Physical and Digital Mood Boards

A mood board can be physical or digital. Both can use pictures, colour and typography to suggest a mood, but they are made differently.

Physical mood boards

A physical mood board is made by fixing real items to card, paper, a cork board, a whiteboard or a wall. You might use printed pictures, sketches, colour swatches, font samples, textures and small objects. Only a physical board can hold actual fabric, real materials, physical textures and samples of objects, so it is useful when the feel of a material matters. For example, a board for a school bag design could include a piece of waterproof nylon, a zip pull and a printed photo of a playground. A physical board cannot contain sound or video because it is not an electronic file.

Digital mood boards

A digital mood board is built on a computer or tablet and keeps the gathered media together in one file. It can include sound, video and animation as well as still pictures. If you want to show actual fabric or a physical material on a digital board, you must use a photograph of it, so you might photograph a texture and place that photo on the board. A digital board can also use animation to show movement, which a physical board cannot do.

Sound and video boards

A video mood board brings together several video clips to suggest how the finished piece might look and sound. It can show how quickly shots change and include sample audio; clips taken from other films or videos are allowed. A sound mood board puts together sound effects, music and other audio to suggest the atmosphere of a product. For both sound and video mood boards, the sequence of items does not matter at this stage, because the final product will put them in order.

Pictures, colour and typography may appear on either a physical or a digital mood board. A digital board might use a bright colour palette and bold headings for a youth club poster, while a physical board for the same idea could show the same colours as paint chips and printed lettering.