Make a moodboard that argues for one direction instead of showing twelve
To make a moodboard online, start a canvas at a moodboard size (dump's Moodboard preset is 1600 by 2000), bring in your references, then arrange them around one hero image with a colour palette, two or three texture close-ups and a type sample. In dump the references can come straight from your Pinterest boards, and the finished board exports as a PNG for a chat or a multi-page PDF for a client.
The hard part is that a moodboard is not a collage: a collage shows photos, a moodboard makes a case. It says this colour, this surface, this kind of letter, and no to everything else. This guide is about building that case.
What goes on a moodboard, and what stays off it
Four ingredients, in this order of importance. One reference photo that carries the whole mood, big enough to be the first thing anyone looks at. A palette of four to six colours pulled from that photo and its neighbours. Two or three texture shots, cropped so tight they stop being pictures of things and become surfaces: linen, concrete, brushed metal, film grain. And one type sample, a single word set in the kind of lettering the project should use.
Everything else is a candidate for cutting. A good board lands somewhere between eight and twelve images. Past that, the hero stops being the hero, and the board turns back into what it came from: a Pinterest board, which is a collection, not a decision. If an image is lovely but argues for a different direction, it belongs on a second page.
How to make a moodboard from your Pinterest boards
- 1Start a Moodboard canvas on desktop
New dump, Popular row, Moodboard: 1600 by 2000, a 4:5 portrait. The board connection needs a free account and a desktop browser; it is not in the installed app or the phone editor.
- 2Connect Pinterest from the Pinterest panel
Open Pinterest in the left rail and press Connect Pinterest. You come back to the same canvas with your boards listed, a search field on top. The panel notes that no images are stored on dump's servers.
- 3Open a board and pull pins in
Click a pin and it lands centred on the page at about 70% of its size. Drag a pin instead and it lands where you drop it, or fills the frame you drop it on.
- 4Cut before you arrange
Pull in more than you need, then delete down to twelve. It is faster to decide on the canvas, side by side, than in the board's endless scroll.
One practical limit: pins come in at around 1200 px wide, smaller when the original was small. On a 1600 px board that is plenty for any cell up to about three quarters of the width, but a single pin stretched edge to edge gets enlarged and softens. Give pins cells, and save full-bleed for your own photos.
Pinterest boards: free with an account. Exports are never watermarked.
A moodboard layout that holds 1600 by 2000
Frames make the layout behave. In the Templates panel, Create offers Insert empty frame and a set of layouts that stamp empty frames onto the page you are on. Stamp a 2 top + 1 or a 2x2 as scaffolding, then stretch the frames: an empty frame resizes freely on any handle, and a photo dropped in fills it and pans and zooms inside it without moving the frame.
A worked example that suits most boards: a hero frame on the left about 1000 by 1300, three texture frames stacked on the right at roughly 520 wide, and a band along the bottom for the palette and the type sample. Pick one gap, 24 px is a good start at this size, and use it between every frame and at the outer edge. Switch on a grid overlay from the page settings and let it snap. The asymmetry is the point: one big, three small, one strip, so the eye knows where to start and where to finish.
Palette, texture and type: the strip that makes it a moodboard
The palette is what a client actually remembers. Draw five equal rectangles along the bottom band from the Draw panel, then fill each one from the photos: the colour picker has an eyedropper in browsers that support it, so you sample the exact tone from the hero rather than guessing. Order the swatches dark to light or by how much of each colour the project should use, the biggest swatch for the dominant one. A hex label under each swatch saves a round of emails.
Texture shots work when they are cropped past recognition. Zoom the photo inside its frame until a sofa is just weave and a wall is just plaster. That is what a stylist or a set builder needs, and it reads instantly at small size.
For type, set one word that names the mood, the project or the season. The Text panel groups its library into four moods, essentials, display, editorial and playful; pick the group that matches the board, then set the same word twice in two candidates, side by side. Spacing and case matter as much as the letterforms: wide capitals and tight lowercase are two different brands.
Text: free with an account. Exports are never watermarked.
Presenting a moodboard to a client as a PDF
Clients rarely sign off on one board. Build the direction you recommend on page one, and the alternatives on the pages after it: a dump document holds up to 10 pages. Keep the same layout across pages so the comparison is about the content, not the arrangement. Then export as PDF and every page goes into one file, in order.
- A free account exports HD at the canvas's native 1600 by 2000, which is what a client will view on a screen.
- Each PDF page is an image of the canvas, so it looks identical on every screen; the text in it is not selectable.
- For a board that will be printed large, Creator exports 2K and Studio 4K.
- No plan adds a watermark to the export, so the client sees your board and nothing else.
Layouts and photo slots: free with an account. Exports are never watermarked.
Frequently asked questions
Open a browser-based editor, start a portrait canvas around 1600 by 2000 pixels, place one hero reference image large, add two or three texture close-ups, a strip of four to six colour swatches and a type sample, then export. In dump this is free with an account, including connecting Pinterest boards on desktop and exporting at native HD with no watermark.
A 4:5 portrait such as 1600 by 2000 pixels works for most uses: it reads well on a laptop, fits a phone screen and prints cleanly on a portrait page. dump has it as the Moodboard preset. For a board that will be printed large, export at a higher resolution such as 2K or 4K.
Yes. In dump, sign in on a desktop browser, open the Pinterest panel, connect your account and open a board; clicking a pin places it on the canvas and dragging it onto a frame fills that frame. Pins arrive at roughly 1200 pixels wide, so they look best in cells rather than stretched across the whole board.
Between eight and twelve, including the texture shots. One should be clearly larger than the rest so it sets the mood. Beyond twelve the board stops making a case and becomes a collection; move alternative directions to a second page instead of adding them to the first.
Part of collages, grids and layouts. Start from the main guide: How to make a photo collage that looks designed instead of assembled