What is a mood board?
It’s a collage of images that helps you to communicate visual ideas like color tone/vibe/style/quality. Some people get confused with “reference images” - which are a collage of the images that look good in their eyes but the style does not necessarily align with each other. Creating a good mood board requires the sensitivity to the tone/composition/mood of the photography. It is recommended to have designer or photographer friends to give you critique on your mood board the first couple times.
Why do you need a mood board?
It helps to communicate your visual idea. A brand ID designer would create a mood board to express a brand’s look and feel. A good mood board can help you to get the photo style you would like when you hire a photographer.
Application of a mood board
1. persona
I created a persona mood board for Green & Black’s rebranding project.
An image says a thousand words. Sometimes after having a persona workshop with my clients, I’ll put together a persona mood board to visually present the target audience and to see if they agree.
2. Brand visual identity
The mood board I created for Swell Van. Co
If you have experienced working with a branding agency, you probably go through some exercises defining “brand purpose”, “brand pillars” or “brand attributes”. After verbally defining your brand, it’s important to use mood board to capture the visual side and make sure everyone agree this is what the brand should “look and feel like”. Mood board is usually where I drew color theme for the brand visual identity that can apply on logo, website, packaging design, social, etc.
3. Photography
Photographer: Lindsay D’Addato
Either you’re hiring a photographer for your wedding, family portrait, pets or products, it’s helpful to provide shot list and mood board. It will help them to understand what you want - the quantity and quality!
Where you can find photos (for internal usage):
Unsplash: free stock images
Pinterest
Google
Instagram