Purpose and Use of Mood Boards

A mood board is a pre-production tool that brings together visual and sensory elements — photographs, colour swatches, swatches of fabric, samples of lettering — which together communicate an idea, a style and the mood a media product should have. It is inspiration rather than a plan, so it never shows exactly how the finished product will look.

What it is used for

• Generating ideas: a gathered set of images and colours sparks new concepts and helps you develop parts of a product, such as its setting or characters.
• Setting the mood: the items combine to create a feeling, so people can sense the style of a product long before anything is made.
• Guiding the creative team: graphic designers, illustrators, photographers and the creative director use it as a shared reference, so everyone works towards the same look.
• Supporting decisions: it lets the team check that designs match the intended style, and lets the client agree a direction early. Showing a couple of mood boards is far cheaper than building a whole product the client then rejects.

For example, a go-kart track wants a poster aimed at teenage racers. A mood board of blurred-motion photos, orange and charcoal swatches and chunky slanted lettering pushes the designer towards a fast, loud feel before any layout exists.

When and for whom

Mood boards belong at the start of a project, during early talks with the client — the individual or organisation that commissions and funds the product, not the audience who will see it. They are kept and revisited later as a reminder of the style being aimed for. They are working documents used during the project rather than marketing material, so they are not published or shown to the target audience.

Everything on the board must suit the client brief: its colours, types of image and overall feeling should meet the expectations set out there. Which creative team members get involved depends on the project.