Mood board builder
Build the visual direction before production begins.
Pin up references, type, video, and PDF pages anywhere on an open canvas. Settle the look of a shoot with the client before anyone picks up a camera, and keep their comments on the board itself.
Build without a template
Place images, text, video embeds, and PDF pages anywhere on the canvas.
Present one visual direction
Use image masks, borders, filters, and colour controls to make the board feel considered.
Share for a decision
Send a password-protected link and keep client comments attached to the board.
A mood board is not a contact sheet
They get confused constantly, and the difference is about when they happen. A contact sheet comes after the shoot, shows your frames in capture order, and exists so somebody can choose. A mood board comes before the shoot, usually shows images that are not yours, and exists so everybody agrees what the job is.
That is why a mood board has no grid. The arrangement carries meaning: what sits next to what, what is large, what is a small note in the corner. Forcing it into even rows throws away the argument you are making.
What goes on one
- Reference images — the lighting, the palette, the framing you are proposing.
- Text — the two or three words that name the direction, and the caveats that stop a reference being read too literally.
- Video — embeds, for movement and pacing that a still cannot carry.
- PDF pages — the brand guidelines, the brief, the previous campaign, dropped in as pages rather than attachments.
Masks, borders, filters, and colour controls are there to make the board read as one considered thing rather than a pile of screenshots — which matters, because the board is often the first work a client sees from you.
Share it, then keep the feedback on it
Send a password-protected link rather than a PDF. Comments stay attached to the board, next to the image they are about, so "not this blue" is unambiguous. The alternative — feedback in an email thread referring to "the third one" — is how a shoot ends up lit wrong.
Plans
The board builder is part of Pro; sharing links, password protection, and client comments are on Ultimate. The pricing page has the full split. The contact sheet maker itself is free and needs no account.
Common questions
- What is the difference between a mood board and a contact sheet?
- A mood board comes before the shoot, gathers references from anywhere, and has a freeform layout because the arrangement itself carries meaning. A contact sheet comes after, shows your own frames in a regular grid in capture order, and exists so somebody can choose which images go forward.
- Can I make a mood board online for free?
- The board builder is part of the Pro plan. The contact sheet maker, including the grid, labels, and PDF export, is free and needs no account.
- Can clients comment on a shared board?
- Yes, on the Ultimate plan. You send a password-protected link and comments stay attached to the board next to the image they refer to, rather than scattered through an email thread.
