Mood board

Finding inspiration for design projects is one thing. Organizing it and turning that inspiration into a more cohesive base for creating a design that wows clients and users is an entirely different beast.

The solution? Mood boards.

Mood boards are physical or digital collages that arrange images, materials, text, and other design elements into a format that’s representative of the final design’s style. Mood boards can be used for creating brand designs, product designs, website designs, and pretty much any other type of design project.

Purpose of a Mood Board

Mood boards can serve many purposes, starting with organizing the inspiration around a project. They can be a valuable resource throughout the design project, to help keep the style and aesthetic consistent and on track with a client’s goals and expectations.

Mood boards are also an excellent way to refine a project’s style before diving into the actual design process. They’re a much lower investment than mockups and prototypes in terms of resources and time and can convey a lot about the look and feel of the final design.

Mood boards are also an excellent way to convey design ideas to clients. When a web designer says “minimalist” or “Grotesk fonts” or “realism,” a lot of clients will be completely clueless as to what that means. But show them a mood board that incorporates those things and they immediately understand and can express whether they love or hate the ideas.

Finally, mood boards can also ensure that design teams are all on the same page when working on a project together. One designer’s idea of minimalism might be a lot more maximalist than their colleague’s.

How to Create a Mood Board

There isn’t just one way to make a mood board. They come in all different formats, shapes, and styles. Some designers create them digitally while others create physical collages. For those who create mood boards digitally, there are a number of options available, from Photoshop templates to dedicated apps.

Who Uses Moodboards?
Mood Boards are used by a variety of creative professionals, including graphic designers, interior decorators, set designers, fashion designers, photographers, and event planners. Basically, anyone who is developing an object or environment that needs to have a particular “look” often starts with a moodboard to specify design elements and color schemes.

2 Reasons to Make Your Own Moodboard has two main purposes:

1. It helps you refine your ideas. Perhaps you are starting from a blank slate and you want to find inspiration. Perhaps you already have a strong idea but want to affirm to yourself that it comes together as you imagine and guide yourself through the many creative decisions ahead. In either case, a moodboard will give you the clarity you need before you start buying materials or building elements.
2. It helps you communicate your ideas to others. Usually, a creative professional like a graphic or interior designer will build a moodboard to present their ideas to a client. From there, the client will probably give feedback about the suitability of the overall idea or the strength of certain items on the moodboard over others. They might even choose between multiple moodboards the designer has used to present different options. A layperson planning their own event or design project won’t have clients, but they will probably also need to communicate their ideas to someone else at some point — a contractor, collaborator or, if it’s a wedding, their fiance/e.

01. Milanote

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use tool to organise all your ideas, Milanote is certainly an option worth considering. The software runs in any modern web browser and offers as much space and as many levels of hierarchy as you might need to let your creative projects fully develop. It can be set up as a private place for you to collect your thoughts or as a shared workspace for collaboration – the choice is yours. You can sign up for free, plus get access to Milanote’s library of inspiration and templates to help get you started.   

02. Pinterest

Pinterest offers a surprisingly diverse collection of images to draw mood board references from. The big plus of using it is that a whole load of human users has done a lot of the curating for you, which is the time-consuming bit. And the collections are often themed better than any traditional image library – you can even follow Creative Bloq.
For more on Pinterest, see our post on how to make money on Pinterest. 

03. MURAL

MURAL offers an easy and user-friendly way for creative teams to think, imagine and discuss their design ideas. It’ll cost you $12/month, but there’s a free trial available if you don’t want to commit just yet. 

04. The Matboard

Image sharing site The Matboard is specifically targeting creatives as an alternative to the more mainstream Pinterest. Check out our in-depth review of what it has to offer.

05. Evernote

Ever considered using the Evernote note taking app to create mood boards? Us neither, but it can be done. This blog post over on SitePoint explains exactly how.

06. Sampleboard

Upload your images to Sampleboard, the digital mood board creation tool, and organize them into project files, then use the web editor to easily pull together design trends and color schemes. The mood boards you create can be shared on various social media sites and easily imported into documents and presentations. A range of mood board themes is available to get you started.