How to Create a Mood Board

A mood board is an arrangement of images intended to project the ideal look and feel of the brand. It can incorporate colours, textures, fonts and patterns and is a great way to establish the design flow of your brand. It is also a perfect reference tool to help keep your branding consistent. If you are creating the branding for a client, a mood board is a perfect way to ensure you and your client are both on the same page.

Now that you know what a mood board is and why it's used, let's explore how to create one.

Mood board.jpg

STEP ONE: BRAND ADJECTIVES

Think about your brand and the message you want to convey. Write down a list of adjectives that could describe your brand. Some examples are trendy, lively, modern, bold, playful, strong, cheerful, sophisticated. Now circle the top three adjectives that best describe your brand.

 

STEP TWO: CREATE A PINTEREST BOARD

When it comes to mood boards, Pinterest is your best friend. Create a Pinterest board for inspiration. Take one of the adjectives you circled above and search for it in Pinterest. Start pinning any images that resonate with you and the brand you're creating. Play around with adding words to the end of your search such as 'textures', 'patterns' and 'design' (e.g. Modern Textures, Modern Patterns, Modern Design). Repeat this process for each of the three adjectives you circled in step one.

 

STEP THREE: NARROW DOWN

Have you been busy pinning lots of images to your board? Well now it's time to get picky and narrow down. Go through all of the images you've pinned and narrow down your board until you only have about seven images left. These images should best represent the brand you're creating.

 

STEP FOUR: DESIGN YOUR MOOD BOARD

Now that you've chosen your mood board images, it's time to design your board. One easy tool to use is Canva. They have a great drag and drop editor that even the least computer savvy person can use.

Another free and easy-to-use tool for creating a mood board is Milanote. Milanote’s freeform canvas lets you get as messy or as structured as you like, and with over 500k built-in images, you’ll never struggle for inspiration. Once you’ve finished your masterpiece, share privately via ‘secret link’ or export your mood board to PDF.  

 

That's it! Pretty simple hey? And if you're a creative person you will most likely love the process, so go get started and enjoy :)

Stay tuned for the next post when we dive into how to create a logo.

BrandingThe Social Content Factory