an image (or highlight text), click Save, then choose the destination in Milanote. Return to your board and find the content in the "Unsorted" column on the right.

4. Add examples of motion & sound

What separates digital moodboards from traditional ones is the ability to upload examples of video, audio and animation. Adding movement is another great way of showcasing or conveying a feeling especially when working on projects that involve motion graphics, video production, or interactive elements.

Grab some animated GIFs from Giphy , video from YouTube or even audio from Soundcloud to add some dynamic elements to the mood board, providing a more engaging and immersive experience.

Embed Youtube videos or audio in a board.

Embed Youtube videos or audio tracks in a board

Copy the share link from Youtube, Vimeo, Soundcloud or many other services. Drag a link card onto your board, paste your link and press enter.

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5. Add color, fonts & files

Color can be a great way to express a particular feel, personality or energy. As painter Johannes Itten said, “Color is life.”

Add existing brand colors or use tools like Coolor if you need a starting point for finding colors that complement the brand you're working with. Another trick is to pick colors directly from the images and photos you've added to make the mood board feel cohesive.

Typography can play a key part in design and brand moodboards, so upload examples of fonts and type treatments. Typography galleries like Typewolf and Typekit are a great way to explore different font combinations and weights.

Add a color swatch to a board.

Add a color swatch

Drag a Color Swatch card onto your board from the left-hand toolbar. Double-click the swatch to choose a different color.

Upload a file or document.

6. Transform your board from messy to organized

Once you have all your inspiration in one place, the next step is to arrange your ideas to create the perfect composition.

Remember, organizing a messy mood board is an iterative process, and it's okay to experiment and make adjustments as you go along. The goal is to create a well-structured and visually compelling mood board that effectively communicates your creative vision, so take your time.

Start by exploring composition and introducing hierarchy. Place a key element, such as an image that captures the essence of what you're trying to convey and helps anchor the board. Change the size and position of the remaining elements to indicate their importance and relationships to one another. Get creative and overlap and crop images as you need to and don't forget, if you feel like an image doesn't quite work, swap it out or remove it. Remember less is more!

Resize your images to add hierarchy.

Resize images

Drag the corner of an image to resize it. Double-click the corner to return it to its original size.

Crop images.

Crop images

Double-click an image and press edit to crop or rotate it.

Step away—the best creative thinking often happens in the idle moments when we allow our minds to wander. Go for a walk or listen to some music. So make space, be open to new ideas and connections and embrace the mess.

7. Remain open to inspiration, wherever you are

Mood boards should be ever-evolving throughout the creative process. They can adapt, grow, and change as your project progresses, and new ideas could strike you at any time. So ensure you have an easy way to capture new ideas on the go.

As creative director Grace Coddington said, "Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you."

Download the Milanote mobile app

Save photos straight to your moodboard.

Take photos on the go

Shoot or upload photos directly to your board. When you return to a bigger screen you'll find them in the "Unsorted" column of the board.

8. Explain your thinking

If you’re a visual thinker, a moodboard is an invaluable tool to convey the look and feel of your project in a way that sometimes words cannot. But if you’re planning to share your moodboard with a client or team it’s important to include to take them on the journey with you. So add in some written notes about your thought process or what drove your inspiration. This will also help give your moodboard more context.

You don’t have to go into too much detail—in a modern moodboard this could be in the form of notes, labels or even emojis.

Add a caption to an image.

Add a caption to an image

Select an image and just start typing.

Add notes to your board.

Drag a note card onto your board

Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.

9. Collaborate and build on your ideas

Whether you're working on a client project solo or collaborating with a team, it can be helpful to bounce ideas off of other people. As writer, Louisa May Alcott said, "It takes two flints to make a fire."

A digital moodboard is especially helpful for collaborative working because people from anywhere in the world can join in. Bringing everyone onto the same page in real-time allows you to brainstorm concepts and share ideas, ensuring a consistent look and feel for your project.

Invite someone else to edit to your board.

Invite editors to your board

Open the "Share" menu from the title bar of your board. Add email addresses of the people you'd like to collaborate with—they'll receive an invitation via email.

Collaborate in real time.

Collaborate in real time

When multiple people on your team edit a board at once you'll see their updates appear in real-time.

10. Ask for feedback

It’s essential to be open to constructive criticism with any creative technique or project. This ensures you're mood or vision is heading in the right direction. Now that the first version is done, it's time to ask for specific feedback on things like color, tone, mood, and style. Stay open to suggestions and improvements, and try not to take criticism personally. Remember, it's better that you catch any problems in this phase before commencing the final product.

Remember that both positive and negative feedback is a natural part of the design process. Embrace it as a chance to develop and finesse your moodboard even further.

Start a comment thread.

Start a comment thread

Drag out a comment from the toolbar on the left and place it on your board. Other editors can reply to your comment.

Mention teammates to get their attention.

Mention teammates to get their attention

Type '@' in any text field to mention someone who has access to your board. They'll receive a notification and be able to respond to your comment.

And you're done!

Now that you're done, your moodboard can be used as guidance to developing the final product. By effectively using mood boards as a tool for visualization and inspiration, creatives can bring their visions to life and help clients and teams understand what the final product might look like. Remember, you can always create multiple moodboards to explore different visual directions.

Start your next creative project with a moodboard template .

Start your moodboard

Get started for free with one of Milanote's beautiful moodboard templates.

Sign up for free with no time limit

How to Make a Mood Board — A Step-by-Step Guide

• Top Mood Board Apps
• What is a Mood Board
• How to Make a Mood Board
• Mood Board Layout
• Mood Board Template
• Mood Board Examples
• Fashion Mood Board
• Aesthetic Mood Board
• Writer Mood Board
• Photography Mood Board
• Interior Design Mood Board
• Digital Mood Board
• Graphic Design Mood Board
• Wedding Mood Board
• Architecture Mood Board
• Film Mood Board
• Video Game Mood Board
• Brand Mood Board
• Web Design Mood Board
• Mood Board Without Photoshop

W hen it comes to creative projects, a mood board is essential. It’s a visual way to collect and organize your ideas, inspiration, and thoughts on a project. But what exactly is a mood board? And how do you create one? We’ve got the answers. Read on for everything you need to know about how to make a mood board plus some tips and tricks for creating your own.

• Why You Need a Mood Board
• Set Your Objective
• Brainstorm Ideas
• Gather Materials
• Make a Mood Board
• Finalize & Share

How to Make a Mood Board 

First, let’s define mood board.

Mood boards can be used as inspiration for any kind of creative project, from designing a movie set to creating a work of art. To understand their value, let’s take a look at the definition. 

MOOD BOARD DEFINITION

What is a mood board.

A mood board is essentially an arrangement of images that evoke certain feelings or emotions. They can be made up of anything from photos to drawings to textiles — anything that conveys the desired “vibe” or feeling. 

They can be physical or digital collections of materials that relate to the theme or message of the project. For example, if you were designing a movie set, your board might include photos of different places that match the aesthetic you want to create on screen. This allows you to convey your vision in an organized way without having to explain it in words. 

These are often used when creating art or design projects as it can help give direction and provide inspiration. It helps narrow down the focus of your project and serves as an important reference point throughout the creative process. 

What industries use mood boards?

• Architecture

How to Create a Moodboard

Why you need a mood board.

A mood board is a platform where creative professionals can collect and curate inspiring visuals to define a creative vision. These boards allow them to communicate ideas with stakeholders in an efficient, visually-appealing way. 

To see this visually, check out the graphic design mood board example we created using StudioBinder’s mood board app. From this example, you can see how a board can evoke feelings while also communicating concepts. 

Free Mood Board Creator

This concept dates back centuries — Leonardo Da Vinci kept collections of objects, sketches, and images as inspiration for his works. From fashion designers to interior decorators, anyone who wants to express their ideas without having to speak can use a one. 

Not only do they save time by explaining complicated concepts quickly but they also provide invaluable insights into the creative process while encouraging user engagement. In short, creating an effective mood board may be the key to unlocking your project’s success.

How to Make a Mood Board Guide

1. set your objective.

The first step to learning how to create a moodboard is to define the purpose of your board. Ask yourself the following question: What kind of stories do I want to tell? This will help narrow down your search when looking for photographs, illustrations, and other elements that should be included in your arrangement.

Not to mention there are various kinds of boards that can be created depending on the medium you are creating in. From fashion to photography and interior design , the medium you create in will determine how you approach making your board. 

Fashion Design  •  Creating a Mood Board

Setting objectives and why they are important when creating a mood board is essential to the success of any project. Objectives provide clarity and direction, helping to ensure that all efforts are focused on achieving a specific result. 

Without objectives, it can be difficult to determine which ideas or visuals should be included as well as how much time and effort should be spent creating it. During the planning phase, you should ensure that all project stakeholders are involved in deciding on objectives as this will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and invested in achieving them.

Start With Ideas 

2. brainstorm ideas.

Once you have identified the direction of your project, it's time to start brainstorming ideas. Get out some paper and write down words associated with your project, such as colors, emotions, objects, shapes, textures – anything that may be related to what you’re trying to achieve. This will form the basis of your search when looking for inspiration. 

Related Posts

• Mood Board Layout Explained →
• What is a Mood Board — Definition and Examples →
• Mood Board Examples from Photography and Films →

Inspiration for How to Create a Moodboard

3. gather materials.

The next step is selecting visuals. This includes gathering images, text, quotes, videos, and other visual elements that help to illustrate the objectives. 

When searching for visuals, it’s essential to consider how they will interact with each other as well as how they represent the project’s overall vision. It can be helpful to start by using the list of keywords you created before related to the project, then search for visuals that match those terms. 

This is especially helpful for incorporating more abstract concepts like the idea of ‘melancholy.’ There are various ways melancholy can be expressed, but through visuals, creatives can be more specific. 

Melancholy photography  •  How to Make a Mood Board

This will help to ensure that all visuals are relevant and on-brand. Resources like editorial magazines, photographers, blogs, Pinterest, or Instagram are great resources for finding visual material. 

How to Create a Moodboard Online

4. make a mood board.

Once you’ve gathered all the necessary visuals, it’s time to start organizing them into a cohesive presentation. While this can be done physically, digital mood boards have plenty of benefits such as efficiency and organization. Software like Canva and StudioBinder are great for creating digital boards. 

Check out this example for inspiration related to the use of rhythm.

Free Mood Board creator

It can be helpful to first group similar visuals together, then arrange them in a manner that best conveys the project’s objectives. This is also an opportunity to experiment with different layout options and see which one works best. It’s important to keep in mind that they should be flexible — if something isn’t working, don't be afraid to rearrange the visuals or start from scratch. 

For example, users might choose to group similar visuals together or arrange them in a grid pattern. Another possibility is to have the visuals arranged in a way that conveys the project's overall vision, such as arranging them in a timeline format or by color.

Additionally, remember that boards should be flexible; if something isn't working, don't be afraid to rearrange the visuals or start from scratch.

How to Make a Mood board

5. finalize & share.

Once you have completed putting together all aspects of the board onto one big surface area then it's time to finalize it. Export it so that others can see what goes into creating your unique vision and share it with friends or colleagues who might find inspiration from it, too.

After all, part of its purpose is communication. 

Mood boards are an incredible tool to express and communicate your creative vision while also serving as a reference point for all team members involved in the project. 

What is a Mood Board?

Looking to learn more about what a mood board consists of? Check out or next article where we dive into the definition of a mood board and the essential components of one. 

Up Next: Board Essentials →

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• 5 Key Elements to Create an Inspiring Mood Board for a Design Presentation

Mood boards are an essential visual tool for any design and fashion project. It keeps the inspiration in place and serves as a project guide for all design teams. Today we share some tips about how to create the perfect mood board.

If you are willing to start a design project, you probably wonder how to express all your thoughts about it to the outside world . Mood boards are a classic design tool to show all the inspiration layers a design project requires.

Mood boards are intended to have an eye-catching design, be visually comprehensible and easily express design specifics. You can create mood boards from different perspectives and use diverse elements to reflect your ideas.

In project presentations, for fashion design, interior design, or lifestyle project assignments, it is practical to create engaging layouts to express and detail the main concept behind the collection or decoration project .

These are the key mood board elements you must include in your design presentation:

1. Develop a Creative Concept Beyond Aesthetics

Creating a mood board has to be a stimulating creative outlet. Try to find the right concept for your brand, fashion collection, or interior design project, it goes beyond collecting nice pictures and mashing them up together without a proper cohesive narrative explanation. A creative concept is not a theme, like flowers, sea, forest, instead, a concept is the union of creative elements from different sources, harmonized and edited to a weightier conceptual argument and aesthetic depth as a final result.

A creative concept can include cultural aspects, sports, cinema, philosophy, or music references, all integrated together; when the concept is ready, now we can work in specifics.

2. Select a Consistent Color Palette That Represents Your Project

Colors are an essential part of any design project. They set the tone and assign a certain “vibe” to the mood board. Colors can guide the inspirational images (we will comment on this later on) or vice versa. You can adjust and change the colors when developing the mood board; they can progress until the final layout.

3. Choose a Typography Series for Every Written Piece

The typography we select will communicate a tone; the choice will be present on every graphic, logo, and text element required. Font types are perceived differently from one typographic family to another; you need to balance intensity, clarity, and font aesthetic to make the best choice. Serif, Sans Serif, Script, Calligraphic, Display, are all examples of font types at your disposal, you should select the same font family to do combinations and experiment during the design process.

Integrate graphic icons matching the selected typography . This way, the graphics and font design will be harmonic and true to the original concept.

4. Create Textures and Prints According to Your Color Palette

Mood boards can be filled with textures, finished prints, and raw materials that uplift the final result. They are used to give depth and variety to a design presentation. Color blocks are great, but prints always inject dynamism and freshness into a project.

5. Tell a Visual Story With Inspiration Imagery

As if it were a movie, on a mood board you need to create a visual narrative. The image research will help you tell “the story” behind your project. Using inspiration imagery, you will bring emotions inside the mood board presentation. Evocative pictures are effective to portrait your general idea, then use detailed images to zoom in and describe the sensations. If you are developing a mood board for a pitch meeting, try to create video stills with those images, add some music and concise titles. These tools will help you showcase your story in the best way possible.

Working on a mood boards project is challenging and enjoyable at the same time. Pair your mood board layouts amongst a clear speech to explain to your audience the creative concept. A mood board is a flexible, highly-creative tool for you to communicate ideas and outline all aspects of your project. Do not be afraid to break the rules .

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Mood Board Presentation Template

Mood boards are commonly used to convey ideas or source inspiration for a new project or business venture. Beautiful.ai’s mood board presentation template allows you to organize your ideas and keep your inspiration in one concise deck to share with your team or external partners. 

The customizable template has everything you need for a mood board presentation, from background information to colors and photography. 

Our mood board template can also help you:

• Add various elements of inspiration to help inform new ideas or designs
• Have a comprehensive guide to reference throughout the course of the project
• Brainstorm and share ideas with the team or other stakeholders

Use our template to create a beautiful mood board presentation

Your mood board presentation is important for creatives in the exploratory stage of a new project. That’s why our template includes everything you need to create a beautiful presentation. Whether you need to organize your own thoughts or provide direction for teammates, you can quickly bring your visions to life with these customizable templates.

Tips to design an impactful mood board presentation

As you use this template to craft your mood board presentation, keep these do’s and don’ts in mind:

Most mood boards will include a visual collage of images, text, and samples. Our photo grid slide template is a great option for showcasing a variety of inspirational photos related to your project.

Mood boards are meant to inspire, so make sure your presentation is engaging from beginning to end. Include plenty of photos and videos, and don’t be afraid to play around with animations to bring your board to life.

Without context, your mood board could look like a hodgepodge of random images. Provide your audience with background information on the project and your thought process and vision behind the mood board.

Mood boards shouldn’t lack personality. You may want to opt for bold colors and unique fonts to make your mood board really pop.

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Mood Board Examples and Mega Inspiration for Your Upcoming Projects

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By Al Boicheva

in Inspiration

3 years ago

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Mood boards serve as a transition between your initial idea and the very first sketch or draft. Similar to storyboarding , mood boards serve to organize your thoughts, ideas, and concepts and keep you on track. In today’s article, we will take a look at some amazing mood board examples that we hand-picked to inspire you.

Interior Design Process applied in a Bedroom by Sara Olama

Interior Design Mood Board Examples for Restaurants and Bars

These four moodboards are part of interior design projects for restaurant and salons by Interior design and architecture student Audrey Merle . They present the overal style and vibe of the places.

Mood Boards by audrey Merle

by Audrey Merle

Interior Design and Branding Identity Mood Boards by Kelsey Ordaz

Two amazing examples of greatly designed mood boards that instantly catch the eye. The graphic designer has gone an extra mile to create a lovely symmetrical composition in order to present four different color combinations for the interior in the first mood board, and two for brand identity in the second.

Moodboards by Kelsey Ordaz

by Kelsey Ordaz

Movie Night Mood Board by Bennie Visser

Something simpler, yet effective in setting the mood for particular genres of movies is this mood board for a movie night. It’s also a great way to practice and experiment with mood boarding.

Filmnacht moodboards by Bennie Visser

Patterns Mood Board by Beatriz Trentino

In this collection, the graphic designer brainstorms a concept for clothing patterns. The board focuses on the city vibe and the philosophy behind city life. It also offers a color combination.

Estamparia e Moodboards by Beatriz Trentino

Lifestyle Mood Board by Bruna Boscarino

The lifestyle of a city girl in few panels by a fashion designer.

Moodboards by Bruna Boscarino

by Bruna Boscarino

Web Design Mood Board by Kimberly Schwede

These two mood boards offer an example of how you can make a presentation for your web design concept in a few panels in a mood board. It features color combinations, icons, fonts, and the overall style of the designer’s vision for the final product.

Moodboards by Kimberly Schwede

by Kimberly Schwede

Color Palettes Mood board by Marie Girard

A simple board that showcases the designer’s chosen color combinations, featuring the palettes and images that represent those palettes best.

Moodboards by Marie Girard

Baroque Bed Collection Mood Board by Meryl Misquitta

Here, the designer collects Baroque elements to show dramatic forms and ornamentation before starting to design the product.

Concept development by Meryl Misquitta

Kids Wear Trends Mood Board by Franchette Sandenbergh

Mood boards are ideal for creating a style and getting inspired to make your own collection. Here, we see the trends.

Kids wear Trends S/S2016 by Franchette Sandenbergh

Style Mood Board by J Galan

More like personal projects, these two mood boards communicate a strong independent style for an individual in the first example and an empowering one for couples.

Moodboards by J Galan

Kids and Babies Fashion Mood Boards by Uiara Peixeiro

These boards offer a very rich collection of inspirational images and examples for attires for kids who love sports, as well as animal-themed clothes for babies.

KAYBEE MOODBOARDS by Uiara Peixeiro

by Uiara Peixeiro

Interior Collage by Kaylee van der Ven

Physical boards with photo collages of ideas for interior design for bars and restaurants.

Kaylee van der Ven

Fabric Patterns mood board by Caitlin Ritchie

Panels with soft and natural colors and moods for fabrics and patterns.

Caitlin Ritchie

World Expo by Jocelyn Boon

This mood board is dedicated to a World Expo project and features modern design architecture patterns and shapes.

WORLD EXPO by JOCELYN BOON

Textile Exploration by Nat Andrea Ng

Physical mood boards that aim to explore textile based on Game of Thrones characters. These compositions are sewn by hand and represent Jon snow and Oberyn Martell.

textile moodboards: game of thrones by Nat Andrea Ng

by Nat Andrea Ng

Boards for Various Projects by Matthijs Kok

Shapes, colors, patterns for product design and fabric textures.

Matthijs Kok

Fabrics and Prints by Santiago Ospina Rojas

Six different concepts for fabrics and prints for fashion design in six different styles.

Santiago Ospina Rojas

Interior Photography Mood Boards by Paulien

These mood boards for interior feature photos made by the designer themselves.

p a u l i e n

Colors and Interior Accents by Lili Tanko

Four different styles and four different palettes put in an amazing presentation.

Moodboards for interiors by Lili Tanko

Minimalism and Fashion by Sammy van Geerenstein

These two mood boards showcase minimalistic fashion style in beautiful pastel colors .

Sammy van Geerenstein

by Sammy van Geerenstein

Fashion Style in Pastel by Julia Kush Blamey

A rich collage of ideas and examples for a modern extravagant fashion style in pastels.

MOODBOARDS by Julia Kush Blamey

Lavender Lifestyle by Shalu Jaiswani

Fashion mood board based on a particular color.

Shalu Jaiswani

Media Board by Jesse van Arendonk

A simple mood board for gaming night.

Jesse van Arendonk

Boutique Hotel Art Direction Mood Boards by Mia Case

These boards aim to provide atistic direction for the wensite of a an upscale boutique hotel.

Hotel Lautner Moodboards by Mia Case

Cinematic Mood Board by Alexandre Chaudret

Mood board with artworks for a dark fantasy RPG game.

Alexandre Chaudret

Concepts and Colors by Crystal Lee

Boards that give the interior design the life of a character.

Concept Boards, and Posters by Crystal Lee

Shapes by Bodil Seekles

Sometimes, it’s just an egg.

Bodil Seekles

April Boards by Mamzette C

For your spring mood.

April moodboards by Mamzette C

Museum Mood Board by Gabe Winter

Board for the Mewtropolitan Museum of Art showcasing some of its collections.

Museum Moodboards by Gabe Winter

Christmas Aesthetics by Shweta Deshpande

Perfect for Social Media posts are aesthetic boards that set the vibe for a season.

Aesthetics by Shweta Deshpande

Colors and Aesthetics by Suryanshi Tyagi

Aesthetic board with beautiful contrasting color palette.

Suryanshi Tyagi

Style and Aesthetics by Chiara Moretto

Art deco, elegance, sensuality, and cave combined.

Chiara Moretto

Gucci Product by Chiara Moretto by Shweta Deshpande

Style and elegance suiting the Gucci brand in a lovely collage that showcases a product.

Luxury MoodBoards by Shweta Deshpande

Seasons by Natalia Demeter and 80s Aesthetics by Shahd Amr

Fall, Summer, and Winter in beautiful mood boards. The designer has chosen images that represented the seasons best and offered color palettes as well. With the same style, Shahd Amr presents the essence of the 80s fashion we all love and remember fondly.

Boards by Natalia Demeter

Natalia Demeter

Fashion Moodboards by Shahd Amr

Masculine Disposition by Angela Ferguson

A board based on a particular theme for a mood for a personal project. The panels come in elegant classy dark and neutral colors and use images that convey the concept of the nature of masculinity with perfection.

Themed Moodboards by Angela Ferguson

Fashion Moodboards by Aishwarya Gaurat

Office Project Moodboards by Taylor Oosting

Concept mood board for office project in navy and neutral beige.

Office Project Mood Boards by Taylor Oosting

Branding Project by Hellen Cardenas

A sequence of mood boards for a branding project that conveys professionalism, warmth, and good vibes.

Hellen Cardenas

The Boho Chick Mood Boards by Romina Chio

The lifestyle of a boho chick in a few panels with an additional explanation of the concept.

Romina Chio

Typographic Board by Giarri

This one is for the London magazine Modus and offers a set of templates with typographic layouts with glitch aesthetics.

Modus Magazine. by Typographic moodboards giarri

La Coste by Arnaud Bossolini

The last set of mood boards is created by the art director Arnaud Bossolini who presents sport as an art form.

Lacoste – Instagram Moodboards by Arnaud Bossolini

Final Words

We hope you had a great time exploring our hand-picked examples for mood boards for various types of personal and commercial projects. If you feel as inspired as we are, why not give it a try and make your own mood boards for your upcoming projects?

In the meantime, you could also explore some of our related articles:

• 18 Handy Desktop Tools for Graphic Designers who Don’t Like Pain
• What Is A Mood Board and How To Create One [Best Practices, Tips and Examples]
• 15 Inspiring Design Boards to Follow on Pinterest

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Al Boicheva

Al is an illustrator at GraphicMama with out-of-the-box thinking and a passion for anything creative. In her free time, you will see her drooling over tattoo art, Manga, and horror movies.

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The Art of Visual Communication: 12 Tips for Creating Powerful Mood Boards

• Written by Dima Stouhi
• Published on May 01, 2021

Design projects rely heavily on visual tools that illustrate the project's features and overall atmosphere, and whether you are an architect, interior designer, furniture designer, or engineer, the term 'mood board' has definitely come up at some point during the early stages of the design process. Generally speaking, images have immense powers of influencing and inspiring their viewers, so putting together a powerful mood board can be a game changer for the architect, the visual artist, and the clients, and can amplify the project's story telling process. So what is a mood board and how can you create one?

By definition, a mood board is an assemblage of colors, textures, prints, materials, or other design elements that make up a project's identity. These elements are often gathered during the design process and ideation stage, and serve as inspiration for what the project will look like. However, architects have found that mood boards tend to be very helpful during the visualization and rendering phase as well, since they can give the 3D artist a glimpse of how users will feel inside the project, and so, facilitating the rendering process. Although mood boards are commonly used in interior design practices, but they have become powerful visual communication tools in architecture, fashion design, product design , and industrial design as well.

How to Create a Mood Board?

• First rule of creating a mood board: there are no rules. Mood boards are put together to communicate design concepts easily with people who were not involved in the design process. There is no right or wrong way of putting together one either, because it all comes down to the architect and what you are trying to convey, so make sure to be as explorative as possible. 
•  There are many types of mood boards: material swatches, color palettes, finishes, experience and mood, overall appearance, etc. and each one is designed differently. So make sure you define what you are presenting to avoid any confusion.
• Understand your project: Ask yourself questions like ' how do I want the user to feel inside the space? Who is occupying my space and what will they do inside it? If my project was a color, what would it be? What should my project remind people of '? Although these questions are often defined early on, it is very important to understand your project and what it will offer its users so you can put together a board that represents your project accurately.

• List Keywords that represent the user's emotion while being in the project, such as extravagant, confined, festive, liberated, etc., and find images and materials that represent those keywords. For instance, if one of the project's keywords is ' liberated ', do not limit yourself to images that represent this term literally. Include free-flowing materials, transparency, and/or perforated textures and prints to characterize the definition of this term. You can even add photographs of events or locations that make people feel liberated. Make sure to note that having these materials on the board does not indicate that they will be present in the actual project, they just represent that project's mood. If you felt that the images are not explicit enough, support them by writing down the keywords on the board.
• Think outside the digital box. While there are millions of sources online, inspiration comes from anything and anywhere, so don’t limit yourself to spending hours collecting images online. Integrate examples from magazines, books, garments, films, music videos, food, or your own photography and hand-drawn sketches, and create a dynamic collage. 
• Consistency is key (unless the project dictates otherwise). Having inconsistent images can give out the notion that you are not yet confident with your project's final design, which can be problematic for clients or professors. Make sure you have a clear universal theme.

• Many architects and designers prefer to go for a grid-like template for their mood boards, however, grids are not the only way to go. Unless the client, 3D visual artist, or professor is asking for a specific template, feel free to organize your inspirational images in a way that compliments your project and translates its identity.
• Trigger your audience's emotional response by letting the mood board be a part of the project. For instance, if the project is nestled in a dark forest surrounded by large trees, make sure to translate that experience onto the mood board by assembling the inspirational images on a dark-colored board, and covering bits of the drawings with leaves (or sketches of leaves) to translate the feeling of being overwhelmed with the surrounding nature. If the project's theme is transparency, assemble the pictures and diagrams on transparent sheets instead of an actual board so the viewers can understand how open and light the project will be. If the structure is very rigid and geometric, frame the drawings with thick-stroked lines to portray the feeling of bulkiness. 

• Don't rush the process. Take your time in curating your mood board and make sure you have included the most influential visuals to your project.
• If you are presenting the mood board in person instead of online, support your presentation with 3D elements such as textured materials, plants, and accessories that people can touch and experiment with to illustrate the project's mood. If you want to take it a step further, integrate music in your presentation. Music is one of the most emotionally-triggering media, so put together a powerful playlist that can captivate your audience. 
• Test your mood board with your non-design friends. Designers have the ability to image a space with minimal visual support so presenting a mood board to someone who is not a designer helps establish whether it is descriptive enough and conveys the project's environment. 

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: Rendering , proudly presented by Enscape , the most intuitive real-time rendering and virtual reality plugin for Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Archicad, and Vectorworks. Enscape plugs directly into your modeling software, giving you an integrated visualization and design workflow.’ Learn more about our monthly topics . As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us .

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10 Free Mood Board Templates to Organize Your Ideas

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

Gone are the days when creating DIY mood boards meant piling up magazines, cutting out images, and gluing them onto big boards. Sure, it was a fun, hands-on approach, but let’s be honest—it got very tiring really quickly.

Nowadays, digital mood boards are the new cool. Not only are they fun to use, but they have a clean and clutter-free digital canvas to gather and present your ideas. ✨ 

And if you don’t want to start from scratch, a mood board template gives you a headstart. Whether you’re brainstorming branding ideas, designing a new software interface, or cooking up a storyline for your next content series, these templates will help you bring your creative ideas to life. 

And to help you kickstart your next project, we’ve rounded up 10 of the best free mood board templates to help you streamline your creative process. Let’s check them out.

What is a Mood Board Template?

What makes a good template for mood boarding, 1. clickup mood board template, 2. clickup vision board template, 3. clickup vision whiteboard template, 4. clickup storyboard template, 5. clickup story outline template, 6. clickup user story mapping template, 7. clickup design board template, 8. inspiring mood board template by template.net, 9. mood board presentation template by beautiful.ai, 10. brand mood board powerpoint template by 24slides.

A mood board template is a predesigned digital canvas that helps you organize and present your creative ideas. So instead of starting with a blank slate, you begin with a structure that shows you where and how to place images, colors, fonts, and other design elements.

These templates come with several advantages:

• Simplify mood boarding, especially if you’re a beginner who finds starting from scratch overwhelming
• Speed up the design process since the basic structure is already in place to create mood boards
• Ensure a cohesive mood board presentation with common themes, emotions, and narratives

A good mood board design template shouldn’t only be visually appealing. It should also be fully functional. Let’s break down the key features to consider, so your chosen template amplifies your creative flow and boosts your productivity :

• Clear and organized layout for effectively communicating ideas and concept maps
• Drag-and-drop interface to quickly add design elements (texts, photos, etc.), resize them, and move them around
• Customizable backgrounds, color schemes, and fonts to match your project’s vibe 
• Support for diverse content types like images, videos, shapes, and clickable links
• Seamless integration with stock image sources (for easy access to high-quality visuals) and project management software (for overseeing execution) 🛠️
• Compatible across various devices so you can access and tweak it anywhere, anytime
• Collaborative tools for teams who have to work together on a template  

10 Mood Board Templates to Use in 2024

Picking the right template means finding one that fits your project perfectly. We’ve got 10 top picks that suit various needs. Have a look and see which one feels right for you.

Are you working on a creative project where you have to juggle details like user experience, typography, and color schemes? If so, you’ll love ClickUp’s Mood Board Template . 

This template lets you curate your inspirations under the following categories: user interface, icons, illustrations, website, typography, and color palette. And since it’s created in ClickUp Whiteboards , you can easily tweak it to your liking. 

You and your team can visually collaborate on the same canvas using the pen, highlighter, and mind map tools. You can also use text, sticky notes, and connectors to add context to your design ideas and draw connections between them. 

While all these features are great, that’s not even the best part. ClickUp’s project management features ensure that you can seamlessly go from brainstorming ideas to executing them, all while keeping track of your progress. ⏳

This template is perfect for graphic designers, UI/UX professionals, and product teams looking to streamline their creative workflows while keeping all stakeholders on the same page.

If you’ve ever felt lost organizing a bunch of ideas when planning new business products or revamping existing ones, ClickUp’s Vision Board Template is here to clear the fog. 

It’s designed to let you capture all your product ideas in one space and evaluate which ones are worth implementing and in what order. This means for each product idea, you’ll be able to think through the following:

• Product: Your product name and what it does
• Vision: The impact you’re looking to achieve with the product
• Target group: Who the product is designed for
• Needs: What problem your product solves for the target group 
• Business goals: How the product will benefit your business

And with the template’s versatile views, organization becomes a breeze:

• Learn how to use the template using the details outlined in the Start Here view
• Store all product ideas in the Vision Board
• Collect product ideas from your team with the Product Vision Form
• Focus on the most important product ideas with the Priority view

Who’s this template for? Product teams and entrepreneurs looking to streamline their product development process through organized ideation, clear communication of product goals, and strategic execution.

Building on the previous template, this ClickUp Vision Whiteboard Template takes your collaborative brainstorming sessions to the next level with an interactive Whiteboard template . 

This Whiteboard feature is all about creative, hands-on, and real-time interactions so you and your team can shape and refine your product vision. Designers can easily use this for inspiration for store interior design ideas, texture samples, different layouts, a collage sample, or even to create a space for product shots.

You can visually arrange and organize product ideas using photos, illustrations, and sticky notes—creating a roadmap that everyone can understand at a glance. 🗺️

Want to ensure a fruitful brainstorming session? Use ClickUp Docs to lay out and share session objectives in advance. This way, every team member arrives ready, armed with insights and ideas—which in turn boosts the productivity of your session.

Whether you’re a filmmaker, a writer, or a business owner looking to improve your customer experience, ClickUp’s Storyboard Template is a helpful tool for structuring your creative workflows. It provides a dedicated canvas where you can visualize your ideas and break them down into clear and distinct scenes or steps. 

Creativity thrives on flexibility, and this template gets it. You can shuffle scenes to fine-tune story flows and duplicate them based on your story’s length. So whether you’re dealing with a concise three-step process or a complex 30-scene narrative, this storyboard template adapts to your needs.

If you work on movies, films, and games, use each scene’s box as a repository for capturing details like actions, dialogue, and audio-fx—so no detail is lost in translation.

On the other hand, if you’re a business owner or part of a customer experience team, you can use the boxes to capture key touchpoints, interactions, and feedback to analyze your customer journeys and improve customer experience. 🤩

This one’s for all the storytellers. If you’re a fan of the previous storyboard template, then you’ll love the ClickUp Story Outline Template even more. 

It’s no secret that while storytelling is all about the art, it’s a structured science too. And this template gives your stories the structured backbone they need, so you can pour your energy into the narrative that only you can tell. 

You can use it to create chapter outlines, break them down into scenes, organize plots, build characters, and manage locations.

Beyond these organizational features, the story outline template also acts as a personal accountability partner. Use it to set due dates for completing different scenes within your story, and track your progress with statuses like To Do, In Progress, and Complete.

This template is here to ensure that not only are you organized, but you’re able to complete your stories on time. After all, time is money. 💸 

Do you struggle to understand what your users really need when planning a product? Or do you find it hard to keep your team aligned on product goals and priorities?

User story mapping is a proven method to visualize and organize tasks around user needs when developing a product. However, without a clear structure, it can become chaotic and overwhelming.

This is precisely where ClickUp’s User Story Mapping Template comes in handy. It’s designed to simplify this process for you and your team by allowing you to focus on a single product or feature at a time. 

It helps you dive deep into user interactions by mapping out user personas, user activities, user steps for accomplishing activities, and the details users need to complete each step. This makes it easy to identify areas that need improvement so your team can channel their efforts strategically.

If you’re part of a product team whose priority is to keep the user’s needs front and center, demystify their journeys, and understand what needs improvement, then this template is for you.

The ClickUp Design Board Template is built for teams and agencies looking to streamline their design processes from planning to launch. 📅

It comes with some of the general tasks for typical design projects like determining project goals and KPIs, design research, brainstorming, and launching products. 

You can assign each task in the design process to a team member, set its priority, and add a deadline. Plus, you can organize and track tasks according to:

• Design stages: Briefing, branding, designing, marketing, launch day, and feedback
• Approval status: Pending, approved, and revision
• Revision type: None, minor revision, and major revision

This template’s standout feature is its flexible views that cater to different work styles and visualization preferences:

• Project summary: A list of all design tasks 
• Design process : A Board view of tasks grouped by their design stages
• By priority: Visualize tasks by priority levels, with urgent and high priority ones at the top
• By status: A Board view for updating task status and visualizing progress
• Revisions: A list of tasks that need to be revised
• Design timeline: Visual layout of task durations and deadlines

If you’re looking to keep your design projects—be it graphic design, web design, app design, etc.—organized and on track, this design ideas board is what you need to make it happen.

If you’re looking for a mood board maker that will motivate you to achieve your personal and professional goals, then this might just be what you need. It’s super flexible, so you can add quotes, photo collages, or emojis that make you happy and also inspire you.

This inspiration board is available for download in a variety of formats, like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Adobe Illustrator. 

You can also choose to edit it directly on Template.net’s website, which comes with an extensive library of stock photos, illustrations, stickers, and frames. And if you want to make it even more personal, you can choose to upload your own images.

If you’re an interior designer, fashion stylist, or photographer looking to organize and present your ideas to your team or clients, Beautiful.ai’s Mood Board Presentation Template is the perfect tool for the job.

This interior design mood board stands out due to its simple and clear organization. It’s divided into key sections that help to communicate your project’s vision:

• Background: Define the project, its target audience, and your client. This provides context and ensures everyone gets the bigger picture
• Colors: Showcase your chosen color palette to set the project’s mood and style 
• Photography: Include photos that align with the project’s vision, whether they’re from the client or your research

You can easily customize this template inside Beautiful.ai for other use cases like fashion mood boards and wedding mood boards. When you’re ready to share, export it to formats like PowerPoint, JPG, and PDF. 

When you’re starting a rebranding project, having a clear visual direction is key. This template helps you do just that. You can add visuals like color palettes, photos, and unique illustrations to show your team what your new brand will look like.

To get your creative juices flowing, the template gives you examples like “Vintage Life,” “The Cinema,” “The Rainbow,” and “Ocean” to inspire your rebrand.

If you’re already familiar with using Microsoft PowerPoint, you’ll find it super easy to customize this template to fit your needs. 

Bring Your Vision to Life With Mood Boards

Mood boards are helpful for organizing and visualizing your ideas, thoughts, and plans. Choosing the right mockup for your project boosts your team’s creativity and productivity. 

Looking to further boost your productivity and bring your own mood board vision to life? ClickUp’s mood board templates, which integrate seamlessly with project management features, are designed just for that. 🦾

Beyond mood boards, ClickUp’s extensive (and free) template library caters to a diverse range of business processes so you can optimize all aspects of your workflows.

Sign up for ClickUp today to get started!

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What is a Mood Board and How to Create One For Your Brand

Table of Contents

• What is a Mood Board ?

What is a Branding Mood Board?

Why is a branding mood board important.

• How to Build Your Brand With a Branding Mood Board
• What to Include in Your Brand Mood Board?

Key Takeaways

Every brand owner has a vision. But communicating that to your team or investors and sponsors is not easy. Representing how you envision your brand is an uphill task. This is where visual representation comes in. A mood board is one way of representing your vision in a more tangible form and has been looked upon as an effective tool in marketing. Therefore, it is essential to know what a mood board is and how to create one. 

What is a Mood Board?

A mood board can be defined as a visual presentation or collage of images, text, colors, etc., that could be based on a specific topic or a chosen theme. This collection of visual materials, known as a mood board, evokes a particular concept of a vision. They are incredibly efficient and useful in conveying the feel of an idea that might otherwise be difficult to explain in words or text or even through examples. You can organize all your design elements and ideas in one place with the help of a mood board. This helps you visualize your entire concept or story comprehensively and makes it equally possible for others to understand it. 

Designers, decorators, wedding planners, filmmakers, professional photographers, and several other creative professionals use mood boards as visual tools to aid them in their work. Now that we know how indispensable mood boards are in branding let’s understand what a branding mood board is. 

Before we jump into the process and start discussing how to make a mood board and what elements it comprises, it is important to understand how a mood board will impact your brand story.  

• A branding mood board is a collection of visual elements, which could range from colors, text, photographs, doodles, or any other visual inspiration at all. 

It encompasses or conveys who you are as a brand and what type of brand message you want to share with your audiences and the world. Your branding mood board is what represents your brand’s visual identity. It could be in the form of a digital collage or an actual physical board where you manually pin-up images, texts, and notes. To put it in simple terms – a branding mood board is what defines the ‘mood’ of your brand. 

If you are wondering what the purpose of this whole activity is and what could be achieved by representing your brand story in terms of visual elements, here is the answer to your question. You can convey your brand vision in the form of words with your team members, colleagues, customers/clients, but there is a high chance that they will never really understand the vibe or feeling you want to evoke. 

Mood boards are tools that facilitate the dissemination of that feeling, that general vibe that will help them understand your brand better. 

• A branding mood board is created to inspire. If you get stuck during the branding process, a quick look at the mood board will inspire you and might even lead you to a more creative and effective insight at times. 
• It helps you communicate better with your team. With a branding mood board, you are on the same page with your entire team. You all can cohesively understand the purpose of your project and work towards it more uniformly with the mood board to guide you.
• A mood board helps you drive brand-related design projects. You can ensure that your final designs are in tune with your brand direction.
• Nothing conveys your brand’s story better than a branding mood board. It is difficult to explain what your brand is, to other people, especially in a few words. Why not show them what your brand is with a branding mood board!

How To Build Your Brand With A Branding Mood Board

Here is a quick guideline on how to create a mood board for your brand:

Step 1: Use Pinterest

Pinterest is the best place to search for mood board inspiration. If you are still unclear on what a mood board is, Pinterest can show you a plethora of mood board examples from different niches and industries. Many individuals also save and share their personal mood boards on Pinterest.

Start on Pinterest and explore palettes and visuals that you find close to what you might be trying to convey through your brand story. Pin anything that stands out or inspires you. Keep noting down or saving the color palettes, images, stylistic details that you find powerful and inspiring- anything at all that you think you could translate into part of your brand. Capture imagery that resonates with your brand ideas or brand story.

Step 2: Narrow down your images

Now that you have your ideas and visuals, to begin with, go through your Pinterest board again. Ask yourself why a specific image stands on your Pinterest board? What does it represent? How close is it to your brand story or your idea? Do this for all the images, typography, everything that you have saved to your Pinterest board. 

It is time to narrow down and add notes to each image. Remove the images that are just aesthetically appealing but do not serve any purpose for your brand. You need to write down why you chose each image. If many images clutter a single board, create a second Pinterest board. Add a brand new board if needed.

Step 3: Finalize your mood board

It is now time to finalize your mood board. There is more than one way of creating a mood board today. You can digitally plan and create a mood board if manually creating one is time-consuming and tedious for you. You can use your Pinterest board to create a digital mood board with a graphics program, or you can even take prints of the images you have finalized and add them to a physical mood board. 

Focus on how these images are laid out, whether on a digital medium or the actual board. How are they related? Why are they next to each other? Image size, variations, etc., need to be kept in mind. Group or layer images accordingly. Your choice of images conveys your ideas, but your layout communicates your story. Keep this mood board in a place or a folder where you can easily refer back to it when you need inspiration or want to check if you are heading in the right direction with your idea. 

Step 4: Make notes

Making notes on the images is important in this stage as well. Capture new themes and visuals that might emerge at this stage of the mood boarding process. Use post-it notes or a diary to note all the inspiration and ideas. Post-it notes come in handy if you create a manual board; you can add them directly over the images and other elements. Pinterest allows you to add notes in caption areas. You can save your final mood board on Pinterest as well if a digital mood board is more convenient for you. 

What to Include in Your Brand Mood Board

While your mood board is your personal project and you get to choose what gets included in it or not, some essential elements should ideally be a part of a brand mood board. 

• Colors are a prominent element of mood boards. You can look for palettes or individual blocks of colors to add to your mood board. Kuler by Adobe is a tool you can use for choosing colors. 
• Patterns are repeating shapes or illustrations that can enhance your mood board and serve as important elements in branding.
• For visual interest, add textures. They can be used as digital graphics.
• Lifestyle images are the best to convey the mood of your entire layout. They will bring your brand mood board to life.
• Illustrations drawn by you or inspired from other mood boards or the Internet can also be added to detail the emotion that the brand mood board conveys. 

• A mood board is a collection of visual materials. It is used to evoke a specific style of concept. 
• With a branding mood board, you will have a constant source of inspiration and can communicate better with your entire team. It also helps you drive brand-related design projects.
• Pinterest is the best place to search for mood board inspiration. A lot of individuals save and share their personal mood boards on Pinterest.
• With Pinterest, you can explore palettes and visuals that you find close to your brand story. Pin anything that stands out or inspires you.
• Your choice of images conveys your ideas, but your layout communicates your story.
• You can use your Pinterest board to create a digital mood board with a graphics program, or you can even take prints of the images you have finalized and add them to a physical mood board. 
• Post-it notes come in handy if you are creating a manual board; you can add them directly over the images and other elements.

Visual branding is more powerful these days than any other alternative form of branding, and there is nothing better than mood boards for this process. Beautiful and creatively designed mood boards easily communicate the essence of your brand. What is a mood board , after all? It is a cinematic representation of your brand that speaks for itself. 

While a mood board is a visual tool used for planning aesthetics. It will influence what goes into your inspiration board. A mood board and an inspiration board differ in terms of their elements. A mood board is based on feelings and conceptualization, and an inspiration board is made up of details and specifics about an idea.

Mood boards capture a feeling and attempt at visually representing it. You can include color palettes, patterns, textures, swatches, text, images, and other elements essential in conveying a specific idea or emotion. 

Mood boards are creative and inspirational, but one concrete disadvantage tags along with the concept of creating a mood board. A mood board lacks any detailed timeline of an end project. It might not be an effective approach for a detail-oriented project.

Several mood board images are hosted on the web. You can find them on social media accounts, especially on Instagram and Pinterest. Flickr and Picasa also have a vast collection of mood boards.

Some of the best applications for making mood boards include Moodzer, Canva, Jux, Morpholio Board, Pinterest, MilaNote, Go Daddy Studio, Vision Board, etc.

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