by Asuka Li

Unlike wireframes and prototypes, mood boards are not detailed ideas. They are meant to deliver the right emotion and bring the emotion to the clients and teammates. The use of mood boards can be found in many projects at an early stage. Exquisite pictures are matched with keywords and themes to accurately express the design direction and style of the product. 

What is a mood board? 

• Mood boards embody the inspiration for the entire project, maintain style and aesthetic consistency, and make sure the design will meet the client’s or team’s expectations. Mood boards are a useful tool to help designers work effectively with clients and team members. They can be easily created in a short time and turn abstract ideas into concrete expressions. 

• Mood boards can help convey your design ideas to clients accurately. For example, many clients may not know what a design term means, and by showing them a mood board with examples, they will immediately understand and know whether they like the style or not. 

• In terms of resources and time, mood boards are much less costly than mockups or prototypes, and it reduces the possibility of a redesign after a huge amount of work. 

What makes up a mood board?

• Images: brand images, illustrations, logos, icons 

• Color palette: To create a color palette that attracts your target audience and accurately tells your brand story, it’s essential to have a basic understanding of color psychology. 

• Metaphors: Visual metaphors are used more in branding or icon design, they will definitely bring more creativity to the design. 

• Text: Use product-related content to display fonts instead of placeholders 

Create a mood board in three steps

1. Define the Key Words: It requires comprehensive corporate culture, user groups, brand/marketing strategies and other factors to define.
2. Search for resources: According to the existing keywords, collect different kinds of resources. Make sure you are looking for both the same type of resources as your target product, and abstract resources derived from keywords. 
3. Determine a visual design strategy: Extract various key elements, such as graphics, colors, layout composition, fonts, textures, etc., to start the design for visual strategy. 

Make a mood board that guarantees amazing design 

• Visual consistency is crucial. After integrating relevant design elements, delete and tweak elements to make sure your mood board conveys a consistent style. 

• Involve clients in this process. Invite others to join the creation of mood boards by adding collaborators or sharing a public link. Clients generally have more experience in the target industry and are very likely to contribute valuable ideas to the mood board. 

• Talk less and show more. There is no long report that can explain your plans and ideas better than a visual presentation. Words don’t take shape in a client’s mind, but visuals are a solid guide to help them dig into the details and get your idea correctly.