Ideas and Tools for Creating an Effective Moodboard

Remember the collages we played with as children? We could glue leaves collected from the garden, newspaper clippings, pieces of colored paper. A moodboard is the evolution of the collage: the basic techniques of creativity are always the same, the tools and purpose have changed.

In this article, we offer some useful suggestions for creating a moodboard from scratch, and some practical tools to make your work easier.

What is a Moodboard and Why is it Used

The literal translation from English of this word is “mood board”. To explain it better starting from the definition, we can say that it is a visual composition that collects images, texts, colors, and materials, and is used to convey the idea of a style or concept through the evocation of sensations.

It’s a tool much loved by photographers, designers, stylists, architects, illustrators, and all those professionals who work with creativity and sensory connections.

Below, we indicate some examples of using a moodboard:

• First step in a website project;
• Palette for defining a window display setup;
• Inspiration for creating the atmosphere of video scenes;
• Reproduction of tactile sensations of a physical product.

The images we show display three moodboards (first image): of these, the central moodboard was chosen for the development of a window display concept (second image).

The images of the moodboards and the concept for these window displays were presented by Alice Rachele Biondelli (Senior Visual Merchandiser for DFS – LVMH Group and IED lecturer) during the meeting “How Visual Merchandising Will Support Us in Recovery”, organized by Rinascita Digitale.

Differences Between a Physical and a Digital Moodboard

The physical moodboard allows you to give more emphasis to the material aspects of the project. You can use fabrics, different types of paper, brush strokes of color, etc., to evoke tactile sensations. This type of moodboard is very suitable for physical products or for projects that involve choosing different materials, such as interior design.

The digital moodboard, on the other hand, in addition to images and texts, can contain audio or video files, can be shared, and can be modified at any time: these characteristics make it perfect if the project involves people working remotely or if the moodboard needs to be sent to a client you can’t reach physically.

Digital moodboards are useful for communicating a product, even through social media, in a creative way and with great visual impact. As an example for this type of use, we show three moodboards created to promote the solutions of a store that offers design furniture.

The Main Steps to Create a Moodboard

Let’s see what the main phases are for creating a moodboard. Keep in mind that it’s a creative process, you might not get the result you hope for right away: in this case, don’t get discouraged and continue exploring.

Also remember that following the order of the phases is especially useful the first time, but you can also go back to a previous phase after some time. The important thing is that the process leads you to a satisfactory result, for which you might even experiment with your own method.

1. Establish the objective
Like any respectable creative project, for the creation of a moodboard you must define the objective. You can ask yourself if this work will help you identify the sensory suggestions of the project, or if it will help you at a more specific level, for example in defining the images, fonts, and colors to use in the final output.

This distinction is important to start understanding what type of materials you will need to collect and will guide your research.

Also decide if your moodboard will contain a single page or multiple pages, like a presentation, and if you will share it with other people or if it will be for your use only.

2. Define the style
Unless you already have a precise idea, to define the general style of your moodboard you can draw inspiration from the world of art, fashion, cinema, etc.
You could, for example, choose a style that recalls the opulence of the Baroque or the color contrasts of 80s pop. This type of choice already directs you towards the next phase.

3. Take notesYes, actual textual notes. Although the temptation to immediately search for images might be strong, the step where you write down ideas could be fundamental, especially if you’ve never created a moodboard before.Try to describe with words or short phrases the values, sensations, colors, and images you’d like to include: you don’t necessarily have to include these texts in the moodboard; it’s a guide that will help you in the actual search for images and will allow you to save time in the subsequent phases.

4. Search for colors and imagesThe actual research phase has arrived. We recommend defining the predominant colors you want to include in the moodboard first: this way you’ll more easily discard images that don’t fit into this palette.Then move on to collecting images or videos: if you’re going to share your moodboard, make sure there are no issues with usage rights for these materials. You can also use photos or videos that you’ve created yourself, as long as they are of good quality. If you want to delve deeper into the topic of color selection, you can read this article: “Create infallible color palettes with Color Analysis”

5. Create your moodboardNow you have everything you need: you can leave the background neutral or apply a color or pattern, if it doesn’t distract from the main content; play with the shapes and sizes of the images to create visual harmony and position the color palette you’ve chosen.You can insert a title and some words to better define the concept you want to convey, even drawing from the notes you took earlier.

6. Ask for feedbackShow your moodboard to colleagues or someone you trust: an outside perspective is always useful, especially to verify that your idea is understandable. Creative work is subjective, but if the people you ask intuit the sensations you wanted to convey, then it means your moodboard is effective.

Useful tools and software for creating a moodboard

The countless graphic applications available allow you to have templates ready that facilitate the work of creating the moodboard, or simply to find graphic elements to complete a file you created.

In this list, we suggest some easy-to-use software: software is useful for speeding up the work but should not be considered a substitute for the creative process; these are tools at the service of creativity.

1. Canva
Canva is a rather complete application but also easy to use, and it offers many templates even in the free basic version. The easiest and most useful feature for creating a moodboard is the grid, which divides the workspace into various sectors. There are different grids, useful for defining the number of sectors you want to use.

2. Milanote
Milanote is used by people in creative jobs because, in addition to moodboards, it allows you to create and organize texts, images, storyboards, brainstorming, and other activities, keeping track of a team’s work. Very useful if you need to share your activities within the work group. It can be used for free with limits on the number of uploads. The site is in English.

3. Adobe Creative Cloud Express
After the registration phase, this online Adobe software provides not only templates for moodboards but also for social content, logos, and business cards. A practical and quick version within the Adobe family, which offers more professional software (like Photoshop or InDesign) that require graphic design skills.

4. Vistacreate
This is a graphic editor that provides numerous templates for creating not only moodboards but also social media posts with your own logo. The free version still has a good number of available resources, including images and the ability to remove backgrounds.

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Visual creations like moodboards have become tools accessible to everyone, even though it’s a task that requires time and a lot of creativity both in the research phase and in the creation phase. Having visual design skills is important if you want to achieve professional and high-impact moodboards.

Do you need to create moodboards for your projects but don’t know where to start?

Contact us and we will give shape to your ideas.

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