Creative moodboard

Creative — Mood Board Explorer

Create shared visual language so a team can agree before anyone produces final creative. The output is a board to react to and sign off on — not finished assets. Bigger and more exploratory than creative-explore: each "territory" is a coherent world, shown with multiple tiles.

When to use

• Multiple stakeholders need to align on aesthetic before spend.
• Kicking off a brand or rebrand and the visual world is undefined.
• You want a durable reference artifact the whole team points back to.

When NOT to use

• Solo/fast project, just need to pick a look → creative-explore (lighter).
• Direction already signed off → go straight to creative-scene/creative-shot.
• You're connecting strategy to visuals specifically → creative-positioning.

Inputs (ask only what's missing)

• Brand/product + the decision this board must unblock.
• Audience + emotional target.
• Existing assets / competitor refs to anchor or avoid.

Workflow

1. Define 2-4 named territories (e.g. "Warm Analog", "Clinical Precision", "Street Energy"). Each is a mood, not a single image — distinct enough to force a real choice.
2. For each, specify: palette swatches, texture/material language, typography feel, photography style, motion feel (if relevant).
3. Generate 4-6 tiles per territory with your image tool, deliberately varied within the territory: one hero shot, one texture macro, one product-in-context, one type-in-situ, one color study. Keep prompt DNA consistent within each territory. Save to ./creative/moodboard/<territory>/tile-NN.png.
4. Assemble a markdown board grouping tiles per territory, each with a "what this means for the brand" paragraph.
5. Drive a decision: ask the team to pick one territory or explicitly fuse two. Pass the winner to creative-explore/creative-scene.

Worked example

Brand: a fintech app for freelancers. Decision to unblock: "does the brand feel friendly or serious?"

## Territory 1 — "Calm Confidence"
palette: deep navy / soft sage / warm white   texture: matte paper, subtle grain
type: humanist sans (geometric but warm)   photo: clean desks, soft daylight
motion: slow, settled
tiles: [hero-dashboard][paper-macro][desk-context][type-sample][palette]
reads as: trustworthy without being cold — "your money is handled"

## Territory 2 — "Bold Operator"
palette: ink black / electric lime / concrete grey   texture: hard edges, mono type
type: grotesk, tight, uppercase accents   photo: high-contrast, urban
motion: snappy, decisive
tiles: [hero][texture][context][type][palette]
reads as: for freelancers who hustle — "move fast, get paid"

Recommendation: T1 if target skews established professionals; T2 if early-career creators. → user picks T1, pass to creative-explore to refine.

Quality bar

• Territories are distinct enough that picking one excludes the others (real tradeoff).
• Tiles within a territory feel like one world (shared prompt DNA), across territories clearly differ.
• Each territory has a plain-language "reads as" so non-designers can decide.
• The board ends with a clear ask, not just pretty images.

Common pitfalls

• Territories too similar — if the team can't tell them apart, you haven't given them a choice.
• Incoherent tiles within a territory — varied subject is good, varied style breaks the illusion.
• No decision forced — a moodboard that doesn't end in a pick is just inspiration, not a deliverable.
• Assuming brand intent — mark every assumption; ask when the emotional target is unclear.

Handoff

Chosen territory → creative-explore (refine to a single locked direction) or directly to creative-scene/creative-shot if the territory is concrete enough.

Tooling

Needs a text-to-image tool for the tiles. Without one, deliver the territory specs (palette/type/texture/mood) + tile prompts and let the user generate.