What’s in a Mood Board?

By Nura Othman, Lead UX/UI Designer

Creating a mood-board is an art. It’s a project in itself. A lot of people think it’s just gathering pictures and color palettes, but it’s so much more than that. It’s narrowing down the big idea into something that’s visually cohesive.

There are so many things that go into building an effective mood-board. Here are some of our must-haves.

Research is the most important part of the process. This is where we put aside the creativity and look for the stats that will inform everything we do. This means; endless interviews, hours of reading, and searching for articles. For a design to be effective we need to know what our target needs, where they live, and how they function. We need to know what type of drink they’d order on a Tuesday night. Basically, we want to be their crazy ex-girlfriend.

After all the research is read and done, the fun begins: brainstorming with the team. This usually consists of all of us throwing crazy ideas around for about 70% percent of the time, and then spending the rest of our time trying to translate them into a design that humans will actually understand. It’s not always easy, but we somehow manage to narrow down the direction and move forward.

Now it’s time for us to collect inspiration based on our general idea. In this phase, we let our imaginations run wild. Saving anything and everything that can possibly work. Colors, lifestyle images, branding, fashion, print layouts, etc. — (Insider scoop: this process should be fluid, gather content to your heart’s desire. In this part of the project, we aren’t trying to be right, we are just trying to find a spark). Once we’ve saved all of our items, we look for the pattern or direction that’s usually right in front of us.

And finally, we curate the content we have, by choosing the images that come together naturally. At this point, the color palette is critical. It ensures that everything works in harmony and that we can explain our vision to the client.

Once you have it all on a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing board — you present. Creating a mood board is one of the most strategic ways to show a client the direction you have in mind. It allows them to see if both your visions align. This process, though not easy, will definitely pay off in the long run. So do yourself a favor, and get on board (pun intended).