Mood Board

A mood board is a visual tool that compiles various inspirational elements such as images, colors, textures, and text. It helps designers, artists, and creatives define and communicate a project's aesthetic tone, emotional feel, and overall visual direction. Mood boards are commonly used to brainstorm ideas, convey concepts, and align expectations with clients and team members.

When to Use a Mood Board

1. Early conceptualization: At the beginning of a project, mood boards can help to explore and communicate potential aesthetic directions and thematic concepts.

2. Stakeholder alignment: Before starting detailed design work, mood boards can be presented to stakeholders to ensure everyone agrees on the project's visual and emotional direction. This helps prevent misalignment and costly revisions later on.

3. Design refinement: As design ideas solidify, mood boards can be refined to reflect specific UI elements, colors, and typography, providing a clear reference as the design evolves.

Why use Mood Board

1. Visual communication: Mood boards communicate complex ideas and concepts visually, making it easier for stakeholders without a design background to understand the design vision.

2. Inspiration and creativity: They serve as inspiration. By combining various inspiring elements, mood boards can help overcome creative blocks and lead to innovative design solutions.

3. Consistency: Mood boards help maintain visual consistency throughout a project. They ensure that all design decisions—from color schemes to typography—are aligned with the established aesthetic and emotional tone.

4. Efficiency: By setting a clear aesthetic direction early on, mood boards reduce the time and resources spent exploring inappropriate design paths, streamlining the design process.

How to create a Mood Board?

Read about the 5-Step Process for creating a Mood Board from Figma: How to make a Mood Board. And follow these steps:

1. Define the purpose and goals:

   • What kind of mood, emotion, or tone do you want to convey (e.g., calming, energetic, modern, playful)?

   • Who is the target audience?

   • What is the project about (e.g., branding, website design, product, app)?

2. Gather inspiration: Start collecting visual inspiration that aligns with the project’s goals and vision. This can come from a variety of sources: images, typography, colours, texture, quotes...

3. Choose a format:

• Physical (magazine clippings, fabric swatches, or printed images) or

• Digital - we ask you to use this format. use can choose from these tools: Figma, Pinterest, Milanote, Canva, Miro

1. Organize your visual elements and add descriptive elements:

Once you've collected enough inspiration, start organizing the elements to reflect the project’s vision. Consider:

• Balance and composition: Arrange the images, colors, and textures in a way that feels balanced and cohesive.

• Group by theme: Group similar elements (e.g., images with the same color palette) together to create a more structured mood.

• Hierarchy: Highlight the most important aspects by making them larger or more prominent (e.g., a key image or the main color).

Add descriptive text or keywords can help clarify the intention behind certain elements. Consider including:

• Inspirational quotes or single words that summarize the mood (e.g., "elegant," "minimalist," "vibrant").

• Descriptions that explain why certain elements were included and how they relate to the project.

1. Share and gather feedback:

Once your moodboard is complete, share it with stakeholders, clients, or team members to gather feedback. Present the moodboard with a clear explanation of how it aligns with the project goals.

Mood Board Example

Have a look at this video, where a designer researches on movie streaming platforms and creates a simple mood board for it.

2nd Mood Board Example

Watch this 10-minute YouTube video for a 2nd inspiration for a mood board. It is slightly more sophisticated.

Further Resources

• Dribbble - Source of inspiration to find designs for your mood board.

• Pinterest - Another source of inspiration where you can find designs for your mood board.

• Mood Boards in UX: How and Why to Use Them (Article from Nielsen Norman)