Midjourney Moodboards are basically a place where you can set up a specific image “vibe.” Once you build one, whenever you use it, Midjourney knows what overall look you’re going for and keeps it consistent. This is perfect for brands, for recreating the same kind of image over and over, or just for generating images that stick to one style instead of wandering all over the place.
That’s the magic of Midjourney moodboards.
Upload a handful of reference images, and the AI starts pulling from them to guide color, composition, and overall mood. You end up with images that look like they belong together, even when your prompts are simple.
Why Use Moodboards in Midjourney?
Short answer? Save time and generate similar images easily.
Long answer? Moodboards let you:
- Nail down a consistent look across all your outputs.
- Save time by reusing styles instead of tweaking prompts forever.
- Experiment by blending boards (yes, you can merge multiple boards into one prompt).
- Capture vibes that are tough to describe in text. “Warm neon cyberpunk desert retro-future corporate aesthetic”? Easy, just upload a few images.
They are supported in Midjourney versions 6 and 7, and honestly, they are one of the most underrated features on the whole platform.
How Moodboards Actually Work
Each board you create gets its own unique code. Drop that code into your prompt (–p mID) or select it in the image creator dropdown menu, and Midjourney instantly applies the moodboard’s style. Want to crank up the influence? Don’t be afraid… adjust the stylize parameter from 0 to 1000. Lower values mean subtle guidance; higher values mean strong guidance.
A few notes to keep you sane:
- Moodboards do NOT mix with these parameters: –sv or –sw.
- Adding or removing images may regenerate the board code, so expect multiple versions.
- Delete a board, and the old codes still work. Ghost boards live forever. Just like the ex who won’t stop texting you—but more fun.
- Moodboards, in many cases, can exert stronger stylistic influence than style references (–sref) or personalization profiles. It’s like a plane instead of a car.
- Moodboards have a maximum of 100 images. But if you ever approach that number, you’re just a total lunatic.
Here’s a neat trick: try running a prompt with a moodboard and almost no text. Just a symbol or single word as the prompt. The results are sometimes surprisingly good.
How to Make a Moodboard in Midjourney
Creating a moodboard is simple. Head over to Midjourney’s website and look at the left-side navigation. Click on “Moodboard,” then hit “New Moodboard.”
Give your board a name at the top, and then start adding images. You’ve got options:
- Drag and drop them straight into the panel.
- Copy and paste them in.
- Add them from a link.
- Pull them directly from your Midjourney gallery.
The images can come from anywhere: stuff you made in Midjourney, other AI tools, or even random shots from your camera roll. There are no rules here. Get creative and see what happens.
Once your moodboard is properly created, go to the “Create” tab in Midjourney. Then, click the little arrow next to the “P” icon, make sure Personalize is set to “On,” and select your moodboard from the list. Now, run a prompt.
Some Examples of My Moodboards
So far, I’ve created three moodboards. All of them are awesome. Here they are:
1. Run The Prompts Hero Images
This moodboard consists of only the very best article hero images from Run The Prompts. I used this moodboard to create the image you see at the top of this article. Cool, right?
2. Apple
This board consists of awesome examples of Apple product photography. I tested it and was able to generate images of toasters, staplers, and all kinds of random things that looked like they came right out of an Apple advertisement.
3. Penthouses
It’s no secret that one of my favorite use cases for Midjourney is creating dream penthouses. This board lets me generate new penthouse images that I know I’ll love, quickly and easily.
Pro Tips for Better Midjourney Moodboards
- Use variety smartly. Mix in different aspect ratios so Midjourney “learns” what you expect in widescreen vs. portrait.
- Diverse images = diverse output. If the images you add to your moodboard have a lot of variety, then the images you create with it will have more variety.
- Few images = more focused output. Don’t add a ton of images to your board if you want to stick to something extremely specific that is only relevant to a small set of images.
- Iterate. When you get a good generation, throw it back into the board. It sharpens the style over time.
- Test with “style raw.” Sometimes the raw mode makes moodboard-driven images feel cleaner.
- Negative prompts help. If the board is overloading your images with a color or element you don’t want, cancel it out with a –no.
- Go easy on the detailed prompts. You do not need detailed or huge prompts when using a moodboard. It actually seems to make the images worse because Midjourney ends up working with too much information at once to get you what you need. In your prompts, focus more on describing the subject and the scene instead of the art style.
And here’s a sneaky hack: want a cartoon board but don’t know where to start? Just run a simple prompt like “cartoon” 20 times in Midjourney, save the ones you like, and toss them into a moodboard. You now have a custom cartoon aesthetic locked and ready whenever you want to generate cartoons you know you’ll like.
When to Use Moodboards
- Branding and websites (keep your look consistent across dozens of assets).
- Social content and ad campaigns (flexible ideas but consistent vibes).
- Storyboarding and concept art (define the mood before filling in details).
- Fun projects like posters that have stylized text (if all your board images have text in them, Midjourney learns to generate text better, too).
Basically, any time you find yourself generating the same type of image over and over, a moodboard will save you hours.
Prefer watching? Tune into the YouTube version of this post below:
Wrapping It Up
Moodboards in Midjourney give you a way to achieve consistency. Instead of relying on prompts alone, you’re feeding Midjourney a whole style kit. Once you start building boards, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them. And if not, well, at least you wasted less time tweaking prompts.
So go make one. Experiment. Blend them. Break them. See what happens.
And when you do, drop a comment below with your favorite board and what you used it for.
Until next time, remember to run the prompts and prompt the planet.
