If you want your audience to truly understand and connect with your business, your visual identity and creative branding elements must be a cohesive reflection of your company’s personality, ethos and messaging. Defining a clear design direction and visual personality for your brand will help you achieve that consistency. Which is why I want to talk you through how to create a brand mood board using Pinterest below.
But, first…
What exactly is a mood board? And how do you create one?
A mood board, also known as an inspiration board, is a thoughtfully curated collection of visual and textural elements that expresses a design vision. They are most frequently associated with interiors, fashion and graphic design, but are also used in wedding planning, floristry and event styling. For business owners and marketers, mood boarding can be a really useful visual way to distil your brand essence into a cohesive look and feel. It’s why I produce mood boards as part of my brand design process.

Mood boards usually include a mix of images, words, colour palettes, objects, materials, patterns and textures to represent the overall aesthetic of a design concept. You can create them either manually using physical items like magazine cutouts, photographs and textiles, or digitally with an app or design tool.
Mood board vs brand board
If you’ve been looking into branding for any length of time, you might be wondering what the difference is between a mood board and a brand board. So, before we dive into creating, let me explain:
A mood board is developed early in the design process to help guide its direction; a brand board is created at the end of the design process to specify the visual components of a brand identity.


Is Pinterest good for mood boards?
Absolutely, yes! Pinterest is the OG when it comes to any kind of visual research and idea hunter-gathering, so it’s one of the best tools to create a mood board. It’s actually my personal favourite for the visual inspiration stage of my brand design process, and can be quite addictive if you’re not careful… (I also use it to save inspiration for our home decor, gift ideas and the countless craft projects I want to try, for example!)

Here’s how to make a mood board for your brand with Pinterest
Figure out your brand heart
What is your business’s mission and vision? Its ethos and core values? What’s your value proposition, and who is your ideal customer?
Brainstorm your brand words
Come up with 10 to 15 words that describe your business, audience, and desired customer experience. Use your brand heart elements for inspiration.
Create a brand inspiration board on Pinterest
Begin by searching Pinterest using your brand words. Create a Pinterest board and save two or three pins for each word that truly reflects your business and resonates with you. This will be your brand inspiration ‘long list.’ Gather a diverse collection of visual elements that inspire you, such as photos, graphics, typography, colour palettes, textures, patterns and anything else that catches your eye. Check out my Pinterest boards if you want some inspiration.
Organise your visual research
Rearrange the images on your Pinterest inspiration board according to what works well visually. This could include grouping pins with colours that complement each other, those that evoke a particular feeling, or those that simply look good together. Trust your intuition and let the visuals guide you. Don’t be afraid to delete any you’ve changed your mind about.
Choose the best inspiration for your brand
Select the group of 6 to 9 pins from your longlist board that you feel work best together to express the brand vibe you are going for. Ensure your selection includes elements of colour, texture and typography, as well as photographic and graphic imagery.
Create your brand mood board
To produce your mood board, you can either add your final selection to a new Pinterest board or upload the images into a mood board design template in Canva or Adobe Express. Alternatively, you can print the elements individually and arrange them on the wall or a pegboard if you prefer.
Perfect the composition
This bit’s not essential, but if you want to get creative (or you’re a perfectionist, like me), you can play around with the arrangement of images until you’ve got a vibe and composition you love. Try experimenting with cropping and scale, and if one or two of the elements aren’t sitting quite right with the others on your mood board, simply swap them out for another from your ‘long list.’ When everything looks just right, your brand mood board is complete!
Optional bonus step
You can repeat the last three steps to create up to three different mood boards if you wish, and then choose the best one.
Now you have a perfect visual reference to guide the rest of your brand identity, creative elements, and help keep everything consistent across all your brand and marketing materials. Consider printing it out and displaying it in your workspace for easy reference.
Brand mood board examples
Need more inspiration? Take a look through some of the mood boards I’ve created for my clients’ brands.







