When it comes to communicating your visual ideas with clients, teams and agencies, there are fewer tools as powerful and effective as a mood board and in this blog, we’re going to teach you how to create the ultimate version.
They say a picture paints a thousand words and the same can be said of a mood board; with one glance, it creates a vivid impression as pictures, colours and textures combine to communicate your vision.
Back in the day, mood boards were a physical thing that you could touch and pass round if they weren’t too cumbersome, but nowadays most professionals prefer to create digital versions for ease of sharing, editing, etc and platforms such as Canva, offers all the tools you could possibly need to create a professional looking mood board.
Fashioning a mood board digitally doesn’t mean you should rely too heavily on images you find online because for an original approach that showcases your flair and imagination, it pays to create your own pictures.
Who needs a mood board?
You’re probably familiar with mood boards being used in interior design or coaching scenarios, but they’re also invaluable when it comes to creative briefs, branding, content strategy and any other aspect of business where visual ideas are key.
They’re a way of getting thoughts and ideas onto paper (albeit virtually in some cases) and are usually the first concrete visualisation of an idea, an initial draft that can be moulded and shaped as teams process the information and offer up ideas.
The Journal of Business Research reported that they are an invaluable point of reference for teams when it comes to setting a scene and developing an idea/project.
Where do you start when you create a mood board?
There’s only one thing you need in place before you embark on a mood board and that’s a project and some ideas that encapsulate the flavour of the desired outcome. The clearer your vision, the better, but bear in mind that things can change direction when there’s a mood board in play and that’s the point. It serves as a reminder of what your initial goals were, but once other players get involved, it’s natural for there to be tweaks and changes.
Step-by-step guide to creating a mood board
Follow this easy guide to creating a mood board and watch your project take shape:
- Format - your first task is to decide on a format. Do you want a digital mood board or is texture non-negotiable? If it is, then a physical mood board might be better suited for your project. Also, if you think that a lot of your images will be taken from print publications, such as magazines, then a physical mood board may prove the best option.
- Theme - gather your team and decide on a theme. You could start by jotting a series of words onto a whiteboard or you might focus on a style, which may then inform the kinds of materials you’ll use. If you’re struggling for inspiration, leaf through some industry publications and keep going until something catches your eye. Inspiration is only ever a second away.
- Elements - rather than choosing the first images you think of, push yourself to be original and try a new take on things, for example, works of art, objects and architecture are all good sources of inspiration when it comes to mood boards. You need to think of the font you’ll use too as it will have to work alongside the theme.
- Create - once you’ve decided on your format, chosen a theme and identified key elements, it’s time to collect material. Start putting things together on the mood board and experiment with different combinations until you get a sense of cohesion. Be bold. Experiment, have fun and unleash your creativity.
Tips - if your mood board is digital, try using some of the colours in your imagery in swatches. You can create a similar effect with physical boards by using swatches of real fabric and paints.
‘I love the freedom of a physical mood board.’
Garden designer Diane Samways prefers a physical mood board to a digital version. She says: ‘My approach to mood boards begins with stepping away from digital devices. I love the freedom a large wall-mounted board provides, far beyond the confines of a computer screen. By tearing images, quotes, and textures from unrelated magazines, I ensure my idea remains original. This process keeps creativity flowing, unbound by the limitations of digital tools, allowing inspiration to flow in unexpected directions.’
The advantages of using a mood board
Once you’ve decided on your project, the mood board sets the wheels in motion and has the following advantages.
- A strong starting point - creating a mood board helps you set out the fundamental building blocks of your project and enables you to visualise the end result. While mood boards are a must when it comes to creative projects, they also have wider benefits, for example, they can be used as a tool to evaluate competitor performance.
- Clarity - when ideas are words, there can be many interpretations, but once they are translated into a mood board, a clear vision takes shape. When working as part of a wider team, it’s easy to lose touch with an original premise but a mood board helps to keep it front of mind. Referring to it throughout is a useful barometer when making smaller decisions.
- Ease of collaboration - mood boards facilitate collaboration. Most people are visual learners and setting everything down on a mood board enables everyone on the team to see what the end goal should look like.
- Client communication - involving clients early on in a project and giving them access to a mood board, ensures that your interpretation of the brief matches theirs. You could create several mood boards and ask them to pick the one that resonates most, to ensure a shared vision. There’s nothing worse than getting deep into a project only to find that the client doesn’t like your ideas.
- Speeding up the design process - a mood board can help to speed up the design process. Rather than staring at a blank screen for hours, you’ll be actively looking for visual inspiration and that’s only going to feed your creative muscle.
- Staying on brand - a mood board enables you to ensure that a project is on brand. It can also help inform social content and PR, ensuring that everything has the same look and feel.
‘A mood board is a springboard for creativity, bringing your design vision to life in a way that unites teams, engages clients while optimising creative efficiency’
Sarah Hedges - Founder, PlatformAlt5
She says, ‘The image above is the mood board we created to generate a hero image for our application to help marketers write better briefs.
Whether you're a marketer sharing an agency brief or a creative team presenting concepts to a client, mood boards are a powerful tool for sharing creative vision, streamlining the design process and saving time and budget. They help design teams align with clients before finalising concepts. If you're developing a brand, a mood board can showcase how the brand will look once applied to various digital and physical assets.
For our BriefBrain™ mood board, we combined traditional design with technology using words, images, stock photos and graphics. AI summarised our creative communities’ brief writing tips identifying synergies that could be distilled back to 22 words. Each word was hand drawn into the shape of a brain. You can see the final image at the top of this blog.
How to make brilliant mood boards with Canva
Check out this YouTube video from Canva that tells you everything you need to know about creating great mood boards.
How to maximise your mood board
Want to get the very best out of your mood board? Follow our tips on how to make the most of the process.
- Use all your own design elements - there are no rules. You can compile a mood board using your own design elements, font choice, colours, etc to give clients a feel for what you have in mind, before you get too far down the line with a project.
- Communicate brand qualities - it helps to find colours/images, etc that encompass the personality of a brand. They don’t have to appear in the final design, they are simply there to conjure up a feeling or certain look. For example, you might decide to use warm, summery, outdoors images to conjure up a sense of lightness and freedom.
- Make multiple boards - it’s not uncommon for creatives to come up with several mood boards for a project, so that the client can choose the one that fits their vision. For example, you might decide to go with three different concepts or themes and leave it to the client to pick the one they want to run with.
- Find inspiration in real things - if you’re inspired by something in nature or perhaps a moment in history, you could use your own photos or find original materials from the era that you want to draw on.
- Think outside the box - there are no limits or rules when it comes to creating a mood board. Be bold in your choice of image sources and don’t be afraid to mix and match things that might not on the face of it, seem like an obvious pairing.
- Organise - mood boards can be a great way to organise your ideas and workflow. It enables you to put everything in one place - font choices, colour schemes, graphics, etc.
- Experiment - mood boards encourage experimentation. Try out different colour schemes, graphics and typography. Mix and match different elements until you come up with a combination that represents the style you are hoping for.
- Use words - although a mood board is a visual tool, that doesn’t mean you can’t use words. Add them in if you feel they’ll amplify your message and add to the board.
- Start with a style - choosing a visual style and laying down a theme early on can result in a more cohesive design.
- Focus on one element - if you feel overwhelmed by the thought of creating a mood board, concentrate on one theme, such as the colour scheme. Once you’ve picked a colour palette, you can then move onto typography, images, texture, etc.
- Keep refining - a mood board is rarely something you create in one go. There will usually be a process of refining and tweaking, involving the entire team, until you have an end result that everyone is happy with.
The five best apps for creating mood boards
If you prefer to create mood boards digitally, these five apps will make light work of the task.
- Canva - this graphic design platform makes mood board creation easy, providing endless templates and inspiration with an easy to use interface that facilitates team collaboration. There is a free version and Canva Pro which gives you access to premium images and templates, plus 1TB of cloud storage, is only £100 for a year.
- Milanote - an easy to use platform that enables you to create shareable mood boards. There’s a free version and for teams it’s £37 a month.
- Mural - this platform allows teams to collaborate on digital mood board templates, plus it can produce up to three mood boards for free.
- Evernote - this cloud based note taking app is also a handy mood board creator. There’s a free version and for more features, prices start at £6.66 a month. The Team's version is £14.99 a month.
- Pinterest - a great place to look for inspiration, Pinterest introduced the general public to the thrill of creating mood boards when it launched in 2010. Free to use, it features thousands of examples of mood boards in all areas.
The Rustic Mood Board Photo Collage from Canva has a clearly defined style, colour scheme and look meaning that any iterations won’t stray too far from the original concept.
Conclusion
Mood boards are a useful tool when it comes to creating a visual representation of an idea or project. They help to avoid misinterpretation, speed up the design process and ultimately lead to happier clients. What’s more, there are some cheap and user-friendly modern tools available to help you create and share premium digital mood boards with your teams.
