I finally get why people use mood boards after a critique session with a illustrator friend

She said my pitch deck felt like a grocery list - no emotion, no thread holding it together, and after she showed me her own board with 12 images that told a whole story in 30 seconds, I realized I've been over-explaining everything and forgetting to make people feel something first. Has anyone else had a creative partner totally reframe how you present work?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wesley25d ago

Gonna push back on this one. In my experience, mood boards can actually muddy the message more than they clarify. You end up showing someone a collage of pretty pictures and they walk away remembering the vibe of the lighting in photo 3 instead of the core idea you were trying to sell. That grocery list problem? That might be a pitch deck structure issue, not a lack of emotional bait. Over-explaining isn't fixed by swapping words for images, sometimes people just need you to get better at saying the same thing in fewer sentences. A good deck should work as a document on its own, not rely on 12 photos to do the heavy lifting. Your mileage may vary but I've seen too many people hide weak concepts behind pretty visuals.

tara64225d ago

Wait, mood boards are actually called "vision boards" by most people though?

violaramirez25d ago

Totally agree with you on this one. I've always called them mood boards myself, feels more about the general feel than a specific goal you're working toward. @the_wesley makes a solid point about how they can distract, but I think it really depends on what you're trying to do. For me, a mood board is just a starting point, not the whole pitch, so the name doesn't matter as much as remembering they're a tool, not the final answer.