The Power of Little Pictures

My agency had been hired to develop a complete brand for a new automotive tech product from the ground up. They didn’t even have a name for it when they called us but over the following weeks we successfully guided them through naming exercises and colour psychology, slam-dunking each step. Now I was standing at the head of a boardroom in front of the founder, his partners and a smattering of team members from his company and mine.

I was about to unveil the mood board.

I was lit up by the projector - paused on the slide before - and was explaining what they were about to see.

“What you’re about to see” I began, “Is a collection of images that represent the feel of the brand.” I pantomimed pulling my soul out of my ribcage as I spoke.

“You should feel this next slide more than analyze it. It’s going to be a mosaic of images but no one of them should be picked out. Instead, take in the collective and tell me the first word that comes to mind”

I paused for exactly two heartbeats, and then, just barely audible, I whispered, “Next slide, please”.

“Bleh”

It was the founder.

All heads in the room turned to him.

“Ha what?” I blurted.

“The first word in my mind when I look at this is ‘bleh’.”

All heads turned to me now. The projector now felt like a prison searchlight on me.

“Good!” I started a little too loudly, “Ok yes. We will unpack that in… one… second. Yes. Anyone else?”

I pointed to his partner who was seemingly bailing me out with a raised hand

“I want to know why he says ‘bleh’.” he said.

No way out. I conceded and motioned to the founder to expand.

“This is a product for cars. Cars are sexy. There’s nothing sexy about this.”

What’s a Mood Board?

For those who've never been through one of these presentations, a mood board is exactly what it sounds like - a collection of images arranged on a page (or slide) that's supposed to capture the "mood" or "feel" you're going for with a project.

Photos, textures, colours, typography samples, even random objects - anything that helps communicate a vibe before you start making the actual thing.

They're not concepts. They're not mockups. They're not even elements you'll necessarily use. The way I often put it is, if I’ve done this right, the feeling this collection of images invokes should be the same feeling invoked by the final product.

The mood board from automotive tech company story was full of long roads, sunsets, people driving cars, and babies smiling in carseats.

Bleh! Make it Sexy

Let me tell you three responses that would have been worse than “bleh”.

1. “Hmm. I don’t know.”

2. “I’m confused as to what this is. Did you bring logos?”

3. “I like it.” (and nothing else)

“Bleh” actually gave me critical info I needed to know at that point in the project.

Instead of spending two weeks designing logos that felt family-friendly and safe (which is exactly what I would have done based on their initial brief), I now knew we needed to bring out the “sexy”.

The founder had just told me, in one word, exactly what was missing from my understanding of their brand.

Depending on the client, mood boards are either their favourite part of the process or the step you have to defend as legitimate and necessary. But here’s the twist - it doesn’t matter how they feel - all reactions can be useful.

It's Not Just Nice Pictures

Ok it does matter how they feel. Obviously, it puts you in a better light if they like what they’re looking at but mood boards should be framed more like an insurance policy.

Theoretically, your client should prefer spending 30 minutes looking at images and saying "nope, not that direction" over waiting two weeks to see three polished concepts that all feel wrong.

It’s actually a two-way policy that covers both you and your client:

1. It lets you very quickly circle around what a client loves... and hates.

Mood boards help you collect valuable insight in a casual setting. When someone says "bleh" to a mood board, they're not rejecting your work - they're giving you direction (by ruling one direction out).

2. If you get stuck while working on your concepts, you can always return to the board for new elements or directions you might have forgotten about.

When I'm three concepts deep and nothing feels right, I'll go back to the mood board and remember why I was excited about a particular texture or colour combination.

How to Build a Mood Board That Actually Works

Start Weird, End Focused

I always start mood boards by searching for things that aren’t necessarily related to the industry. If I'm doing a website for a law firm, I might start by looking at vintage ski posters.

The goal isn't to make their website look like a ski resort. The goal is to find unexpected visual language that might spark something.

Use the 80/20 Rule

About 80% of your mood board should feel obviously right for the project. Safe choices that clearly fit the brief. The other 20% should be risky stuff. Stuff that makes you (and hopefully your client) say "huh, interesting."

That 20% is where the magic is. It's where you find the visual element that makes the project feel different from anything else in the space.

When you show the board, try not to explain everything. The whole point is gut reaction. If you have to explain why every image is there, you're doing it wrong. Let the images do the talking.

Bleh-pilogue

The conversation that happened in that boardroom that day opened up a whole aspect of how the auto-tech brand wanted to be represented. The photos of smiling babies in carseats threw off the whole feel of the board. Babies are too powerful of an emotion-invoking visual. So I deleted the babies. I replaced each one with a photo of Ryan Gosling from the film Drive. They loved it. Approved.

Further Reading

This issue was part three of a five-part series on the creative process. Take a look back at our previous issues on managing your first creative instincts in You’re Not a Creative Vending Machine and talking as a way of working out your initial ideas in Say It Out Loud.

Parting Thought

I mentioned that mood boards can be a great way to guide you through a project. In the very first moments of the creative process you can find inspiration in raw visuals that capture the feel of a project better than your own craft. As you carry on with the process and develop your ideas they can stray from that first thrill of an idea and you can start to lose momentum. The mood board becomes a church of the concept that you can return to and realign your purpose. When you are lost, look deep inside (your folder of JPGs and WEBPs) and find the answers to light your path.