Are your mood boards helping or hurting your project?

Did you know I wasn’t always a brand designer?

I started as an in-house Graphic Designer and taught myself brand design and strategy over time.

While my technical skills transferred easily to brand design, there were certain aspects of the transition that I struggle with.

And today, I want to share one of those challenges with you: Mood Boards.

See, when I first discovered that mood boards were a “thing” that brand designers did, I immediately included them in my very next project!

With little knowledge of what to include, I researched what other designers were doing and tried to copy them. From the outside, all I could see were the pretty visuals and the overall design and layout.

Little did I realise I’d completely missed the main point.

That’s why I want to share what I did then versus what I do differently now, so you can avoid the big mistake I made when implementing mood boards into my design and strategy process.

Let’s get into it 👇

Back in the day, when I was first doing my research on how to create mood boards, aka seeing other designers’ BTS on Instagram

I mistakenly thought mood boards only needed to capture the “vibe” of the client’s brand.

So that became my approach.

I would:

Find pretty images that matched the feeling the client wanted.

Make it look aesthetically pleasing.

And present the ‘vibe’.

(P.S. I still see many designers approaching mood boards this way today.)

This is one of my old mood boards when I was using this approach:

Can you guess what business I was building a brand identity for based on this mood board?

Chances are, you probably can't. Because my understanding of how to create a meaningful mood board that guides the creative direction was incredibly vague. What does "vibe" really even mean? I thought it just meant collecting images, colors, and elements that seemed to match the industry of the business.

When I sent it to the client, here's what they said:

I understood her confusion because I was just as lost following what I had seen others do on social media. What sense did it make to use interior design photos as inspiration for a logo?

It was treating mood boards like a Pinterest collection.

I had focused entirely on creating an aesthetic “vibe” without any strategic foundation. When the client saw my mood board with a random interior design photos she couldn’t envision any direction for the brand.

I was so focused on being “as good as the designers” that I lost sight of what actually mattered.

Mood boards have a specific purpose, which is for you to establish the creative direction that will guide every design decision throughout the project.

And to give clients a clear glimpse of their brand’s future after they have their new brand identity.

A Strategic Mood Board is not just a better version of the client’s Pinterest board. When done right, mood boards:

• Translate brand strategy into visual language: giving you solid evidence to back up your creative direction

• Gain client approval early in the process: reducing misaligned designs and wasted time later

• Streamline all future design decisions: making it easier to choose fonts, colors, and elements that fit the established direction

The mood board serves as your North Star throughout the entire project. It’s the lens through which you make top-down decisions, allowing everything that follows to align with that vision. This keeps you and your client on the same page and leads to faster approvals on the final design.

The Strategic Mood Board Framework

After years of refining this approach, I developed a systematic framework that prevents those early disasters:

Step 1: Do the prep work (before you open Pinterest, Behance, etc)

Most designers jump straight into searching for inspiration.

But that only leads to frustration because they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for. And before they know it, they’ve spent far too long, pinning way too many posts, and still feeling unsure of what they should include in the mood board.

Instead, define your search strategy by writing down specific ideas/ words that come to mind for each category, based on your conversation with the client so far:

• Overall Direction - What aesthetic will speak to their target audience?

• Logo and Typography - What typeface and logo suite will help them stand out from their competition?

• Color Palette - What colors align with the brand personality and positioning?

• Illustrations - What style will support the logo suite direction?

• Photography - What type of images align with the brand direction?

This will help you ensure you don’t end up with random words in the search bar.

Each idea needs to connect directly back to your strategy work.

Step 2: Search strategically (not aimlessly)

Now you can open Pinterest with a purpose.

Use your prep notes as search terms. Instead of browsing “coffee branding inspiration,” search for specific elements like “typography with movement” or “contrasting color palettes.”

Keep going until you have multiple strong options in each category.

Step 3: Create two focused directions

You want to start with organizing your inspiration into five categories (same as you used when you were preparing) to keep everything structured:

1. Font Style

2. Logos

3. Colour Palette

4. Illustrations

5. Photography

And then work on building what you think might be the strongest two directions.

Not one (which gives clients no choice) and not five (which creates analysis paralysis).

Make sure there’s a clear, noticeable difference between the two directions so clients can easily understand their options.

Step 4: Explain your strategic reasoning

This is where most designers drop the ball.

Don’t just present an aesthetic board and let the client “feel the vibe”.

For each mood board, break down:

• The Overview: How this direction aligns with their brand strategy and target audience

• Typography Choices: What these font styles communicate and how that supports their strategy and creative direction.

• Color Strategy: How these colors position them against competitors and attract their ideal customers

• Visual Elements: How brand assets like illustrations, icons and imagery link and enhance their overall visual direction.

Every choice should connect back to strategy, not just personal preference.

When you present mood boards this way, clients see you as the strategic expert who’s guiding them toward business success.

Not someone who makes pretty things based on trends.

This is what makes clients respect your decisions instead of questioning every choice.

They trust your expertise because you’ve demonstrated how each visual element serves their business goals. And when revisions do come up, you can confidently explain why certain changes would or wouldn’t work strategically.

That’s the power of approaching mood boards like a Strategic Brand Designer instead of a “vibe curator” who’s doing something by copying others.

Your clients get clarity on their brand’s direction, and you get projects that run smoothly.

It’s a win-win!

Chat soon,

Abi 😊

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