Mood Boards

Mood boards are a cohesive visual tool used by artists, writers, planners, bloggers, and other creative professionals to help convey a visual theme. Whether you are using a mood board for a presentation to a client or using it personally to help out in storyboarding, it is very helpful to have quick and easy access to the overall visual theme of the thing you are making.

Mood Board Definition & Meaning

A mood board is defined as a collage of various things that will be used to set a tone, bring up specific emotions, and project a specific style, aesthetic, and theme.

This means that a mood board is used by designers, writers, artists, planners, and other professionals to ensure a clear process and to present a clear visual idea to those who view it.

What Is a Mood Board?

A mood board is an artistic tool composed of various images, texts or notes, concepts, or anything interrelated with one another, all arranged to project a unified visual concept, aesthetic, or theme. These mood boards can either be used in both a personal or a professional capacity.

10 Types of Mood board

Travel Mood Board

A mood board can be styled and designed in different themes, a travel mood board can help a person visualize the place that they want to travel to or have traveled in. This mood board can contain various pictures of nature and other landscapes, such as the summer beaches, the autumnal roads, and the cool winter landscapes, you want to experience or have experienced. The mood board can serve as inspiration or a way to manifest and relive that moment. The travel mood board is a great way to share your traveling experiences on social media apps or websites such as Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Instagram Mood Board

An Instagram mood board can serve as a good visual tool to amp out the theme, brand, and overall aesthetic of one’s Instagram. A good influencer, freelancer, business owner, or marketing team will be able to utilize this type of mood board to flesh out a specific aesthetic, portfolio, and style of their Instagram page. This mood board will be composed of various layouts, colors, images, artworks, products, concepts, and more. In the example mood board below, the Instagram shop uses images of their makeup, models wearing said makeup, and the color tones the shop uses.

Vacation Mood Board

Mood boards can be used to help entice customers to go to their local travel agencies or offices. A vacation mood board can convey what a customer can expect to feel and see when they take a vacation to a certain spot. This can be done by putting various images of previous customers experiencing the vacation, and pictures of various landscapes, like a beach, a vintage winery, or a quaint little rustic village.

Event Mood Board

A mood board can be also used to plan out and prepare for an event. The event mood board can be used to plan for weddings, parties, and more. The content of the mood board should all be related to the themes of the event, an example would be a football-themed mood board for a football team’s victory party. The example below is a mood board made to plan out someone’s birthday, it’s designed with pastel colors, complemented by a soft bohemian style; all of which will be used to determine the overall look of the party.

Summer Mood Board

One of the advantages of using a mood board is its ability to evoke a specific feeling, upon viewing it. A personal summer mood board is a great gift to give someone who wants to move on from their winter. A few examples of things that can be compiled in the summer-themed mood board are pastel colors, pictures of childhood mementos, pictures of the beach, cool drinks, and other summer vibes.

Resort Mood Board

When brainstorming a concept for a resort or the interior of one, a resort mood board can be used to help inspire the overall look and feel of the resort. This can also be utilized by a travel agency or an advertising firm to project the product that they offer. The mood board will be composed of pictures of the resort including the interior lobby, the beach, and/or the pool, and the various rooms, and suites.

Business Mood Board

Brands can use mood boards to help improve or start their business mood board. An upcoming brand can use the mood board to conceptualize and ideate the brand, whilst established brands can use the mood board retroactively as a reminder of their overall concept. This helps push the company in a specific direction and ensures consistency in its marketing.

Marketing Mood Board

If you want to have a successful marketing campaign, then you should use a marketing mood board, and leverage it to your advantage. A brand’s identity hinges on its overall theme and direction. A good marketing strategy uses a mood board to help illustrate a visual theme which may also be used as an advertising tool. This mood board can include the brand logo, colors associated with the brand, products, artists, endorsements, models, and more. The example below uses a range of dark and black colors and visually presents a punk aesthetic.

Social Media Mood Board

On social media we want to present our best foot forward, whether it is designing, photography, fashion, or drawing. A social media mood board will help tell your audience what you like to do and acts as a form of self-expression. In the example below, the pictures within the mood board have consistent lighting and a dream-like aesthetic.

Novel Mood Board

Writing or drawing a novel is a daunting task that will undergo plenty of visual and thematic revisions. Whether it’s a story about animal cartoons or a poem talking about the transition of flowers from fall to winter, the novel mood board will help ensure that the author or artist is on track. The mood board below creates a visual theme of dark imagery and colors all to evoke a certain dark feeling that may be used in making the novel.

Mood board Uses, Purpose, Importance

A mood board has plenty of uses in both the personal and professional space. This is a cost-effective tool that can be used to ideate, conceptualize, motivate, advertise and/or express oneself. Mood boards are very easy to make either digitally or physically and are both engaging and therapeutic to make. Here are a couple of ways why mood boards are important.

Efficient and Visual

Mood boards present an efficient way to the visual concept of the idea. Sometimes it can be very hard to express an idea, thought, or concept because there will be times when words cannot convey these effectively. A mood board can visually present the idea and express it objectively.

Swiftly Create Ideas or Concepts

A brainstorming session for something can last for a couple of hours to days or even months. This can be alleviated by using and creating conceptual mood boards since it would only take minutes to compile and create a collage of ideas, notes, and images.

Showcase One’s Creativity

Creativity is an overarching concept that is hard to objectify and describe. Whether it is the multitudes of unwritten worlds, drawn portraits, or pictures, showcasing that creativity might be very difficult and time-consuming. This is where a mood board will shine since one can easily express their blend of aesthetics, brand, and personality

Provides a Coherent Direction

Working in a marketing team of content writers, designers, and specialists can be very tough. The marketing team will come up with various thoughts and ideas and the main image of the brand might get lost in all the noise. A mood board will help provide a consistent, coherent, and visual direction and guide to work on.

Becomes a Strong Foundation

Everything great comes from a well-thought-out and executed foundation. A mood board can provide ideas and inspiration that are well aligned with the overall concept and may act as a foundation.

What’s In a Moodboard? Parts?

Notes

A note is a typed or written sentence/s or phrase/s that is associated with the overall concept.

Images

Pictures and images related or coherent with the overall concept, are the main bread, and butter of the Mood board.

Logo

If the mood board is used for a brand or a business, the logo of the brand should be present somewhere on the mood board.

Sample of Colors

Apart from the mood board that is composed of a palette of colors that make up the overall visual concept. This may include the color, the associated hex code, and the name of said color.

To-Do List/s

An optional part of the mood board. these are lists of things to accomplish or things to do that are associated with the overall concept.

How to Design a Mood Board?

1. Select a Mood Board Size.

2. Determine the purpose of the mood board.

3. Choose a Mood Board Template.

4. Replace the photos and images.

5. Add the needed images, notes, logo, or to-do list.

6. Finalize and download.

Mood Board Vs. Storyboard

A mood board is a collection of images, shapes, colors, notes, and more that convey a visual concept. Most of the images and things on a mood board are coherent and interconnected.

A storyboard is an organizer that consists of pictures of motion that are displayed in sequence. This is often used by writers and animators.

What’s the Difference Between a Mood Board, Vision Board & Concept Board

A mood board is a collage of images and different things all used to convey a visual concept,

A vision board is a compilation of goals and dreams one might have and wish to achieve in the future.

A concept board is a project design output used to present a concept to an audience.

Mood Board Sizes

There are plenty of mood board sizes that can accommodate this can range from the standard sizes to a size used for businesses. Here are a couple of sizes used in making the mood board:

Mood Board Ideas & Examples

If you need ideas or examples for the next mood board you are making then you can check out our collection of mood board ideas and examples to get your creative juices flowing.

• Mood board Ideas and Examples
• Makeup Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• Fashion Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• Interior Design Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• School Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• Art Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• Unique Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• Business Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• Handmade Mood Board Ideas and Examples
• Office Mood Board Ideas and Examples

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