Mood Boards

Mood boards (Figure 5.12) are a means for the designer to explore the emotional landscape of a product or service. Using images, words, colors, typography, and any other means available, the designer crafts a collage that attempts to convey what the final design will feel like. Images and words can be found in magazines and newspapers or online image galleries, or can be created by the designer. Some designers take and use their own photographs for mood boards.

Figure 5.12. A mood board explores the emotional landscape of a product or service.

Traditionally, mood boards were made on large sheets of poster board (thus, the name). The advantage of this approach was that the result could be posted on a wall to be glanced at frequently for inspiration. But this doesn't need to be so. Mood boards can be created digitally: as animations, movies, screen savers, or projections on a wall. The advantage of digital mood boards is that they can include movement and soundssomething traditional paper mood boards obviously cannot do.

The important point is that whatever form the mood board takes, it should reflect on an emotional level the feeling the designer is striving for in the product or service. The mood board shouldn't be challenging intellectually; like a good poem or piece of art, it should affect viewers viscerally.