Top 13 Mood Board Apps of 2023 [with FREE Moodboard Templates]

Best Mood Board Apps

What is a mood board?

Also known as an idea board or theme board, a moodboard is a collage of your images that inspire you for your film, television pilot, graphic design agency, fashion ideas. It’s the first step before preparing a storyboard and shot list.

It’s also important to send to clients before they commission work. You may have great ideas, but if your client doesn’t see what you see, it’s all for naught.

How to Make a Mood Board

1. GoMoodboard

GoMoodboard is one of the most popular online mood board apps. With no account required, the answer to ‘how to create a mood board’ is simply click and drag images onto your project.

Whipping up an idea board is just a matter of finding images you need for your production from your breakdown sheet.

If you’re looking to send mood boards to clients and/or creatives for input, GoMoodboard may not be the free answer you were looking for. While easy to create, their online mood boards can’t be sent around and annotated for revisions and new ideas.

There are customizable specifications, scene numbers, shot numbers, and more. You can change your layout, frame size, reorder shots - in a matter of seconds. 

Mood Board Creator

3. Mural

Crafting a mood board with a team? Then, MURAL is your answer.

Taking full advantage of the digital space, Mural offers an array of options for collaborating on a mood board online. Drag images in real-time, start polls, and design mood boards together.

Mood Board Interior Design

4. Pinterest

Launched in 2010, Pinterest quickly introduced digital mood boards to general public. While most people use Pinterest to show their dream kitchen ideas to their neighbors, it’s still a powerful mood board maker for production needs.

As you design inspiration boards for your own production, Pinterest is a great place to find inspiration. Chock full of mood board examples for film, television, and interior design, Pinterest is a great place to find a mood board example for just about anything.

And for the price of zero dollars, anyone can be a mood board creator.

It is great, however, for the distribution end of a production. Specializing in moodboards for websites, you can easily brainstorm ideas for your project’s release website which you’ll need to add onto your EPK (Electronic Press Kit).

WHAT COMES AFTER YOU MAKE A MOOD BOARD?

Once you’ve laid out your general ideas into images, it’s time to make a storyboard and shot list. While your storyboard will fine tune the visuals, your shot list will provide a technical list of what you need to shoot for your crew. While storyboarding usually comes before your shot list, you don’t have to choose in StudioBinder.

Easily break down your script into shots, which automatically convert into storyboard frames and a slideshow you can send directly to clients.

Mood Board Design

6. Evernote

Evernote is the popular cloud-based app that many use for note-taking. It can also be a powerful mood board creator.

By opening a new note, you can easily drag and add images for your moodboard that can be viewed on your phone, tablet, or browser.

Evernote is ideal for filmmakers and agencies who like to have all of their ideas in one place. But at that point, you may want to upgrade to production management software that stores your contacts, script drafts, and breakdowns in one place.

Inspiration board

7. The Matboard

Think Pinterest for creatives.

Featuring curated images from filmmakers, commercial directors, and agencies, it’s a great place to find a mood board example for your production.

You can easily search mood boards by short film, commercial, photography, feature, you name it.

Fashion Mood Board

10. Olioboard

Olioboard is perfect for nailing what you want a set to look like. Primarily marketing itself as a mood board for interior design, it allows you to brainstorm set ideas in either a 2D or 3D space.

Pretty futuristic, huh?

This digital mood board app pulls its selection of furniture and set dressing options from the top shopping sites.

In that vein, filmmakers use Olioboard strictly as an idea board, because who has 3,000 for a wooden chair a set dresser can make for minimum wage.

Moodboard Maker

11. Moodboard (iOS App)

Got a great script? Already picturing the first and last shots? Got an iPad?

If answered yes to that last question, Moodboard may be the solution for your mood board needs. While only existing as an app,

Moodboard turns layouting images into a methodical process.

With pretty stringent mood board templates installed, it does have the quality of scrapbooking to it.

It’s also only available in the United Kingdom.

Apologies in advance, Yankee friends.

Trend Board

12. InVision

While primarily a workflow management tool for designers, InVision offers a mood board function that’s sleek as it is intuitive.

Known as just “Boards,” InVision spans over the cloud, allowing you to change and view digital mood boards on smartphones, tablets, and desktops.

You may be thinking a mood board app this good can’t be free.

And you’re right. Pricing for InVision can run you up to $100 per month, based on the features you select, the number of teammates you add, and how many mood boards you create.

mood board apps

13. Niice

Want to know how to make mood boards in one minute?

The answer: use Niice.

With an easy to use drag-and-drop interface, you can create boards for team members. By clicking on an image you can add a comment and add it to a sub-board like “idea board” or “theme board.”

By using Niice’s Chrome extension, you can easily store images as you surf the web, which appear on your Niice account.

This digital mood board app ain’t cheap though. Running $45/month, its features and ability to create an unlimited amount of boards hopefully make up for it.

top mood board apps

Create mood boards with a template

If you’re looking for a free mood board template made exclusively for video production, look no further.

Already broken down into the major elements you’d need for a commercial, feature, or branded content video, you simply drag your images. You can easily print as a PDF. But don’t forget to store your mood board online.

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