A mood board is a type of collage that may consist of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition of the choice of the mood board creator. Designers and others use mood boards to develop their design concepts and to communicate to other members of the design team.
Mood boards are used in a variety of disciplines. You’ve no doubt seen them used for Interior Design, where fabric swatches and paint chip samples are grouped together on a poster to show a client what type of atmosphere the new interior decor will create. In essence they are a compilation of inspirational elements used by designers to flesh out ideas at the beginning of a design project.
Mood boards are extremely useful for establishing the aesthetic feel of your workplace. It usually fits into the process somewhere after wireframes and before design mockups. Things that can be explored in the mood board include photography style, colour palettes, typography, patterns, and the overall look and feel of the workspace. Soft or hard? Grungy or clean? Dark or light? A rough collage of colours, textures and pictures is all it takes.
The mood board is intentionally casual; it lets the designer start with broad strokes and get feedback before too much time is invested in the wrong direction. Think of it as rapid visual prototyping.