And in an effort for everyone to be able to get their wheels turning and mouse scrolling in knee deep inspiration, I’ve rounded up 4 more fuss-free resources that will have you making perfectly mapped out moodboards in no time. But moodboarding isn’t about being “techie”-it’s about seeing your vision come together by coupling all your great ideas on paper. Real talk: I just thrive on layers and dark gray panels scattered about my screen.

We use Photoshop for moodboards because it allows me to remove the background from images with “quick selection tool” or “magic wand” if it’s a really easy cut, and gives me all the freedom to keep my designs on brand with font picks and color swatches.

I immediately went into game plan mode: “If Moodboard Monday is a frequent feature, we gotta get a better workflow!” I mocked up a template with title design and number placeholders that could be quickly edited for future posts. Me and Photoshop go way back to CS2, (anyone?) so there’s history there! Julia mentioned she had used Illustrator in the past, which gave me a twitch, and that she just made a brand new document every. I’m really not bragging, it’s more of a curse. I hear you that you can make a birth announcement with 3 taps in your Pic Collage app, but I will do the same task in Photoshop, spend at least double the time starting from a blank canvas and building a design from the ground up every…time. I went straight to Photoshop because that’s just what’s engrained in my veins. “It’s Moodboard Monday!” Jules said with a peppy smile. I was shown to my desk, told “ that lamp can charge your phone” (which I am still obsessed with) and listened to the day’s rundown of what needed to be done in visual media. My very first day of work at CLJ was a Monday. We invited our new Visual Media Producer (and my sister), Andrea, to break it down for you.

We share a mood board almost every week here and every time we do, I get asked, “How do you make these mood boards?!” I personally use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop together, but today we wanted to break down a few other standout options available.

Mood board app