How to Create a Mood Board

A simple formula to share your vision with an artist

You have a great concept for a story. You can envision it perfectly — the characters, settings, and important scenes. Whether it’s part of your job or just a hobby, you’re ready to take the next step and start turning these ideas into reality, beyond words and off the page. The only problem…you’re not the greatest artist, so you decide to commission one to help. But words alone can lead to a vastly different result than what you imagine.

So what’s the best way to accurately communicate what’s in your head? Try a mood board!

Mood boards are powerful tools that provide artists with specific direction up front. This approach helps get the result you want as quickly as possible, while minimizing redesigns and iterative work. At Cellarius, we use mood boards for almost every artistic commission we make — from character sketches, to landscapes, to action scenes and beyond. We’re sure that they will become a big part of the artistic process on the Cellarius platform, as collaborators propose their unique ideas to artists and other creatives.

What is a mood board and how do I make one?

A mood board is like a collage — images, text, and other objects that define your concept. The point of a mood board is to show the key visual elements you want to convey with your design. This gives a collaborator inspiration and references for their initial work.

Mood boards can also be incredibly useful as you’re designing a character, to help build your mental model of how they interact with the world around them. According to concept artist Muna Abdirahman, “when I create a mood board, I like to input the character personality into it, links to music, places they reside in, the fashion era they love, and other small details that I feel would make the character stand out.” The more depth you can provide in your mood board, the easier time an artist will have imagining your idea as a distinctive and three-dimensional creation.

Some basic options for mood boards include:

Colors & patterns — what palette do you want to use? There are very big differences between muted earth tones and bright neon, and how those reflect a character or city’s personality. There may also be interesting patterns you can incorporate (for some ideas, see our Style Guide).

— what palette do you want to use? There are very big differences between muted earth tones and bright neon, and how those reflect a character or city’s personality. There may also be interesting patterns you can incorporate (for some ideas, see our Style Guide). Characters — you may have an existing character in mind as a comparison, or possibly a distinctive actor. If you’re starting from scratch, searching for generic terms like “robot” or “zombie” and narrowing down what you’re looking for based on the images you see is often a good way to begin. You can also search for specific poses if you have one in mind.

— you may have an existing character in mind as a comparison, or possibly a distinctive actor. If you’re starting from scratch, searching for generic terms like “robot” or “zombie” and narrowing down what you’re looking for based on the images you see is often a good way to begin. You can also search for specific poses if you have one in mind. Landscapes — where (and when) is the setting of your story? A cityscape of London in the present day is going to be very different from one in medieval times. Are there real-world locations involved, or is it a fantastical land unlike anything on Earth? If it’s the latter, it’s worth looking for concepts from other fictional universes as a starting point.

— where (and when) is the setting of your story? A cityscape of London in the present day is going to be very different from one in medieval times. Are there real-world locations involved, or is it a fantastical land unlike anything on Earth? If it’s the latter, it’s worth looking for concepts from other fictional universes as a starting point. Sounds — don’t underestimate the value of sounds and music in a visual mood board. Songs or albums may have a “feeling” that helps to inspire visual images. Of course, if you are using the mood board to create music, this is even more important!

— don’t underestimate the value of sounds and music in a visual mood board. Songs or albums may have a “feeling” that helps to inspire visual images. Of course, if you are using the mood board to create music, this is even more important! Descriptions and reference text — Some of the most critical aspects that drive a design are the backstory of the character or location. For example, we could create a mood board for our Homotranscendus faction using existing images of robots. But none of this would communicate that Homotranscendi are humans that uploaded their consciousness into robotic bodies. That element opens up entirely new design ideas for the artist — these aren’t mass-produced robots made by other machines, but have human intelligence, personality, and individuality.

Mood boards can come to life in many forms; anything from a Word document or PowerPoint to more advanced programs like Photoshop or Omnigraffle.

Where can I find images to use in a mood board?

There are a number of sites where you can source incredible images to help create your mood board. It’s best to work from Creative Commons Licensed Works and to always link to the original image (sometimes artists like to dig into other reference material by the same artist or around the same subject matter). By using Creative Commons-licensed work, you have an extra level of assurance that your work will not have any copyright issues. This is of particular interest if your artist uses “photobashing,” the technique of blending and painting over existing images to create a new one.

Some of my favorite places to search for reference images and text are:

What else can a mood board be used for?

You can make a mood board for just about any piece of content you would want to commission. Mood boards are also often atmospheric and created to convey a mood/feeling/tone as well as specific subject matter.

While this post focuses on how to create a mood board for visual art, the applications are much wider. For example, if you wanted to pitch a story concept, you could create a mood board of existing works that are similar to yours. This gives collaborators the “flavor” of what you’re looking to do, and directs their efforts accordingly. If your mood board contained only utopian sci-fi franchises and scenes, it’s unlikely that creators would include killer robots and post-apocalyptic aesthetics in their works.

Let’s dive into an example!

We recently worked with Muna Abdirahman to create a series of character sketches of inhabitants of the North Africa region in the year 2074.

The mood board started with an introduction of the concept and then some landscape:

The introduction to Muna’s Mood Board

We tried to find images that captured the rich colors and textures of the region

We continued with some details about the character.

Much of this section was pulled from the Cellarius Universe Guide

Iterate, iterate, iterate.

When working with an artist on a commission, we set up a process for agile creation; we find that seeing sketches sooner helps us to make sure we’re on the same page and moving toward the right final product. Plus, it’s really exciting to see the characters come to life, step by step.

An initial sketch for a Bi-Pedal Robot

Based upon that initial sketch, we gave Muna the following feedback:

The only comment was that as you move forward coloring the robot/BP, we’d like to see some ‘customization’ from the nomads in terms of color scheme, or maybe designs painted onto it. It could also look a bit weathered from dealing with the sand and wind. Essentially showing us that this isn’t a basic factory model, this robot has had its own ‘life’ as part of the nomadic group.

According to Muna, “when I was drawing this, I wanted to incorporate the mood board given to me, but I also focused the design on the country where the character came from. I wanted to make it seem that it was made there and personified the person who owned this BP.”

What she came back with blew us away. We didn’t have any reason to use the third round of revisions we had worked initially agreed upon.

The final character sketch

With the universe background and images provided, Muna absolutely nailed the intended look and feel. The “node” patterns on the head and neck let the viewer know that this is clearly an automaton, but the geometric pattern on the shoulders and neck — based on the geometric patterns from the building facade in Fes — are deeply rooted in human tradition.

In Closing…

Now that you’ve seen an example of how mood boards can be used to produce high-quality, unique content, we hope you’ll be inspired to use them as a tool in your creative works. Both artists and collaborators benefit when there is clear direction and common visual language from the outset a project. On the Cellarius platform, existing content like this can be remixed and used to build your own mood boards. Muna’s piece is a great starting point to explore other BP robot designs, or capture the feeling of a certain time and place in the Cellarius universe.

Cellarius is a collaborative storytelling platform where creators can explore the possibilities of the future.

We are currently accepting applications for our Private Alpha — learn more at cellarius.network and apply for the Alpha here!