Before the logo, the website, or the color palette gets approved, there’s the mood board. It’s where early ideas start to take form. They’re not fully designed and not totally final, but close enough to spark conversations, shape direction, and get everyone on the same page.
It doesn’t matter if you’re building a brand, styling a photoshoot, or plotting out a seasonal campaign, a good mood board bridges the gap between scattered inspiration and a polished finished product.
But here’s the thing: making one from scratch can take some time — time that you likely don’t have. The ready-to-use templates we’ve collected here take the guesswork out of layout and presentation, so you can focus on the fun part: curating, arranging, and exploring the look and feel of your project.
Why Create a Mood Board?
It’s extremely useful in establishing the visual and aesthetic feel of a site. A mood board not only gives you inspiration in going forward with a project, but also is an effective time-saver and necessary component in the creative process. By creating one, you can tackle many issues early on that you would otherwise encounter later on in the creative process.
Imagine spending hours in Photoshop creating a layout filled with a lot of texture and style, only to have the client not prefer that design solution.
Mood boards can prevent unnecessary frustrations as the result of not having a clear creative direction and may cut the overall time spent on a project in half as a result of careful planning. They also give the client tangible evidence of a “research phase” that they may not understand otherwise, and gets them involved early on.
A mood board helps:
- Translate a concept where words may fail
- Create a picture in the clients head early on and let them see exactly what you’re planning and how their site is shaping up before you even start properly designing.
- Cut down on time spent revising due to miscommunication
- Establish the theme of the website (i.e. Soft or hard? Clean or grungy?)
The Best Mood Board Templates for Inspiration Planning
Below, you’ll find 30 mood board templates built for all kinds of creative work, from fashion and branding to weddings, travel, and social media storytelling. Pick one, drop in your visuals, and start shaping your vision.
1. Print-Ready A4 Pegboard Moodboard Scene Creator
This pegboard-style scene creator offers a clean, organized way to display A4 designs, notes, and images. With layered PSD files and adjustable shadows, it feels tactile and realistic, like an actual corkboard brought into Photoshop. It’s especially useful for branding presentations or client mockups where you want to show how pieces connect. Every detail is thoughtfully styled, from the clips to the lighting.
2. Summer Moodboard – 3 Templates
These three sun-kissed layouts are included in this Summer Moodboard set and are made for designers working with seasonal collections or tropical branding. Each board balances photo blocks and swatches with plenty of breathing room, giving your visuals space to pop. The color palette leans warm and vibrant. Think coral tones, sun-faded sand, and beachy minimalism. Great for travel brands, swimwear lines, or lifestyle moodboards that need to feel light and bright.
3. Mini Mood Board: Collage 2
This mini collage layout brings an editorial vibe to your visual planning. It’s compact but thoughtfully designed, making it a strong pick for portfolio slides, client previews, or social media visuals. The layout mixes photo frames with color chips and simple text blocks, helping you tell a quick, cohesive visual story. Great for designers who want something informal, yet polished and highly shareable.
4. Inspiration Mood Board Template in Purple
This violet-toned layout blends soft gradients with clean photo blocks and subtle text overlays. It’s eye-catching but still minimal, great for branding, editorial concepts, or lifestyle storytelling that needs just a pop of color without going full neon.
5. Fashion Look Mood Boards Collection
Customized for the fashion world, the Fashion Look Mood Boards Collection features bold layouts that put photography and texture front and center. You’ll find grids, overlapping elements, and modern typography that echo runway lookbooks and editorial spreads. Ideal for fashion designers, stylists, or branding teams looking to present seasonal concepts or design directions with flair.
6. Stylescape / Moodboard Template 07
Stylescape Template 07 offers a polished, grid-based layout that helps structure complex creative concepts into a single glance. The smart object placeholders make swapping images easy, and the typography is clean without being dull. It works well for agency-level branding presentations, client briefs, or internal concept reviews. Everything’s lined up, tidy, and built to make your ideas look cohesive and intentional.
7. Aesthetic Photo Mockup Moodboard Template
This template is all about soft lighting, subtle shadows, and a carefully curated vibe. Aesthetic Photo Mockup Moodboard Template gives your images an editorial, almost film-like feel, making it perfect for beauty brands, fashion lookbooks, or lifestyle content. The neutral background keeps things calm and lets your visuals take the spotlight. Use it to pitch a creative concept or to add polish to your social media design process.
8. Hand Drawn Moodboard Template
Playful, imperfect, and full of personality, this hand-drawn template ditches the grid and embraces creativity. With doodles, freeform frames, and casual notes, it’s perfect for mood boards that need to feel personal, sketchy, or a little more analog than polished.
9. Social Media Mood Board Templates
Designed with Instagram and Pinterest in mind, Social Media Mood Board Templates are perfect for creators who want to keep their visual storytelling consistent. With multiple layout options and easy-to-edit smart layers, they make it easy to mix typography, color swatches, and inspiration photos into cohesive brand snapshots. Ideal for influencers, content strategists, or small businesses building out their digital presence.
10. Mood board vol.03 – Mockups
This set has a hands-on, print-on-the-wall feel. Mood board vol.03 includes layered mockups that mimic pinned notes and torn paper textures, making everything feel analog and personal. If you’re going for a scrapbook-inspired layout with plenty of tactile texture, this one nails the look. It’s especially useful for lifestyle brands, stationery designers, or any creative team looking to add warmth and dimension to their concept boards.
11. Pegboard – Moodboard Scene Generator
Pegboard – Moodboard Scene Generator lets you build your own layout from scratch using individual objects, clips, and realistic paper shadows. The customizable pegboard base adds structure, while the drag-and-drop setup offers flexibility for designers who like to experiment. Great for client pitches, design portfolios, or creating mockups that feel tactile and grounded.
12. Martinika Mood Boards Collection
Clean, minimal, and perfectly balanced, Martinika Mood Boards Collection leans into Scandinavian-inspired design. The layouts are open and breathable, with room for full-width photos, color palettes, and neatly placed headlines. It’s perfect for high-end branding work or any concept where simplicity and clarity lead. Everything feels curated, intentional, and client-ready.
13. Moodboard Template in Brown
This one leans into earth tones and structured design. The neutral brown palette gives it a grounded, calming feel, and the layout makes it easy to drop in product shots, color swatches, or inspo images. Ideal for eco-friendly brands, product planning, or neutral-tone aesthetics.
14. Moodboards Photo Mockup Template
Moodboards Photo Mockup Template offers a clean canvas to showcase photography, texture, and typography in a grounded, realistic setting. The use of soft shadows and layered paper elements gives your layout a natural, pinned-to-the-wall look, which is ideal for presenting visual identities, campaign concepts, or even mood-driven blog content. If you want structure without stiffness, this template hits that cozy, tactile sweet spot.
15. Mood Board Photo Templates
This set of Mood Board Photo Templates brings variety without looking too busy. Each layout mixes wide and narrow image slots with minimalist text areas, helping you build a narrative through your images. Ideal for photographers, stylists, or brand designers building out early-stage concepts.
16. Mini Mood Board: Collage 1
Small but mighty, Mini Mood Board: Collage 1 is great for compact presentations or quick mockups that still need to look thoughtfully designed. The layout feels editorial but unfussy, making it ideal for showcasing inspiration, early concepts, or social mood pieces. This is a solid choice when you want to say a lot with just a few visuals and keep it all beautifully composed.
17. Mood Board Mockup Kit
With tons of layout flexibility and drag-and-drop ease, the Mood Board Mockup Kit is built for creatives who love to experiment. Use masking layers, movable elements, and editable textures to shape your own custom board from scratch. It works especially well for pitch decks or brand books that need to show a wide range of materials in one frame.
18. Photo Collage Moodboard Collage Design Template
A premium template that feels polished and layered, this photo collage layout plays with shadows, paper textures, and overlapping frames. It’s stylish without feeling overdone. It’s great for fashion lookbooks, editorial concepts, or branding boards with visual depth.
19. Moodboard #3 Scene Creator
Moodboard #3 Scene Creator strikes a balance between realism and flexibility. You get high-res textures, realistic paper edges, and movable objects that let you build a personalized board. It’s especially useful for branding studios or visual designers working with tactile materials, packaging, or layered compositions.
20. Professional Brand Mood Board Template for Design
Professional Brand Mood Board Template for Design is polished and presentation-ready. Its structured layout makes it easy to showcase everything from logos and fonts to textures and color palettes all in one place. This one’s built with branding projects in mind, making it perfect for client deliverables, pitch decks, or creative strategy docs.
21. Tanska Mood Boards Collection
Tanska Mood Boards Collection leans into refined minimalism with layouts that feel as curated as a magazine spread. The balance of whitespace, clean grid structure, and soft textures gives your concepts room to breathe. Great for interior designers, fashion brands, or editorial projects where tone and restraint matter just as much as visuals. It’s the kind of mood board that communicates clarity, not clutter.
22. Vintage Photo Collage Mood Board Template
For a nostalgic, analog look, Vintage Photo Collage Mood Board Template brings all the charm. With torn edges, retro filters, and classic photo layering, this template is a dream for vintage-inspired brands, personal projects, or storytelling visuals. It feels like flipping through an old photo album, except perfectly arranged in Photoshop.
23. Creative Mood Board in Midnight Blue
This midnight blue layout brings a moody, modern edge to your visuals. With dark tones and crisp lines, it’s great for high-contrast concepts, luxury branding, or portfolios that want to stand out from all the white-and-pastel crowd.
24. Autumn Fall Mood Board Photo Collage Template
Warm tones, cozy textures, and soft shadows define the Autumn Fall Mood Board Photo Collage Template. It’s ideal for seasonal campaigns, lifestyle visuals, or product storytelling with an organic, lived-in touch. Drop in your fall color palette, some earthy imagery, and you’ve got a board that practically smells like cinnamon and pumpkin.
25. Wedding Mood Board Template
Wedding Mood Board Template brings elegance and emotion to the table. Soft pastel frames, floral accents, and graceful typography make this a standout for planners, photographers, or couples designing a vision board for the big day. It’s romantic without being overly ornate, and the layout makes it easy to show color schemes, decor ideas, and inspiration at a glance.
26. Vacation Trip Moodboard Mockup
Vacation Trip Moodboard Mockup captures that breezy, sun-drenched travel vibe with a relaxed layout and organic textures. It’s ideal for showcasing destinations, lifestyle products, or dreamy escape-themed campaigns. The natural lighting and realistic paper textures make everything feel personal, just like a bulletin board from your favorite trip.
27. Personal Mood Board
This free Notion template is made for digital creators and thinkers who like to keep their inspo organized. Drop in images, links, notes, and playlists, no design skills required. It’s a great low-effort way to track ideas or map out a creative project inside your existing Notion setup.
28. Christmas Polaroid Photo Collage Mockup Template
Bring a festive, nostalgic touch to your project with the Christmas Polaroid Photo Collage Mockup Template. The Polaroid frames, string lights, and cozy tones evoke a scrapbook-style holiday memory board. It’s playful, heartwarming, and perfect for seasonal marketing, gift guides, or personal holiday photo presentations. Just add your own images, and it instantly feels like December.
29. Moodboard for Branding Mockup
Moodboard for Branding Mockup is built for professionals who want to keep things clean, consistent, and brand-focused. With tidy layouts and layered paper textures, it makes your logo, palette, typography, and mood imagery shine without distraction. Great for creative agencies, freelancers, or anyone pulling together a visual identity presentation. It keeps the focus where it belongs: on your concept.
30. Motivation Board
More than a mood board, this free Notion template helps you build a vision space with goals, affirmations, and visuals all in one place. Perfect for personal planning, goal setting, or creative motivation when your Pinterest board just isn’t cutting it.
What Should I Include in a Mood Board?
The first step in realizing what needs to go on your mood board is choosing the style that fits the project best. While there are many different ways to present a mood board, the direction you choose will be based on the time allotted, personal work habits and most importantly your client’s personality. The following are just a few elements that generally should be on a mood board.
Layout
A rough layout is to be expected in any mood board you create. This might consist of elements that will be on your website, pages of a comic you want to write, or some other creative project you’d like to embark upon. A few things to consider including:
- Wireframes
- Not too much detail
- Black/White/Grayscale only
- Homepage ideas
Colors
Create a couple of color schemes based on client preferences or your own. A great site for creating color schemes based on themes is Coolors.
Inspiration
Include notes on why you like a particular website and how you feel it can be best integrated into the design of your client’s website. Include reasons why the look will suit them. Or, include images from artist’s work that you find particularly influential.
Textures
Find some textures, real or hand-drawn, that you feel fit in with the overall theme of your project. This collection of texture examples from various websites is a solid resource to have on hand:
Photography
At this stage you can either use photography the client has supplied, or use stock photography to portray the overall theme of the site you want to make or other project you’d like to see to fruition.
Style
Depending on the time you have and the scope of the work, it may be beneficial to make more than one mood board, focusing on one style for each. Before you start, come up with a list of adjectives to describe a particular board. A certain mood board can be designed around various adjectives such as:
- Dark, glossy, slick, modern, edgy, hard, aggressive
- Soft, muted, round, layered, elegant, realistic
- Colorful, rough, sketchy, bright, illustration
In doing so, you create a wide variety of styles for the client to choose from.
Conclusion: Are You Ready to Build Your Mood Board?
Mood boards are a part of the design process but they also serve as a brainstorming tool. They help you see connections, spot what’s missing, and turn loose ideas into something real. With the right template, you don’t have to fuss over formatting. Instead, you can just dive in, explore your vision, and start shaping the story you want to tell.
