Mood Boards
Typography on Mood Boards
Typography samples on a mood board show the font styles, sizes and line spacing you want to use. They help the client and creative team picture the lettering before the final design is produced.
Font styles
Fonts have different shapes and personalities. You can compare them on a mood board:
| Font style | What it looks like | Feel and best use |
|---|---|---|
| Serif | Small strokes called serifs at the ends of letters | Traditional and formal; suits print publications and heritage projects |
| Sans-serif | No serifs, with plainer letter shapes | Cleaner and more modern; easier to read on screens and good for body text |
| Display font | Decorative, bold or unusual letter shapes | Draws attention; use it only for short pieces of text, such as headings |
A display font can make a gig poster title stand out, but it would be hard to read across a whole paragraph. Pairing it with a simple sans-serif for the details keeps the mood board clear.
Size and spacing
Samples of different font sizes and line spacing show hierarchy: a large heading, a medium subheading and smaller body text. Spacing settings change the feel too. Leading is the space between lines of text; tracking is the space between all the letters in a word; kerning is the space between one pair of letters. For example, a poster title with tight tracking feels punchy and compact, while loose tracking feels airy and elegant. Too little leading makes lines feel cramped.
Choosing fonts
Some fonts are overused and can make a mood board look dated. Aim for no more than two fonts that work well together: for a school science festival, a bold display font for the event name and a plain sans-serif for the timetable would work well. More fonts compete for attention and make the intended style unclear.
Practise this
OCR Creative iMedia · Moodboards